Global Social Business Summit Held in Germany

The Global Social Business Summit 2010, initiated by Prof. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Creative Lab in Germany, is the only global communication platform for the social business community. Among a group of leaders and experts, it highlighted successes, possibilities and future prospects, as well as defined concrete goals of Social Business for the coming years.

This year the Global Social Business Summit took place in November 4-5, in the Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany. After the Global Grameen Meeting 2009, it is already the second time that the Autostadt supports and hosts the annual gathering of the social business community in Wolfsburg. This Summit will become an annual event and will provide an international forum for information and exchange of ideas on Social Business.

This summit addressed the experiences of social business, its structure and management, lessons learnt from existing social businesses. There were expert meetings, social business panels and a marketplace for social businesses. Approximately 300 participants from all over the world attended the summit.

Notable participants at the Summit were Nobel Peace PrizeÂ Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Emmanuel Faber (Co-CEO of Danone Group), Herbert Hainer (CEO, Adidas AG), Dr. Juergen Hambrecht (CEO of BASF), Dr Michael Otto, Chairman of Otto Group, best selling author Paulo Coelho, Film director Shekhar Kapur and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa of Luxembourg.

Delegations from several governments, including ministers, governors, and mayors attended the Summit.

Taken as a whole, the Social Business Summit 2010 presented a compelling case of how doing business has changed and how global organizations like BASF, Danone and others have got involved with Grameen to adapt their business strategies to the needs of the people with low purchasing power and solve social problems.

Oscar winning film director Shekhar Kapur signed an MOU with Grameen Creative Lab to create a social business fund for water in India. He also expressed his interest to spread the message about social business all over the world.

At this year's Global Social Business Summit 2010 Professor Muhammad Yunus and author Paulo Coelho, who accepted the title of "Social Business Ambassador" gave their joint public speeches on Thursday, 4 November 2010. Both speakers spoke individually and in dialogue. Yunus and Coelho are considered as being global thought leaders regarding the world's social challenges.

The CEO's of Danone, BASF and Adidas also shared their experience with Grameen at a panel joined by Professor Yunus to explain why their companies have invested in social business in Bangladesh.

The Summit was also graced with the presence of HRH Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and her son Prince Guillaume who are both long time supporters of social business and microfinance, and who have offered to host the Summit in 2012.