A multinational corporation needs a highly educated, English-speaking workforce for a new pharmaceutical facility. Boston is a possibility, but so is Dublin, where the tax rate is lower.

An entrepreneur is developing a killer app for the digital media business. She may be able to find VC money in Boston, but Seoul is where she'll find a business community and consumer environment that's totally wired.

A young couple is eager to live in a city that takes going green seriously. Boston is taking steps in the right direction, but if our young marrieds want to live in a place that's showing the world how it's done, they need to check out Portland, Ore.

A graphic artist wants to get into the video gaming business. He'd like to stay in Boston, where he's going to school, but Vancouver is home to one of the biggest companies in the business, and the weather and outdoor lifestyle are awfully attractive.

In the game of baseball, Boston competes with New York. In the competition for investment, talent, and business, the playing field is worldwide. How is Boston faring in the global battle to retain productive people and enterprises? And what lessons can city leaders learn from the successful strategies employed in other places around the planet?

Chronicle tackles these issues this fall in the series FutureBOSTON, building upon its prize-winning 2002 project Beyond the Big Dig. In collaboration once again with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chronicle crews traveled to Oregon, Canada, Europe and Asia and returned with compelling case studies that outline the challenges and opportunities for Boston in the global economy.

The first series of FutureBOSTON programs air Oct. 9, 16, 23 and 30 at 7:30 p.m.