The White House today, led by the President himself, is conducting a very interesting, and I think unprecedented, brainstorming with some of the nation’s top CEOs.  The topic– modernizing government– may seem a little dry, but what it’s really about is closing the gap between the way the private sectors conducts business and the way the government operates.  The task for the CEOs, sitting with key cabinet under secretaries in five break-out sessions, is to talk about their own internal best practices and how they can adapted to the way we manage government agencies.

The White House Forum has attracted almost no attention, but here’s a link to the White House’ own blog today discussing the event.  Among the companies whose CEOs are attending are Craiglist, Adobe, Monster.com, FaceBook, OpenTable– in other words, the real leaders in applying technology to needs of their customers.  Which is exactly the direction that the government needs to move as well.

Here, also, is a link to a letter that some of the CEOs sent in support of the Forum, carried on the Huffington Post.  TechView will be covering the Forum over the next several days, so stay tuned.