A few years ago, two of the editors of this volume were fortunate enough to have a book that we co-edited featured at the United Nations’ Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights. Since 2012, the Forum has taken place every year in Geneva, Switzerland. It is free and open to anyone with an interest in business and human rights. Since its inception, the Forum's attendance has constantly exceeded expectations – growing exponentially in size and in importance to many in the field with each passing year. It has become a gathering of speakers from around the globe – a chance for people in civil society, businesses, governments and academics (like us) to gather and discuss the issues and challenges that arise when businesses and societies intertwine. There are plenary sessions, breakout sessions, parallel sessions and quite a bit of informal interactions by folks in between (or often during) all of the main events. In short, it is the premier event for people who work in this field.

The fact that our book was selected to be on the program was an incredible honour and Jena's mother, Pat (being the proud mother that she is), insisted on coming along. Pat has always been an independent woman, so the deal that they struck was as follows: apart from the book launch (where she was kind enough to take pictures), she would go her own way until the evening and then the two would reconvene to compare notes on what they saw and experienced during the Forum. At the end of the first night, they did just that: walking back to their hotel from the Forum, Jena asked her mother what she thought. Pat, keen as ever, went right to what was bothering her. ‘Where are the communities?’ she asked, ‘I didn't really see them there.’ She was right. Even though civil society often sits in to represent the voices of impacted communities during the Forum there is a dearth of actual, direct access to the Forum by the members of the communities themselves. It was something that many of us in the field acknowledged but in that way where you accept something as a fait accompli and try your best to find alternate solutions.