ALBANY—Governor Eliot Spitzer will provide the keynote address Wednesday, September 19, at The Business Council’s Annual Meeting at the Sagamore in Bolton Landing. The Governor is scheduled to speak during a dinner that is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Both Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are also scheduled to speak at the Annual Meeting, which will run Wednesday through Friday September 19-21.

The schedule for The Council's Annual Meeting also includes:

• Presentation of the prestigious Corning Award for Excellence to Alair Townsend, columnist and former publisher for Crain’s New York Business, a long-time business leader, and an important executive in the administration of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch. The Corning Award will be presented during Wednesday's dinner event.

• Remarks by Zanny Minton Beddoes, the U.S. economics editor of The Economist, during the meeting’s Thursday night dinner. The dinner event is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.; the speech is expected to begin some time after 8 p.m.

• Remarks by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) at 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

• Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform will provide remarks on tort reform during breakout session at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Her remarks will be followed by a panel discussion on tort reform, led by Joseph Goldstein, the legal correspondent for the New York Sun. Scheduled participants include: Donna Williams, executive director of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for New York's District II; and Jeffrey J. Zogg, executive director of General Building Contractors of New York State.

• An overview of innovation policy at the state level at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, will give a keynote address. After that, a panel discussion will include: Anthony Collins, president of Clarkson University; Joseph Hammang, senior director of science policy and public affairs for Pfizer, Inc.; and David F. Shaffer, president of the Public Policy Institute, who will moderate.

• A discussion of recent changes to the workers’ compensation law and their likely effects on Business Council members is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday. Participants in this discussion include: Steve Scotti, assistant general counsel for Con Edison; Bruce Topman, executive director of the state Insurance Department’s workers’ compensation task force; and Richard Flaherty, president of First Cardinal, LLC; who will moderate.

• Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno will open a session on the state’s economic condition at 10 a.m. Friday. Paul Francis, director of the New York State Division of the Budget, will also speak during this session on fiscal and economic challenges facing New York.

Reporters are invited to cover these events.

Background on The Council's Annual Meeting: The Council's Annual Meeting attracts about 500 top business and government leaders in the state for discussions on policy issues that matter to the state's business community. The meeting is open to all Council members.

The Business Council is New York's largest broad-based business group. Based in Albany, it lobbies for a better business climate and offers cost-cutting services to its members. Council members represent employers of well over 1 million New Yorkers in all parts of the state and all sectors of business, industry, education, and not-for-profit activity.

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