Each year, the Harvard Arab Alumni Association (HAAA) organizes a conference in the Arab world to bring together alumni of leading universities. The first objective of these annual events is to provide a platform for the exchange of ideas about the trends underway in the region. The second objective is to provide an opportunity for old friends and colleagues to reconnect and for new connections to be established.
Our previous Middle East conference, held in Dubai in May 2006 in collaboration with the Dubai School of Government (DSG), brought together over 150 alumni from nearly every country in the Middle East North Africa region as well as from the United States and Europe. Conference participants spent the day re-connecting with classmates and colleagues from around the region, against the backdrop of four panels that explored and celebrated "Success Stories in the Arab World." The panels featured such prominent speakers as Harvard Kennedy School of Government Dean Joseph Nye, HE Sheikha Lubna Al Qassimi, Dr. John Waterbury, Mr. Fadi Ghandour, and Mr. Hassan Heikal.
This year's conference built on the success of the May 2006 event. Alumni from across the Middle East, Europe, and the US joined us in Amman for an inspiring day of presentations and dialogue where we discussed the exciting trends underway in the Arab world to "Promote a Contemporary Arab Image". Over the course of four panel discussions, we explored what is being done to change the image of the Arab world through finance, the private sector, civic engagement and art. This year's conference attracted alumni and current students of leading universities in the region including Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Georgetown, INSEAD, London Business School, London School of Economics, MIT, Northwestern, Princeton, Oxford, Stanford, University of Chicago, Wharton, and Yale. We selected Jordan for this year's conference because of its rich history and culture and, in particular, the election of Petra less than one year ago as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.
