For the 7th edition of the Global Social Business Summit, we designed a program inspired by the 7th principle of social business, “do it with joy!”, to provide a breathtaking experience to all participants. This year we wanted to showcase the role of empathy and stimulate your creativity through new inspiring platforms for problem-solving. Once again, we gathered renowned and inspirational speakers from social businesses, the business world, the political scene, as well as entrepreneurs, scientists and academics to deliver a conference with high quality content.
The host city of Berlin is certainly one of the most striking capitals in the world. It is a fertile ground for new ideas and creativity and therefore the ideal place for the Global Social Business Summit 2015. While the main conference of the GSBS took place at the exceptional location of Tempelhof airport, we decided to leverage the spaces surrounding the airport to host interactive workshops while engaging the local community.
Speakers
This year had a diverse and exceptional line of speakers including: Nurjahan Begum, Managing Director, Grameen Shakti Bangladesh, Dr. Moses Kizza Musaazi,Director, Technology for Tomorrow, Uganda, Gabo Arora, Senior Advisor & Filmmaker, United Nations, United States, Thomas Gass Assistant Secretary General, United Nations.
GSBS SPECIAL TASK FORCE FOR REFUGEES
The Global Social Business Summit team explored how to involve participants with one of the most pressing topics in the world: refugees. The decision is to host meetings with a special task force during the GSBS which will explore how to use tools that led to the success of social business to decrease refugees’ risk of poverty and unemployment. 16 selected GSBS participants will attend the four meetings, including high potential tech scholars selected by the Centre for International Governance and Innovation.
The special task force will be led by Ron Garan and Michael Badics Director of Ars Electronica Solutions to gather the highest potential to seek solutions for refugees.
ADOPTION OF THE UN's SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations on 25th September 2015, represent a new milestone in human history where the world community gathered to discuss efforts and define concrete goals to be reached by 2030.
The MDG Advocacy Group –including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus- gathered following the adoption of the 17 SDGs. Prof. Yunus congratulated the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his team for steering the SDGs to a successful adoption by the UN general assembly. He said it was a historical event which will give a new shape to the future world. He said the next challenge will be to make SDG a household word to guide the family’s daily life throughout the world. Prof. Yunus also asked the Secretary-General and the UN to support the developing nations in successfully implementing the 2030 Agenda.
This year the Global Social Business Summit will underline how social business can address each target of the SDGs and contribute to alleviating poverty. As Prof. Yunus has emphasized, social business is one of the most promising tools to reach these global goals. Below is the United Nations list of 17 targets to be reached by 2030 by the global community. In our agenda we highlight which session is contributed and counts into which specific targets.
