It’s a premier networking event for some of the world’s most powerful business people.

On one side there are more than 60 corporate leaders from the Asia-Pacific region; on the other, 13 leaders from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations. What comes out of the annual APEC CEO Summit can move markets, according to Monica Whaley, president of the APEC 2011 USA Host Committee Organization.

This year’s conference is titled "The Future. Redefined." It will attract an expected 1,500 attendees to Honolulu and explore trends and issues across the Asia-Pacific region, including health care, energy, food security, trade, and women and the economy.

The CEO Summit, which is run separately from the APEC conference, "is unlike any other event in the world, allowing senior business executives to engage with world leaders to have an immediate impact on economic policy decisions," Whaley said. "The APEC CEO Summit is essentially the board meeting of the Asia-Pacific."

The "board meeting," from Thursday through Saturday at the Sheraton Waikiki, is planned and organized by the private sector with participation of government leaders, and in advance of APEC leaders-only meetings next weekend.

Among government leaders scheduled to participate in the CEO Summit are President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Top executives include Johnson & Johnson Chairman and CEO William Weldon, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, General Dynamics CEO Jay Johnson and Lockheed Martin CEO Bob Stevens.

Peter Ho, chairman of the APEC 2011 Hawaii Host Committee and chairman and CEO of Bank of Hawaii, said the CEOs who attend this annual event can take advantage of having instant access to ministers, leaders and senior administrative staff from the 21 APEC members.

"The CEO Summit attracts a lot of top business leaders through the Asia-Pacific region so they come out to have discussions and bilateral meetings with various leaders and government and ministerial officials," he said. "And because a big group of them is out there, they also use that as an opportunity to network among the business community."

Robert Modarelli, executive vice president for The National Center for APEC, said the forum provides an opportunity for public-private dialogue and to address challenges facing Asia-Pacific economies.

"The key ones are promoting sustainable growth and promoting policies that foster trade innovation, job creation and prosperity in a sustainable way," he said.

RICHARD C. Adkerson, president and CEO of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., said that with large mining operations in four APEC countries — Chile, Indonesia, Peru and the United States — the company is committed to APEC’s goals and objectives to promote trade, investment, the rule of law and raising standards of living in the APEC countries. "As a member of the CEO Summit’s Host Committee, this is an excellent opportunity to participate in the process of furthering these goals and objectives and for developing best practices on corporate social responsibility," he said.

The CEO Summit begins Thursday with an evening welcome reception for attendees hosted by the Hawaii APEC Host Committee.

The following day, a welcome and opening ceremony will begin at 8 a.m., and will be followed by the opening session on how dramatic regional and global developments in technology, politics and the natural world change the way we prepare for the future. Other topics include globalization revisited; seeking stability in an unstable world; supply chains of the future; global value-added chains; investment frontiers and where the smart money is going; cities of the future; and the 21st-century work force.

THE THREE-DAY summit concludes Saturday with topics that include building an innovation ecosystem; game-changing technologies redefining the region; building environments for industry in a dynamic commercial world; and the vision for 2020.

This year’s APEC summit is expected to build on the momentum from the U.S. Congress’ recent passage of trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

"Now is the time to think big; it’s time to be bold," Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said recently. "It’s time to commit to an aggressive new trade and investment agenda. It’s not time to rest on our laurels."

On Thursday, in a separate business meeting, the APEC Business Advisory Council will host the 2011 ABAC SME Symposium for small and medium enterprise businesses at the Halekulani Hotel. CEOs, business executives and government leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region will speak at the event. Topics at the 8 a.m.-to-5:15 p.m. event will include new roles for small and medium enterprises, or SMEs, in global markets; free trade agreements opening doors for SMEs; creating transparent and open business environments for SMEs; and trading across borders — regulatory and operational concerns. ABAC also will announce its priorities for APEC Leaders Week.

Invited speakers for the ABAC SME symposium include U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson; Michael Camunez, assistant secretary of commerce for market access and compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce; and Fred Hochberg, chairman and president, Export-Import Bank of the United States.