More than 4,000 people descended upon the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles this week for the 21st Milken Institute Global Conference. Each year, leaders from finance, philanthropy, public health, and other sectors convene to collaborate, share ideas and develop solutions to problems plaguing our world.

With a theme like “Navigating a World in Transition,” we expected colorful and thought-provoking commentary, and the panelists delivered. Here’s a look at what people were talking about this week:

On education results
“One’s ability to get an education is not all about the teachers. It’s often times about the level of function and stability in a kid’s life. Is there enough food? Is the child late for school because they actually have to watch their younger brother or sister? Is it safe to walk to school? Did they stay in a car last night or in a house last night? How do you address that? Government provides the funding, but it requires the community to come together … to take on that issue, to set some goals, to measure collectively.”

- Steve Ballmer, Co-founder of Ballmer Group, Owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball team and former CEO of Microsoft

On philanthropy
“When you add philanthropy to your life, you add another dimension to your life … a much more meaningful, purposeful dimension.”

- Petra Nemcova, Founder, All Hands and Hearts

On the future of girls in Africa
“They’ll be the leading the continent ... They’ll be the voices in Africa we desperately need that are focusing on transparency and rule of law and bringing everyone up.”

- Suzanne Sinegal McGill, Co-founder and President, Rwanda Girls Initiative

On impact investing’s rapid growth
“We don’t have to wait for all the baby boomers to die … The millennial generation has already had a significant impact by catalyzing their parents and their employers.”

-John Buley, Professor of the Practice of Finance at Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

On removing barriers for social entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia
“When you ask a young person in the region, ‘you have all these issues that you talk about, what can you do about it?’ they have amazing entrepreneurial ideas, but there are always these obstacles, ‘I don’t have an investor, I don’t know how to scale.’ We ask, ‘what are your ambitions, what are you trying to solve, how can we help you get there?”

-Princess Ameerah Altaweel, Founder and Chairwoman, TIME Entertainment Holding

On investing in refugee entrepreneurs
“The power not only to get out, but to get up, is profound.”

- John Kluge, Co-founder and Managing Partner of the Alight Fund

On mental health on college campuses
“The sheer presence of somebody talking about depression over here, or stress during exams, or suicide during Suicide Prevention Month is actually helping everybody on campus to learn more, to understand more, to respect more and to reach out for help more.”

-Alison K. Malmon, Executive Director, Active Minds

On the link between global health and economic growth
“Countries that have invested more in health and education and been successful in improving health and education have actually had quite a bit faster economic growth in the last 25 years. Translate that into money terms: If everybody in the world achieved the 85th percentile of progress on health and education, global economic output would be half a percentage point higher per year, which translates into $13 trillion in the global economy.”

- Christopher Murray, Director, Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation and Professor, Global Health, University of Washington

On the joy of giving
“We want [philanthropy] to be like a Bollywood movie. We want the hero not to be killed, there’s some romance … it should be fun.”

- Shamsheer Vayalil, Founder and Managing Director of UAE-based VPS Healthcare and Giving Pledge Participant

On how the next generation can define social impact
“Vote ... not just vote, run for office. When you’re 18, run for office. We need more young people expressing what their values are, not just the top level but at our local institutions as well.”

- John R. Seydel, Director of Sustainability, Mayor's Office of Resilience, City of Atlanta; Trustee, Turner Foundation