In the opening session of day one in Hong Kong, a number of ICT leaders maintained that educational policy is solely a public agenda. Since policymakers have the expertise in this area, many suggested, the progress we need should be driven by government alone.

The turning point came just before lunchtime. In an onstage discussion with David Miliband, Chris Hughes and several other industry heads, John Eddy Abdullah, CEO of Total Access Communication PLC in Thailand, acknowledged one of the primary reasons for the lack of educational expertise within the industry. "I have 5,500 employees,” he said. ”But I don't have one person in my company who could talk for one minute on this topic. They wouldn't know what to say. So why is that? It's because I haven't focused on it." A few hours into the first NEST Forum, perspectives were already beginning to change.

By the time the day’s sessions were wrapping up, nearly everyone in the Hexagon was in agreement on at least one issue. ”In my breakout sessions,” said Jan Eliasson, ”there was a complete consensus around the urgent need for public/private partnerships.” Just how to proceed in building these partnerships was a question that hung in the air throughout the weekend.