City gearing up to welcome world's top real estate professionals.

There is no question that New York's real estate industry is cutting edge, but today's economy demands that the professional look well beyond the Hudson River for inspiration.

The International Economic Development Council's 2006 Conference will give participants the opportunity to open their eyes to resources from around the globe when 2,000 of the world's top real estate professionals gather September 14-22 on the city's home turf.

Organizers hope this year's theme, "Roadmap for the Knowledge Driven Economy," will help professionals to collectively chart a course of action to replenish city blocks drained by factors such as the demise of the manufacturing industry, outsourcing and a brain drain of intellectuals fleeing economically challenged areas.

Participants will have plenty of material from which to generate ideas. The conference will be broken down into five intensive tracks that include techniques for turning underdeveloped neighborhoods into commercial centers, attracting skilled workers, forming healthy partnerships with government entities and jumpstarting new projects. It will also provide the nitty-gritty details of BIDs (Business Improvement Districts), entitlement applications and preparing for the CEcD exam.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will serve as honorary co-chair of the host committee for the conference. Other speakers will include Daniel Neeleman, founder and CEO of JetBlue Airlines, Mark Malloch Brown, deputy general secretary of the United Nations, and Albert Ratner, co-chair of Forest City Enterprises.

Holding the conference in New York will allow developers to showcase some of the projects that have emerged during the Bloomberg administration, including Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards in downtown Brooklyn, and help people from outside to learn from the examples builders of those projects set. At the same time, organizers expect to pique the interest of talented people and help draw more projects to the city.

"My hope is to get people into New York and into the neighborhoods, have them kick the tires, so to speak, and show them all the things that are great about New York and that New York is on the move," said Robert Walsh, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

"And if somewhere down the line they decide they want to invest in New York, whether through creating jobs, or in some other way, then we will be ready to help them to do so."

To this end, formal tours to the heart of the urban center have been arranged as an integral part of the conference.

These include tours exploring the pulse of Times Square from 1980 through today, tours examining the green use of space in Bryant Park, Greely Park and Herald Square, and tours of manufacturing plants in Greenpoint-Williamsburg that have been adapted to fit in the current economy.

At the same time, locals can learn from the example set by others. Explained Walsh, "We're New Yorkers and we have that New Yorker bravado and this idea that we are the best. Sometimes we have a tendency to look inward too much and not look outward too much. But we can look at what has happened in another city and maybe see the possibilities, the ways that we can apply it to New York with a slightly different twist."

The conference could have positive results that extend beyond borders well into the future. In addition to un-expected partnerships between firms that might occur, Malloch Brown even suggests that the participants in the conference explore ways economic development can help to prevent war by filling in some of the gaps between the world's rich and poor.

The IEDC was created in 2001 when the Council for Urban Economic Development and the American Economic Development Council merged. The AEDC was founded in 1926 and has held a conference every year since then.

The International Economic Development Council's 2006 Conference will take place September 14-22. For more information, log onto www.iedconline.org