Business leaders at Forbes forum

The summit at Gleneagles is part of the Homecoming celebrations

Some of the world's most influential business leaders have gathered at Gleneagles in Perthshire for the annual Forbes CEO forum.

The theme of the three day event is global innovation.

Speakers include the chief executive of Cairn Energy, Bill Gammell, and the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes.

This is the first time the conference has been held in Scotland and is part of the Homecoming celebrations.

It was previously staged in New York, Paris and Sydney.

How fitting that Forbes is participating in Homecoming Scotland, which is sending out a unique invitation to Scotland's global family to come home Steve Forbes

The event is hosted by the Forbes family, who are originally from Aberdeenshire.

After leaving Scotland, BC Forbes founded a media empire in New York in 1917. His three grandsons, Steve, Robert and Kip will all make the journey to Perthshire.

Steve Forbes said he was thrilled to be coming to Scotland to host the forum.

He said: "How fitting that Forbes is participating in Homecoming Scotland, which is sending out a unique invitation to Scotland's global family to come home."

Business leaders will take part in a programme of seminars covering topics such as the global economy, emerging markets and climate change.

About 70% of delegates will travel to Gleneagles Hotel from outside Scotland with most paying more than £3,000 for the event.

Foreign investment

The fee includes golf sessions at the hotel and a gala dinner at Stirling Castle.

Lena Wilson, the chief executive of Scottish Development International, sees the conference as an opportunity to enhance Scotland's reputation as a good place to do business.

She said: "The CEO forum can only help develop this reputation by enabling some of the world's key business leaders to see at first hand what Scotland has to offer."

A recent report said foreign direct investment into Scotland was worth £41bn a year to the economy.