The Tomodachi Students with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff (Image Source: Rie Nagano)

Yesterday, over 18,000 people gathered to attend Cloudforce in Tokyo, Japan. This time out, the event hosted a few special guests: students from the Tomodachi Initiative. Tomodachi (which translates to “Friend”) is a public-private partnership supporting that nation’s recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. It seeks to invest in the next generation of Japanese and Americans and strengthen economic and cultural ties between the two countries.

As part of its program, Tomodachi offers scholarships, student exchange programs, virtual classrooms connecting US and Japanese students to help facilitate English learning, as well as partnerships between Universities in both nations that enhance curriculum development, academic research and collaboration.

Salesforce.com gave Tomodachi students the opportunity to attend the Cloudforce Japan Special Session featuring a discussion around innovation and global leadership with Akio Toyoda, President and CEO of Toyota, former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, and salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.

And judging by their Twitter activity, the group was thrilled to be a part of the event.

 

 

The group also actively shared a few takeaways from the Toyoda/Powell/Benioff presentation.

 

Speaking of Tweets, Both Tomodachi and salesforce.com received a nice Twitter shout out from the US ambassador to Japan, Joh V. Roos, regarding the Cloudforce event.

 

Congratulations to those Tomodachi students lucky enough to attend the event, we hope it was a terrific learning experience for you all.  Below, you’ll find the Toyoda/Powell discussion in its entirety.  Marc Benioff introduces the Tomogachi contingent to the crowd near the 8:37 mark.

 

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