The meeting was opened by WAAS president Walter Truett Anderson.
Talks were delivered by the chairman of the event's organising committee, academician Ivo Slaus, European Union Research and Development Commissioner Janez Potocnik, and Croatian Science and Education Minister Dragan Primorac.
Primorac acquainted participants with the changes Croatia had made in science and education, including the introduction of the National Education Standard and the completion of the first stage of the Bologna Process.
Potocnik's speech focused on globalisation and a society of knowledge as a challenge without which there is no future and a European project on the global level.
Participants will address ownership of results of scientific research, the limits of genetics, demography, the culture of peace and security, human responsibility for evolution, employment in the global society of knowledge, the future of money, and globalisation in relation to human rights and the rule of law.
WAAS was established in 1960 and has about 500 members, prominent individuals whose work is relevant on the global scale. Seven of its members are Croats and President Stjepan Mesic was the first statesman admitted into membership.