The first, with the title of the New Economic Geography, pioneered by Paul Krugman, Anthony Venables, Richard Baldwin and others, 1 seeks to explain why and how economic activity tends to be geographically concentrated, and whether such economic equilibria are unique and stable, or may instead be driven by history.
The second is about the impact of geography on development, work associated primarily with Jeffrey Sachs and associates. 2 However this conference is not mainly about economic geography in these senses.