The conference was kindly sponsored by the Thailand Sustainable Development Foundation, and we were also very fortunate to have the assistance of the College of Management, Mahidol University to help organise and present the conference.

Below are a few photos to give you a flavour of the successful and inspiring event.

Dr Chirayu Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, Chairman of the Thailand Sustainable Development Foundation, which sponsored the conference, shows the land donated by the Crown as a future park to the people of Bangkok. The land is valued at over 1 billion dollars.

 

Keynote speaker Mr Harald Link, Chairman of the B.Grimm Group (2nd from right), explained how to do “business with compassion” and operate on honeybee principles.

 

Vice-President of President Foods, Dr Pojjanee Paniangvait, inspired seminar participants with her open approach to her family “honeybee” business.

 

Traditional Thai entertainment at the gala dinner.

The External Development Excursion was to Khao Hin Sorn, formerly a desert and now 303 ha. of luxuriant and productive gardens, ponds and forests thanks to the King’s Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.

Some of the delegates at the close of the 2016 conference.

Big thanks to Dr Molly Saratun and her team at the College of Management, Mahidol University for running the events! Molly was still smiling right up to the end.

Bruce McKenzie explains the wind tunneling technology we used throughout the conference. Thanks Bruce and team!

 

The launch was a very successful, exciting and well-attended event, with a welcome speech from Dr. Chirayu Na Ayuthaya, Chairman of  the Thailand Sustainable Development Foundation followed by keynote speeches from His Excellency Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, and Mr. Harald Link, Chairman of the B.Grimm group whose engaging talk covered how the B. Grimm group manage business with compassion.

Later in the day there were panel sessions involving the chapter authors and practitioners on four broad topics related to the SEP – health, education, agriculture and community, and business.

Read more about the research project and the contributors, who have developed this first systematic account of the powerful decision-making framework which is being applied across all areas of life in Thailand, to build a fair, resilient and sustainable economy and society.

Dignitaries at ease during the book launch!

ISL Editors lean against a giant replica of the book.

 

 

 

The book itself, Sufficiency Thinking.

 

It begins by distilling the key concepts of sustainable development and then defines the issues at stake by profiling the key environmental, economic, social and cultural challenges faced by Thailand. The final and largest section of the book is a showcase of the ideas, individual pioneers, grassroots and community programmes, international partnerships and private sector initiatives that are paving the way for sustainable development.

Over 70 experts from various fields contributed to the book, writing on subjects ranging from income equality to education, from community participation to poverty eradication – all under the theme of long-term sustainability of society.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Molraudee Saratun from the College of Management, Mahidol University (CMMU) a co-sponsor of this year’s International Symposium on Sustainable Leadership, contributed in the chapter entitled: “Education for Sustainable Development”.

Dr Chirayu Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, a Keynote Speaker at our forthcoming conference, was a special adviser in the production of the book.

ISL’s Dr Harald Bergsteiner and Dr Gayle Avery were also involved as advisers.

> For more information about this book, please visit: http://www.thailandsustainabledevelopment.com/the-book/

> Read an article about the book from the BangkokPost.

About 40 delegates from 16 countries came to hear the well-known B-Corp leader, Fred Keller, who was our guest speaker, along with many other wonderful presenters. Fred is Chairman, Founder and CEO of Cascade Engineering from Grand Rapids in Michigan. During his keynote speech, Fred urged us to “do something good, then make it good business”, and went on to outline some of the innovative social practices driving his organisation.

In our practitioner panel session, delegates were able to ask Fred detailed questions about how he runs this sustainable, ‘honeybee’ organisation.

Other speakers challenged us with new perspectives on sustainable leadership including applications to education, health and work. Several papers addressed sustainable leadership in Thailand, where the entire country is being encouraged to adopt sustainable leadership practices under the King’s Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.

If you weren’t able to attend, the Proceedings for the 9th International Symposium are available to download.

Heard about speed stating?
Bruce McKenzie, President and Co-Founder of Future Insights Maps, once again intrigued delegates with his latest technique for mapping conversations on complex issues. This year Bruce introduced us to ‘speed stating’, a technique for getting ideas from a large group quickly.

In speed stating, participants focus on a particular theme, such as what the obstacles to operating sustainably might be. Everyone writes their comment about that theme on a sheet of paper and then passes the sheet on to their neighbour. The second person writes a comment about either the theme or the first person’s comment. This continues until everyone has added his or her thoughts to the paper and the paper arrives back with its originator.

Speed stating is very useful for enabling a large group of people to comment on the many ‘messy’ issues found in leadership and sustainable practice. It is a way of holding a conversation on paper and allowing everyone to voice their opinions.

Visit to BMW
Another highlight of ISL conferences is the External Development Day that Professor Harry Bergsteiner organises. This year, 20 of us went to BMW’s most modern facility in Munich, Germany. After several hours spent looking at the plant, we were able to discuss a wide range of issues directly with a company representative. Even though it employs about 100,000 workers, BMW operates worldwide along honeybee principles. The firm takes a long-term view, invests heavily in training and retaining its skilled workforce, and is concerned about protecting the environment and being a responsible citizen. The payoff in sustainable practices for the enterprise shows up in how it survived the recent global financial crisis to emerge with one record year following the next. Clearly, honeybee practices have not harmed BMW.

The conference presentations were recorded – forward to 1hr 17 mins for Prof. Avery’s presentation.