Plan sponsors, investment advisers and government officials from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America gathered in Washington, D.C., Nov. 30–Dec. 3, 2009, for the fourth annual Institutional Investing in Infrastructure (I3) conference and the inaugural meeting of the Editorial Advisory Board meeting for the I3 newsletter (see “The Board Meets” on page 13).

The core audience at each of the I3 conferences (and now the board meeting) is plan sponsors — public and corporate pension plan administrators, and insurance plan administrators — and the advisers and consultants that help them invest. Infrastructure investment is new to many of these investors despite an active, but limited, private capital market that has been investing in infrastructure globally for decades.

EXPECTATIONS: THEN AND NOW

The pioneers of modern-day private infrastructure investment began in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and Australia, and in the early days, when the nu