The 23rd McMaster World Congress Conference begins today (Jan. 16) and runs until Friday, Jan. 18.

This annual event draws hundreds of corporate executives, recognized academics and student leaders from around the world to discuss advancements in exciting fields of business and study.

The McMaster World Congress is unique in that academia and the corporate world are brought together in one large international forum.

This event represents the largest and most prestigious collection of leading academic researchers and senior business executives working in the areas of intellectual capital, knowledge management and e-commerce.

This year, McMaster will hold two simultaneous conferences: the 3rd World Congress on the Management of Electronic Commerce and the 5th World Congress on the Management of Intellectual Capital. The e-commerce stream will also feature a special e-government track.

Conference participants from more than 35 countries can choose from more than 200 presentations and can participate in an interactive “knowledge cafi,” a knowledge management technology expo, a PhD recruiting fair, a special government and not-for-profit stream of best practices and case studies, as well as a variety of social networking functions.

Keynote speakers include Frank Clegg, president of Microsoft Canada; Dill DiNardo, founder and CEO of GroceryGateway.com, Jim Carroll, Digital Survivor columnist for the Globe and Mail; and Bob Young, chair of Red Hat Inc.

In addition to these keynote speakers, several leading academic researchers and senior business executives will discuss topics such as knowledge management, knowledge portals, intangible assets, B2B models, mobile commerce, digital rights management, and many more. A complete schedule of speakers and their topics is available on the World Congress Web site at http://worldcongress.mcmaster.ca/pdf/agenda.pdf.

Sponsors and exhibitors include Emerald Publishers, Microsoft Consulting Services, Canadian Business magazine, Royal Bank of Canada, General Motors, Stern Stewart & Co., Tim Hortons, Butterworth Heinemann-KMCI Press and BitNet.