Cincinnati wasn't Seattle.

        Those attending the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue on globalization here this weekend didn't have to get up at 3 a.m. to get to their meetings before window-smashing protesters awoke, as their counterparts at the World Trade Organization did last year.

        But the hundreds of activists and heavy police presence outside the Omni Netherland Plaza got noticed. During two days of meetings, speakers time and again referred to the protesters.

        At the meeting's closing session, each committee of the lobbying group reported its recommendations. George Hall, of the British information technology company ICL and a member of the committee on the digital economy, remarked: “We did not talk actually about technology. We were talking about the impact on business and on society of this (information) revolution. And I think in light of what's going on outside this meeting, that should be noted.

        “The emphasis the business community are putting on issues like education, training, privacy ... is not about corporate elitism. It's about living in a world in transition.”

        At the concluding news conference, George David, chief executive officer of United Technologies Corp. and U.S. co-chair of the dialogue, said the businesspeople had some common ground with the protesters.

        “We recognize that inside the walls of this hotel we have one set of views and outside there are likely quite different viewpoints, and strongly held viewpoints,” he said. “We recognize the views of demonstrators. They don't want to lose the ability to have local and national and even subnational determination of the rights and practices and rules for individuals. We recognize the viewpoint about avoiding exploitation of labor and the environment.

        “We represent that actually markets and a free economy and a free society actually cause those values held by demonstrators to come true. I think actually the demonstrators, were we to have a civil dialogue, data-based, I think they might be surprised by how much actually we agree about our long-term goals. ... Sometimes it's the means we differ about.”

        Pascal Lamy, the European commissioner for trade, pointed out that the group has companion organizations for consumers, labor and the environment.

        “The day we have a sophisticated (environmental dialogue) and business is demonstrating in the streets, we will have reached our goal,” he said.

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