Last Wednesday December 3rd, the SABF Community met again to celebrate the launch of the 2015 team, who will carry out the eleventh edition of the South American Business Forum.
Firstly, María Laura Varela, co-director of the 2014 team along with Florencia Ravenna, welcomed the audience, which was mainly composed by the family and friends of the members of this new team. Then, in order to illustrate what the SABF is to all those who do not know it, María Laura showed the closing video of the last edition.
Next, she introduced the audience to Juan Trouilh, one of the SABF founders. Juan’s message was mainly directed to the parents of the new organizing team. He shared with them his experience, what it meant and means to him to be part of the SABF, and how the SABF can impact the life of their children.
After thanking Juan for his speech, María Laura presented the co-directors of the SABF 2015, María de la Puerta Echeverría and Alexis Medvedeff. First of all, they reviewed the achievements made in the ten years of the organization. These are:
- Over 20,000 students registered to compete for the opportunity of participating in the conference. In total, 970 students have participated representing 71 countries and the 5 continents.
- 350 distinguished speakers have gone to the SABF to talk about diverse topics of global relevance, such as sustainability, innovation, social responsibility, entrepreneurship, education and technology.
- The organization has received the support of 130 companies from different industries.
- A platform of excellence has been developed to assist and facilitate the work of the participants and the organizing team in every stage of the process.
- Each year, the team has worked hard to spread the word about the conference,so that this opportunity reaches more people in the world.
- Year by year, the organization has sought to improve the message transmitted so that it faithfully reflects the essence of the SABF. In this context, in the 2014 edition a restyling of the brand and a redesign of the logo has been made.
After talking about these 10 years of SABF, María and Alexis presented the new edition. The SABF 2015 main topic will be “The Challenge of Inclusion”. It will be addressed on the following three focuses:
- “Redirecting Innovation”: the innovation usually occurs in one direction: from the developed centers to the undeveloped peripheries. Is it necessary to change the direction of innovation?
- “The Resources Dilemma”: Should inclusion speed be prioritized at the expense of long term sustainability?, which redistribution mechanisms can be designed to avoid generating new exclusion processes?
- “Empowering South America”: South America is a region that constantly deals with changes, and they are forced to adapt. Which are the unique characteristics of this continent that facilitate or hinder inclusion?
These subjects will be discussed by the 100 selected students for the SABF 2015, during the 6th, 7th and 8th of August. The application period will start on February 2nd, and it will end on May 3rd.
Finally, the co-directors thanked three different groups of people which are closely linked to the SABF and that will make a new edition of the conference possible: the Board of Trustees, the Board of Members and the organizing team. After asking the organizing team not to only have their eyes set on the conference but to also enjoy the journey, María and Alexis presented the organizing team 2015 and their respective departments:
Fundraising: Facundo Arana (head), Amparo Álvarez y Federico Bettucci.
Information Technology: Juan Martín Pascale (head) e Iván Kljenak.
Media and Communication: Sofía Fraga (head), Matías Buscaglia, Martín Capparelli y Federico Verrastro.
Speakers: Damasia Jurado (head), Federico Cimini y Lucas Kania.
Students Relations: Sofía Chung (head), Thomas Bunchicoff, Piero Crozzoli, Dominique Jurnet Berteloot y Vanina Kravsoff.
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From the blog, we welcome them to the SABF Community and we wish you the best for this year! It will be a year you will never forget.
