Setting the stage for the 2008 Gathering, David Gergen recognizes that social entrepreneurs face multiple challenges: connecting to achieve change at the local level, integrating into the worldwide movement of social entrepreneurs, and aligning the nation's trajectory with better models for problem solving. He also sees a new factor in the equation, however—the desire of young people to rally around change, as evidenced in the 2008 election.

Gergen believes that social entrepreneurs can harness this largely untapped source of energy, and enable young people in America to participate in social change. With great optimism, he describes the potential of the next generation as a new dawn, and reminds all social entrepreneurs that the most important question is to ask what's possible for the future.