Social Business Summit in Vienna

Shariful IslamThe Global Social Business Summit 2011 (GSBS2011) will be held in Vienna from November 09 to November 12. This will be the third time that this annual social business event is being held. The previous two were held in 2009 and 2010 respectively. This year's Summit will be inaugurated by Chancellor of Austria, Werner Feymann, and will bring together over 500 delegates, many of whom are social business pioneers from the corporate world, civil society, academic and government sectors. These participants from a diverse background will discuss the implications and prospects of social business, through panels and workshops; share results with others, make connections and learn from each other on the social business frontier. This year's summit will also launch a major new initiative to motivate young people around the world to help achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Some of the noted individuals who are attending this year's Summit are Thomas Stelzer, the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter Agency Affairs, Fernando Pimentel, Brazilian Minister for Development, EU Commissioner Lazslo Andor, Narendra Jadhav, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Ron Garan, NASA astronaut, and Emanuel Faber, CO-CEO of Groupe Danone. In 2009, during the 1st Global Social Business Summit, Adidas Group announced to set up a joint social business company to produce low cost footwear for poor people, the Governor of Caldas, Mario Aristizábal Muñoz announced to up the holistic social business initiative to uplift an entire region out of poverty in the region of Caldas, Columbia. The second Summit in 2010 was an even bigger event; it was attended by over 450 participants. Some of the results of the event was that actor Hugh Jackman and author Paolo Coelho became "Social Business Ambassadors", the Grameen Creative Lab and SAP AG decided to set up YY Haiti to help Haiti emerge from its economic difficulties, Wiesbaden of Germany was declared a Social Business City and Professor Muhammad Yunus and internationally known director Shekar Kapur signed an agreement to set up a social business fund in India to invest in setting up water-related social businesses. Important announcements are expected to be made in this year's summit too. The writer is with Yunus Centre, Dhaka. He may be reached at e-mail: sharif@yunuscentre.org. For complete information about the Global Social Business Summit, all those interested may visit www.gsbs2011.com