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Dear friends of social business, Two months have passed since the last newsletter and a lot has happened in October and November. In a special Newsletter edition we want to share lots of exciting news, announcements, and updates with you. Please take your time to enjoy the newsletter to get an overview of the activities of The Grameen Creative Lab during the past two months. Don’t hesitate to contact us for any questions or ideas. Inside this month’s special issue: - Global Social Business Summit 2011 – Pioneering for Results
- First Academia Meeting 2011 in Vienna
- First German Social Business Forum 2011 a huge success
- GCL is starting the YY Millennium Tour
- TEDx Social Business conference
- EU passed Social Business Initiative and held conference on Social Economy and Social Business
- Design for Business Conference at IED in Barcelona
- Prof. Yunus visits Haiti for the first time
- YY India Update
- Yunus Social Business - A new company ready to take off
- Save the date: Upcoming events in 2012
Going into December we are closing a breathtaking year and planning our activities for 2012. We look forward to tell you more in our next issue.
Until then, we invite you to get involved in our projects by contacting: Mr. Hans Reitz (CEO and Co-Founder)
hans.reitz@grameencl.com
We look forward to working together with you! YY and do it with joy! The Grameen Creative Lab Global Social Business Summit 2011 – Pioneering for Results - From 10-12 November 2011 it was time again for the annual Global Social Business Summit, which was held in Vienna for the first time ever. The Summit gathered around 520 participants from 48 nations with corporate, political, academic and civil societal background.
- The Summit was inaugurated by Werner Faymann, Chancellor of Austria, Dr. Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna, Boris Marte, Board member of Erste Foundation and Prof. Yunus.
- Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secreaty-General of the United Nations gave an inspiring keynote on the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) through social business including a personal message from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon himself. The keynote was followed by the official launch of the YY Millennium Tour, a mayor GCL initiative in cooperation with the UN to foster the MDG achievement through social business.
- In 16 focus groups and 4 expert meetings participants were discussing and working on issue and background related topics of social business with respective experts.
- Highlight of day 1 was the social business public speech with an introduction by Philippe Douste-Blazy, Chair UNIAID about alternative ways of financing development, which was followed by speeches and a dialogue between NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Prof. Yunus. Ron gave an amazing presentation of his journey around the world and explained how his NASA mission changed his perspective about the earth.
- There was one panel discussion on social business in the context of globalization 2.0 with Eric Lesueur, Projects Director Veolia Water, Emanuelle Faber, COO Danone, Jeff George, Global Head of Sandoz, John Davies, Vice President Intel Corporation, Robson Rocha, Vice President Banco do Brasil and Prof. Yunus.
- A second panel discussion took place about the role of civil society and political frameworks for social business with László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Rudolf Hundstorfer, Minister for Social Affairs of Austria, Fatima Balooshi, Minister for Human Rights of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary General of United Nations and Prof. Yunus.
- EU Commissioner László Andor announced the EU Social Business Initiative, which was passed a few weeks before to improve financing of social business and to create frameworks for social business.
- The summit offered immense networking opportunities labeled as "Connected creativity", participants had the possibility to explore various formats including Room of Wishes, Room of Ideas, Room of Needs, Space for Entrepreneurs and Marketplace of Social Business.
- We received over 50 applications and the most promising 15 social business start-ups presented their initiatives at the Space for Entrepreneurs.
- The movie Bonsai People by Holly Mosher about the vision of Prof. Yunus was screened and inspired many people.
- Monica Yunus, Prof. Yunus daughter and opera singer, performed two breathtaking songs in the end.
- Finally the summit was closed with an inspiring talk between Monica and Prof. Yunus about what art can do for social business at the Museumsquartier Vienna.
First Academia Meeting 2011 in Vienna - We organized the first Academia Meeting 2011 at The Hub in Vienna on November 9 one day prior to the Global Social Business Summit with around 50 participants from 27 universities from 17 countries.
- During the morning sessions, we had presentations about the status quo of social business from our partner universities Kyushu University, National University of Singapore, HEC Paris, Glasgow Caledonian University, EBS University, California Institute for Social Business, North South University Dhaka, University of Florence and the Istituto Europeo di Design.
- In the afternoon there were three workshop and discussion rounds on the topics of Researching, Teaching and Practical Implementation of social business within universities.
- As one of the highlights of the day, Prof. Yunus gave the final closing remarks pointing out the importance of universities to further spread the idea of social business.
- If you would like to learn more about our university activities, take a look at our website http://www.grameencreativelab.com/academia.html
First German Social Business Forum 2011 a huge success - About 160 students from around Wiesbaden joined The Grameen Creative Lab at a pre-event to the German Social Business Forum to learn about social business and to develop their own social business ideas. The best ideas were presented to Prof.Yunus and the participants of the German Social Business Forum.
- Together with the EBS University, Social Business Women, the City of Wiesbaden, and the Wiesbaden Foundation, The Grameen Creative Lab hosted the first German Social Business Forum in Wiesbaden. Around 300 participants from all over Germany joined the Forum to learn more about social business and to get insights from GIZ, Ashoka, Genisis Intitute, Danone and many other partners who want to strengthen the social business movement in Germany.
- As a highlight of the Forum we want to point out the discussion "What banks can do to better the world" between Jürgen Fitschen (Chairman Deutsche Bank) and Prof. Yunus, where Mr. Fitschen agreed to "take a deeper look" into social business.
GCL is starting the YY Millennium Tour - GCL and the United Nations officially launched the YY Millennium Tour at the Global Social Business Summit 2011.
- The Tour aims at accelerating the achievement of the UN MDGs by 2015 through social business and will focus on young people in countries in danger of achieving the MDGs by 2015.
- GCL is planning to kick-off the Tour with a major event together with the UN and to go on a world tour for 3 years.
- GCL is looking for partners and sponsors of any kind for the Tour! Please write to Christina.Jaeger@grameencl.com,if you want to get involved!
TEDx Social Business conference - On the evening of November 12, after the Global Social Business Summit 2011, Prof. Yunus spoke for the first time ever at a TEDx conference.
- Co-organized by TEDxVienna and GCL we had a TEDx conference with a special focus on social business.
- Besides Prof. Yunus, Hans Reitz and Saskia Bruysten, inspiring speakers like Cameron Sinclair (Architecture for Humanity), Sava Dalbokov (Board member Steiermärkische Bank and Sparkassen), Fionn Dobbin (Mammú), Holly Mosher (Filmmaker Bonsai People), Ron Garan (NASA astronaut) and Prof. Masaharu Okada (Executive Director of GCL@Kyushu University) spoke about social business.
- Their stories will soon be online for everyone to watch!
EU passed Social Business Initiative and held conference on Social Economy and Social Business - On 25 October 2011 the EU passed a Social Business Initiative offering a short-term action plan to promote the creation and development of social businesses.
- The plan contains 11 priority measures, organised around 3 themes: 1) Making it easier for social businesses to obtain funding 2) Increasing the visibility of social business and 3) Making the legal environment friendlier for social business
- The plan includes the set up of a 90€ million EU financial instrument to provide easier access to funding.
- On 18 November 2011 a conference on Social Economy and Social Business was held at the EU Commission. Prof. Yunus held a keynote speech in front of the EU Commission and many Heads of State and was discussing and sharing experience together with the GCL team results from the Global Social Business Summit 2011.
- You can find the speech of Manuel Barroso, President of the EU Commission, on the role of Social Business in fostering a more equitable growth in the EU here.
Design for Business Conference at IED in Barcelona - The Istituto Europe di Design organized the Design for Business Conference in Barcelona on November 17 – 19 with a specific focus on Design for Social Business.
- The Grameen Creative Lab team led a workshop about the difference between designing social business and designing business.
- On Saturday, the public IED Advisory Board Meeting took place with a panel discussion with Prof. Yunus, Prof. Richard Buchanan, Prof. Ken Friedman, Prof. Derrick de Kerckhoeve and Prof. Francisco Jarauta discussing the role of design to solve social problems.
- Finally, the students from the first Master in Design for Social Business program finished their studies and received their diplomas during the event. The second edition of the Master in Design for Social Business will start at the end of 2012, stay tuned for more information about this unique program.
Prof. Yunus visits Haiti for the first time - From October 13th till 16th Prof. Yunus visited Haiti for the first time ever! This event was a major milestone of the YY Haiti project. The core of Prof. Yunus’s visit was a two day conference on Social Business as a Catalyst for Change in Haiti. By bringing together international key players from politics, economy and NGOs the full potential of the social business movement in Haiti was unlocked.
- The YY Haiti team conducted a well received workshop on sustainable development through agro-industries at the Global Social Business Summit. Experts from GCL and other organizations shared their insights. One result will be a partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
- After our first investment for "ETRE ayisyen", further social businesses are moving forward in the due diligence and will be ready for investment soon.
- At the summit, we got to present the results from our first year of operations in India which were
- An active social business fund with 3 completed investments and over 20 more in the pipeline
- A university collaboration with the CIIE at IIM- Ahmedabad which the Bajaj group has agreed to consider supporting,
- Social business partner to Eureka Social at IIT Bombay and a collaboration with IIT Kharagpur for a social business awareness drive in 2012
- An investee led pilot project with Tata Steel Wires at their plant in Tarapur
- We were delighted to see two of the Mumbai fund investees at the space for entrepreneurs – Milaap and YY Matrishakti
- We were also excited to see the results from IEDs Design for Social Business field visit to India displayed at the summit
- Several companies expressed interest in creating social business projects in India and we were approached by several new potential investees for the Yunus Social Business Fund Mumbai
Yunus Social Business - A new company ready to take off - We have good news: a new company called Yunus Social Business (YSB) was recently created by Prof. Yunus, Saskia Bruysten, Sophie Eisenmann and Hans Reitz.
- YSB, located in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), will be lead by Saskia Bruysten and Sophie Eisenmann.
- YSB will obviously work on social business having a clear focus on Social Business Funds and Social Business advisory and implementation.
- The YY Haiti project, originally a project incubated by GCL, will from now on be under the supervision of YSB.
- We wish the YSB team a great and successfull start! YY
Save the date: Upcoming events in 2012 Please save the date in your calendars for the following exciting upcoming events in 2012: - Social Business Week Singapore // 20th - 23rd of February 2012: GCL@National University Singapore is hosting the Social Business Week 2012 together with Prof. Yunus
- Global Social Business Summit 2012 // 08th - 10th of November 2012: Please save the date for next year’s Global Social Business Summit, which will be held in Vienna again!
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