There are three Summits being held prior to the main ISEA2006 Symposium on Monday, August 7, and Tuesday, August 8.

The Global Leadership Forum on Economic and Cultural Development is an invitation-only, highly participatory intimate gathering of approximately 100 participants. It brings together cross-sector leadership teams from a variety of urban areas that are using arts and culture as a catalyst for economic development, in order to share strategies, model projects and lessons learned.

The Pacific Rim New Media Summit is intended to explore and build interpretive “bridges” between institutional, corporate, social and cultural enterprises, with an emphasis on the emergence of new media arts initiatives. An important objective is to examine and create new transaction spaces for creativity and innovation. With a purview encompassing all states and nations that border the Pacific Ocean, including all of Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands, this trans-disciplinary event will address the developmental role and capacity of new media arts initiatives to foster greater mutual understanding.