The closing ceremony of the ninth edition of the South American Business Forum was leaded by José Luis Roces, academic advisor and member of SABF’s Board of Trustees.

However, he insisted on the fact that conclusions must be drawn all together, focusing on three main things:

  • Thoughts
  • Feelings
  • Experiences

Regarding his own thoughts, he highlighted the relevance of Globalisation: it cannot be stopped, and it is very related to progress and growth.

His feelings dictated that SABF is an organisation run by students, who work very hard to achieve a very important forum every year, and so has been for 9 years already.

As far as the experiences are concerned, he reviewed step by step the moments lived during the three days.

He asked the present participants to engage on a collective game, starting by summarising SABF in one word. After taking a moment to reflect on that word, he asked to give it a gesture to transmit it to the environment. Without a doubt, the participants’ satisfaction and joy were clearly observed. Then, Mr. Roces continued explaining the second part of the activity: he asked everyone to look for a subject that has given them this satisfaction during these 3 days, and share it with a side colleague, and try to search together a possible solution.

Some of the subjects that arose from the participating students were: education, the need of cultural change to search for common goals, and the lack of social responsibility – since we live in society, but our jobs are not aimed at improving it: we are doing something wrong.

Mr. Roces suggested a game with two simple rules: humanity must survive and the world must not disappear. The winners of the game would be those who could be in constant learning; we have to learn to learn in a different way. He also highlighted that one must be the leader of oneself, and that must work in cooperation rather than in competition. He finalised the speech in a very inspiring way, stating that change has already started, and was within each and every one of the participants. A last comment, the name of the game we all take part in: “the game of life”.

SABF 2013 ended, finally, with a thankful message by the participants and a speech by the co-directors Luciana Reznik and Celeste Molina. They thanked all the participants, the speakers, the organisers, and all the members of the educational house, ITBA.

On behalf of the Blog Team, we would like to thank all of those who followed the event via this blog, Facebook and Twitter, as well as all everyone who contribute to make this possible.