On November 4th, the 2009 Edition of the SABF was presented. It is interesting to note that the forum is headed towards its fifth edition, and while that number may not sound very big, it outlines the importance of an often forgotten concept: CONTINUITY. That idea was the core of the compliments from Admiral Enrique Molina Pico, ITBA’s dean, and the National Minister of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, Dr. Jose Lino Barañao, who outlined not only the fact that the project began more than five years ago, but also that even with none of the original members remaining in the organizing team, the SABF is still growing strongly. According to Barañao, another good thing about the forum is that it not only analyzes current subjects, but it also generates ideas and solutions.

Amongst others attending the event were José Luís Roces (Provost – ITBA), students, representatives of the companies that support the SABF, juries, ITBA professors and some lecturers from past editions, including: Víctor Valle (Finance Director, Latin-America, Google Inc.), Diego Luzuriaga (President – Aquariana), Jorge Tersoglio (Director, Department of Economy, Finance and Legals of Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires) and Cecilia Smoglie (Director, Departments of Mechanical and Naval Engineering of ITBA).

First in the Agenda was the recap of the SABF 2008, held in August of this year, which had “Empowering Agents of Change” as its main subject. After analyzing the progress made and discussing the important conclusions reached after three days of debate, the main topic of the next edition was presented. The subject is titled “New Paradigms, New Challenges” and makes reference to the different issues that have arisen in the past few years on a social, environmental and economical level. The viability of our current global system is in threat. These new tendencies are defining new paradigms. The aforementioned issues will be the main items of discussion during the three days of the conference, which will take place on August 7th, 8th and 9th 2009.

If you are interested in participating in the SABF 2009 you must write an essay focused on one of three sub-topics which will be announced in the coming days. You may apply between January 1st and May 10th 2009. For further information please visit our website, www.sabf.org.ar, where you’ll find a text about the main topic. We hope we can count with your enriching presence in SABF 2009!