Bled (Slovenia) June 5 2018: After the welcome speeches by IEDC President and Dean Danica Purg, in which she highlighted that many of the world’s most successful businesses also tend to be those that are the most sustainable, and Director of Ekvilib Institute Aleš Kranjc Kušlan, who challenged all present conference attendees to rethink the goals and purpose of their respective organizations, the audience was witness to a series of keynote speeches and an engaging panel on topics such as why there is a need for sustainable business models, how sustainability can be integrated in various business practices, and what are the merits of a circular economy by the following guests:
- Martin Neureiter, CSR Company International
- Frank Barz, Head of IoT, T-Systems, Deutsche Telekom
- Ralf Zastrau, CEO, Nanogate SE
- Ivan Pribićević, TMS CEE d.o.o.
- Tjaša Redek, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana
- Alenka Hren
- René Schmidpeter, Cologne Business School
The final part of the event was dedicated to the presentation of the finalists of the CSR award scheme for partnerships, innovation and impact, which the Network for Social Responsibility of Slovenia launched for the third time this year. Following the audience vote, which was won by Generali for their campaign on raising awareness about the dangers of drunk driving, Mariborski vodovod was awarded the prize in the SME category for their extensive project to make their billing system as well as their entire website accessible to visually impaired users. The winner in the category for bigger corporations was the insurance company Triglav, whose project aimed at decreasing traffic accidents combined various measures by engaging local communities.
To wrap up the event in line with the idea of finding sustainable solutions on all levels of corporate activity, the participants were served a hearty lunch that almost exclusively consisted of local Slovenian ingredients.