Here’s the deal. The CRO Conference has got you curious for one of two reasons. You were there and because so much went on you’re afraid you missed something. Or you weren’t and you’ve got the same fear. In addition to 1,000 little things, three big things happened Sept. 12 — one of the items is difficult to hear. Failing to recap all 3 would be a mistake.

But before I dish the dirt, as the conference chair, I’ve got to toss out a disclaimer. Like a bride at her wedding, I don’t get to taste lunch. I starve. But it was worth the pain to get 260 corporate leaders to suck from the biggest fire hose of CR content and relationships ever assembled. In one day, we had folks gulping the words of 38 thought leaders, including two Fortune 1000 CEOs, and harvesting hundreds of networking opportunities. The whole thing had attendees, once again, gleefully aghast. We over-delivered. And the audience and sponsors told us they liked it so much they’ll be with us — and they’re bringing reinforcements — in 2008 when we stage five CRO Conferences, starting with the March 27 event in NYC. And the five come on top of this year’s successful pair.

So now, without further delay, here are the Three Big Things.

First, early movers in sustainable corporate strategies are now going operational — and the New Thing is "Enterprise Sustainability." Pitney Bowes CEO Murray Martin and Interface America’s CEO John Wells both showed how they’ve taken an ESG (environmental, social, governance) strategy and made it operational.

BASF’s General Manager Ed Nuernberg (they’d call Ed a president in any other company, but BASF is too German for that) and Marketing Manager Mary Fraser showed us BASF in cross-section like a wedding cake sliced in half, detailing how a strategy ends up going to market. There were a half-dozen other examples of the same phenomenon throughout the day.

That’s why in 2008 you’re going to see us launch another conference — the Sustainable Enterprise Show — just for the operating level execs. And don’t expect it to be small.

Second, the CRO title is coming to a corporation near you. There are now 55 Corporate Responsibility Officers in the Russell 1000, up from 12 just a year ago. When asked, our expert panelists by consensus said that there would be at least 250 by 2010. Remember, it took the Human Resources profession 10 years (1976-1986) to get 50% of the Fortune 500 to name an HR head. Before that HR was disbursed among payroll, benefits, compensation, personnel, labor relations silos — just like the CRO role is now distributed among CSR, citizenship, compliance, governance, sustainability, corporate communications, legal, and accounting. The trend is the CRO’s friend.

The third big thing is a very disturbing development. We heard a plaintive wail of protest about the behavior of one of the CR market’s larger not-for-profit players: Business for Social Responsibility, or BSR. For-profit consultants and analysts alike whispered their grave concern that BSR’s nearly $4 million consulting operation is competing unfairly by using a tax-free cost advantage. (We went to the BSR site and checked it out ourselves — lo and behold, the consulting revenues are clearly broken out on its 2006 financial statement. Of BSR’s $8.1 million in 2006 revenues, $3.6 million is from consulting.)

This unsettling allegation comes as a complete shock to us. We have always held BSR in high esteem. Yet it is very difficult to reconcile this strong reputation with what many in the for-profit consulting, analyst and advisory community are seeing as competitive foul, a violation of a public trust — at the American taxpayer’s expense.

Although, at this point, we’re uncertain about what will come of all this, we agree with Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball’s husband, who used to say, "Somebody’s got some 'splainin’ to do."