Milaana Open

After weeks of excitement and preparation, today I will be flying to Malaysia for the Global Social Business Summit in Kuala Lumpur! My business cards are ready, trousers steamed and I’ve already had the opportunity to connect with a number of the 60 other Young Challengers who I will be meeting before the summit! Here’s whats in stall for me this week!

AGENDA

• Tuesday the 5th – Arriving at 5:45am, I’ll have a full day upon arrival to settle in and explore KL with some of the other challengers, hopefully catching up with a large portion of the group on the evening before our Youth Meeting.

• Wednesday the 6th – Young Challengers Meeting! We will be welcomed by Hans Reitz, the Head of Global Social Business Summit before getting to know each other and analysing some social business cade studies. Professor Muhammad Yunus (my hero!) will then deliver a key note followed by a Q&A session. After lunch we’ll break into groups to discuss our ideas to tackle youth unemployment and prepare a presentation to be delivered at the Summit posing key questions and challenges to the leaders in the room.

• Thursday the 7th – Global Social Business Summit – Welcomed to the summit by Hans Reitz with a keynote by Professor Muhammad Yunus. 
  • Plenary Session I: State of the art of social business: the development and implementation of social business around the world. Speakers include, RICHARD BRANSON!!!! Dr Fatima al Balooshi (Bahrain’s Minister for Social Development) and a stellar line-up of Grameen leaders. 
  • Focus Groups: I’ve signed on to take part of the “Scaling your Social Business” session. This Focus Group will present examples of successfully scaled social businesses and lessons learned on the way. It will also allow for participants to exchange their experience and explore potential steps to scale specific business models proposed by participants of the session
  • Plenary Session II: Co-creation and Collaboration: Partnerships as key drivers for social business. Speakers will include Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), Alex Their (USAID), Krish Krishnan, (Founder/Director/CEO Green Ventures) Gilbert Mbesherubusa (VP Operations African Development Bank and many more inspiring individuals. 
  • Wrap up, Announcements & Launches of new ventures and initiatives
  • Networking Dinner

• Friday the 8th – Global Social Business Summit
  • Plenary Session III “It’s the corporation, stupid!” – Social business as part of the business strategy
  • Pecha Kucha Festival – 8 Presentations of new social business ventures, programs or initiatives
  • Connected Creativity – view all the stalls of social entrepreneurs and have the chance to meet with many of the delegates. 
  • Presentation of Social Business Pedia
  • Plenary Session IV – Social Impact Measurement – Curse or cure for social investment?
  • Closing Session – Keynote by Dato’ Sri Haji Mohammad Najib Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia:Roadmap for social business in Malaysia, Keynote by Prof. Muhammad Yunus: Roadmap towards 2018, Keynote by Nurfarini Daing, CEO Youth Trust Foundation myHarapan and Hans Reitz, Head of Global Social Business Summit: Wrap up of GSBS 2013
  • PARTY!

• Saturday the 9th – Culture and Arts optional session
  • Panel discussion: How can culture & arts support social business?
  • Exploring KL and spending time with new found friends

• Sunday the 10th – Departure – leaving in the morning to touch back down in Brisbane Sunday evening

WOOOOWOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of the above is just phenomenal and I really can’t describe how blessed I feel to be able to grasp this opportunity with both hands. To make things more surreal, its plonked right towards the end of my final semester of university so as soon as I touch back down it’ll be back to financial maths and my other subjects as if nothing had happened! But a lot certainly IS happening and I’m excited to share the experience with you this week!