Our Leadership in Business Sustainability event will give you the opportunity to share ideas with likeminded peers and industry pioneers. It’s an inspirational half-day that aims to push your business into the future.
Sustainability continues to be a priority for business leaders across the world, with 87% of executives expecting to increase their sustainability investment by 2024, according to Gartner.
This focus is understandable. Not only are the majority of leaders recognizing that climate change is negatively impacting their business, but consumers are demanding that organizations take action. In fact, most (72%) say they consider sustainability when making a purchase.
Those organizations that are successful in their sustainability initiatives are reaping the rewards. An overwhelming majority (83%) of business leaders say sustainability activities directly create both short- and long-term value for their organization, and 80% say that sustainability helps their organization optimize and reduce costs.
At Dassault Systèmes, we know this only too well. That’s why we run a game-changing event, every year, that brings together the brightest minds in sustainability, allowing leaders to share their ideas, learn from pioneers, and push their business into the future.
Last year’s event was in the Netherlands and featured an eye-opening presentation from Ruud Veltenaar, world leading future thinker, global speaker and best-selling author.
We also ran an event earlier this year in Stockholm and it was a huge success. “It’s been so inspiring to listen to our customers talk about their ambitions and their intent,” said Caoimhe Kiely, Dassault Systèmes’ vice president of marketing and business planning. “I really loved the collaboration amongst the ecosystem of really new startups, older companies like Scania who’ve been around for 150 years, as well as educators and policy makers.”
The event included discussions on a variety of topics, including Dassault Systèmes’ three pillar model of sustainability: product and service innovation; workforce development; and new business models.
“These conversations really highlighted the importance of active listening, which I think is key to succeed,” Kiely said. “We have talked a lot about being vulnerable, being courageous and actually doing things that you do not really know the answer to yet. That’s how you get over obstacles.”
Many discussions also outlined the opportunity to use technology to find new sustainability solutions. “I loved how so many of the conversations came back to the virtual world,” Kiely said. “You don’t have to try everything physically – you can model and simulate new initiatives in the virtual world, then quickly move on if they fail.”
Kiely also highlighted compelling conversations around the workforce of the future. “It’s important that business leaders understand how they can be attractive as an employer,” she said. “The future workforce sees things very differently – they want to have a purpose and a mission when they join a new company, it can’t be simply about their salary or about climbing the corporate ladder.”
This year’s event promises to be even better. It will take place at Shelter 611 in the Netherlands, which was used by the Americans in the 1960s to protect their F-15 aircraft against hostile fire. A treasure trove of military secrets and stories, the shelter is situated in the middle of a 375-hectare grassland: a haven for nature lovers, and the perfect backdrop for conversations around sustainability.
This year’s speakers are as compelling as the location and include Nicola Winter, Germany’s second-ever female fighter pilot, and one of only three women to fly the coveted Eurofighter Typhoon. Today – after an excursion in management consulting and the industry – she is a project manager at the German Aerospace Center and a lecturer in emergency and crisis management at the Carl Remigius University, working towards her doctorate in aerospace sciences and getting her license to become a commercial helicopter pilot. Nicola also works as a paramedic and is the mother of a young daughter.
“I enjoy being a pioneer, the goal could just as well be the Moon or Mars,” Nicola said. In 2017, the Boston Consulting Group and the Handelsblatt newspaper named Nicola ‘Visionary of the Year’, with the selection committee noting her ability to continuously overcome technical, physical and social borders.
This unique event takes place on September 21, 2023 in the Netherlands and it is now open for registration. Over 2,000 people from 450 companies in 11 industries have joined us before. Now it’s your turn.