The International Symposium 2006, titled "Shaping the future: Connecting career development and workforce development," was the third international forum of senior government policy makers, experts in the field of career development and employers. Attended by teams of delegates representing 22 countries and six international organisations, the International Symposium 2006 focused on the interface between career development and workforce development. In a paper presented to the first symposium that explored links between career development and public policy held in 1999, Savickas (2000) described career development practitioners' attempts to find ways to "strengthen national strategies for workforce development and career guidance as well as to forge an international vision for career service delivery" as a "new project" for them. The International Symposium 2006 provided an opportunity to move the project described by Savickas (2000) forward by considering career development in relation to the workforce development issues of human capital, labour supply, employability skills and older workers. In addition to these specific issues, it examined the broader issues of how career development services might contribute to workforce development and the career development information base needed to support public policy making. By way of background to this special issue on the International Symposium 2006, this article briefly examines the context and the reasons behind career development's rise to a more prominent position on the public policy arena. Following this, the process of the International Symposium 2006 that resulted in the writing of the documents contained in the special issue is briefly outlined.