CIC’s plans for the 19th Annual Conversation Between Foundation Executives and College and University Presidents will blend the format of the past three years, including a keynote address and panel discussions, with the breakout sessions that were a popular feature of earlier programs in this series. The Foundation Conversation, as it is popularly known, will take place on Tuesday, October 9, 2007, once again at the Wharton Auditorium of TIAA-CREF on Third Avenue in New York City. It will begin at 8:15 a.m. and conclude early in the afternoon.

The 2007 theme is “Foundations Debate Their Own Future: The Impact on Higher Education of Changing Assumptions about How Philanthropy Works.” In the keynote role will be Steve Gunderson, president of the Council on Foundations and former Congressman from Wisconsin. Other presenters will include Ryan LaHurd, president and executive director, James S. Kemper Foundation; Ed Jones, vice president, J. P. Morgan/Chase Bank—Booth Ferris Foundation; and Susan Woodbury, chair, George I. Alden Trust. Topics to be addressed include “How Legislation, Regulation, and Public Policy are Guiding Foundations as They Think about the Future,” “Making the Case for the Impact of Our Grant-Funded Programs in the Face of Insistent Calls for Accountability,” and “How Internal and External Influences Come Together to Shape What Foundations Expect of the Institutions Receiving Their Grants.”

Meeting materials were mailed to CIC member presidents in June. The registration fee is $100. (This annual event is open only to presidents.) More information is available here.