CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE MEETING

The Clinton Global Initiative Meeting is two days in New York each September, held in 2026 at the New York Hilton Midtown, at which heads of state, business leaders, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and representatives of civil society meet to make what the Initiative calls Commitments to Action: “New, specific, and measurable projects and programs”. Each day opens and closes on the mainstage, with smaller sessions in between, and the sessions can be followed in person or virtually.

By its own count, more than four thousand three hundred commitments have been made since 2005, by over thirteen thousand organisations, and have “touched the lives of more than 500 million people in more than 180 countries”.

The Initiative

President Bill Clinton founded the Clinton Global Initiative in 2005. He has credited his counselor, Doug Band, with the idea: “Doug had the idea to do this.”

Its unit is the Commitment to Action: a project or programme, new, specific and measurable, which those who make it undertake to carry out. The Initiative’s model is set out in three words: Convene, Connect, Catalyze.

In 2007 the model was extended to students and universities as CGI U, and the Clinton Global Citizen Awards have been given every year since.

In September 2016 it was announced that the Initiative would wind down, and the annual meetings stopped after that year. They resumed in 2022. The meeting of 2025, on 24 and 25 September, marked twenty years of the Initiative.

The Two Days

Each day begins on the mainstage at a quarter to nine in the morning and ends there, with a closing session from half past four to six. Between them run Public Sessions and Working Sessions side by side.

The room holds heads of state, business leaders, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and representatives of civil society, and the mainstage puts them in conversation before the whole meeting. The Public Sessions and Working Sessions are where the smaller rooms meet.

The sessions are offered in person and virtually. The seats in the room are limited, and are sold.

In 2026, on Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 September at the New York Hilton Midtown, the meeting opened with a session called “How Do We Get It Right?” and closed with one called “The Optimism Strategy”. Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, was among those on the Leaders Stage on the second day.

What to Know

It runs for two days in the second half of September: in 2026, from 22 to 23 September, and in 2025 from 24 to 25 September. The 2027 dates have not been announced.

Attendance is by paid registration, and “Seats are limited”. In 2026 early-access passes ran from a single delegate pass at $5,000 to ten passes at $41,000. The sessions can also be watched virtually.

A lounge suit. Nothing is published, and it is a business meeting held by day.

In 2026 the meeting was held in the New York Hilton Midtown itself, and the Court would stay there.

The mistake is to wait for an invitation. Places are sold by registration, and there are not many of them.

The Court

The Clinton Global Initiative Meeting is not the Court’s own. Delegate passes are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay in midtown, and the table afterward. In 2026 its first day was also the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.