The G-20 summit being held in London in early April will bring together world leaders with the grand purpose of rebooting the global economy and finding ways of preventing a similar crisis in the future.
Well, that's the aim anyway. This weekend, however, will see the heavy lifting done by the finance ministers and central bankers in advance of their bosses meeting for photo-ops in a couple of weeks time.
What is the G-20?
As the the name suggests, the group has 20 members: the Eurozone and 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US).
What're they taking about?
This weekend's meeting has a fairly simple agenda, focusing on three key issues: stimulating global demand; regulating financial markets; and giving the International Monetary Fund the resources to help countries in severe financial straits.
While that appears to be a plan of action that anyone could sign up to, it's causing tensions around the table.
The priority for the US and Gordon Brown is a coordinated and significant fiscal boost to pump-prime global demand. But the Europeans and, rather akwardly, Alistair Darling don't agree. Darling is concerned about the state of the public finances and the Europeans are focusing on regulating the financial sector. Everybody seems on board with reforming the IMF.
Why's the meeting important?
Well, if the group can find a meaningful compromise, we might just have the makings of a globally coordinated strategy for fixing the global economy. But if the group fails to see through their differences, the pressures of financial and economic deglobalisation will simply strengthen the hands of the protectionists.
In reality, we're likely to see something in between: some useful reforms wrapped in flowery diplomatic language. Hopefully that will be enough to stave off a deeper downturn.