Over the years participants have included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,[4] New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, businessman Ricardo Salinas[5] and IMF director Christine Lagarde.
The New York Forum has built its own economic think-tank, The New York Forum Institute, created for "testing, exploring and sharing ways to rebuild confidence and credibility, and to reinvigorate the economy".[6]
The two main topics of the 2014 discussions were 'Is technology killing jobs?' and 'What will be the economic impact of climate change?'.[7]
From June 8 to 10, 2012, the first edition of The New York Forum AFRICA[8] was held in Libreville, Gabon. Many personalities such as Robert De Niro and Muhammad Yunus took part in the debates about Africa's economic future.[9]
The Last New York Forum Africa took place from May 23 to 25, 2014 and focused on transformation of the continent: unlocking the competitiveness of the African economy through building value chains around the transformation of the continent's natural resources.[10] Speakers and participants included President Paul Kagame from Rwanda, Laurent Fabius,[11] French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Vicente Fox, ex-President of Mexico, Youssou N’Dour, former Minister of Tourism and Culture of Senegal, Tunisia's former Minister of Finance Jaloul Ayed, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA Carlos Lopes, International recording artist Akon, among others.[12]