Blogging from Belgium

Hello, blog readers! I'm in Brussels, Belgium, for the Beyond GDP conference (www.beyond-gdp.eu). I had a chance to explore the city yesterday, and now we're getting ready for the Indicators Expo the conference is hosting. (For those in Brussels, I'm over at the First Euroflat Hotel, if you want to drop by and say hello.)

For those who can't be here, I urge you to check out the conference site. They will be webcasting many of the speakers as they wrestle with ideas on how we can better measure the progress of nations. You'll get a chance to hear more from Hans Rosling, Enrico Giovannini, Hazel Henderson, and others that should be familiar to follower of this blog.

In addition, the site link to a number of different indicator projects and tools, some of which we will be highlighting further in future entries.

I think we all agree that the gross domestic product is, of itself, an inadequate and misleading indicator of progress. What are your thoughts about what we should be measuring instead?

ETA: Here are my notes from the conference:

Beyond GDP Day One
Day One, Part Two
Day One, Part Three
Day Two, Opening Remarks
Day Two Continued
Update from Conference Organizers

See also the September 4, 2009 announcement here.