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Organized by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and the City of Paris, this year’s edition, entitled ‘New Wave of Hope!’ will focus on 4 key themes: Food and its Value, Plastic Pollution, Solidarity and Refugees, and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Date: 6th - 7th November 2017

Location: Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris (14th arrondissement)

Paris (France), October 31, 2016–For the first time since its creation, the annual Global Social Business Summit(GSBS), which celebrates its 8th year, will be held in Paris. Bringing together more than 700 delegates from around the world, from the private sector, civil society, governments and academia, the event will foster discussion, collaboration and the sharing of best practices around social business and its positive impact.

The summit will gather world-class speakers among which Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Anne Hidalgo (Mayor of Paris), Joel Bouzou (President of the World Olympians Association), Her Royal Highness the Grand-Duchess of Luxembourg, and Thomas Gass (UN Assistant Secretary-General).

The GSBS follows on from the decision made by Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and Professor Muhammad Yunus to install the new Yunus Centre in the ‘Maison des Canaux’, to be inaugurated in November. This Center, the first independent Yunus Center outside of Dacca (Bangladesh), is to become a key European hub for social business.

Professor Yunus also signed a partnership agreement with Mayor Hidalgo and the Paris-2024 Olympic Bid Committee to make the Olympics and Para-Olympic Games of 2024 the most inclusive Games in the history of the Olympics. The City of Paris gave Prof. Yunus the honorary citizenship of the French capital.

"In Paris and other cities in the world, entrepreneurs are constantly creating new projects that are both economically coherent and socially beneficial. It is crucial that we give them means and provide this worldly generation capable of kindling new hopes with a forum. The Global Social Business Summit is on this account a momentous occasion, as it enables all major international actors of this collaborative economy to work together, to share ideas and experiences, and to come up with new ambitions”, says Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who aims to turnParis into a hub of social business and to start implementing this through the momentum of the 2024 Olympic Games.

"What we need is to think strategically about development, analyzing a country's potential role in its region and the world in search of opportunities for growth. Platforms like the Global Social Business Summit can facilitate the process on bringing about change", declared Prof. Yunus, about stakeholders attending GSBS. "We have to show that we are a global movement with a thoughtful and powerful concept behind", said Hans Reitz, Head of Global Social Business Summit, CEO of The Grameen Creative Lab. For the 8th edition of the GSBS, the program was inspired by the 7th principle of social business, “do it with joy!” to provide a breath-taking experience to all participants and to foster a "New wave of hope".

Main topics to be covered in this year's GSBS edition include:

-          Food and its Value – Speakers will discuss how to make the food industry more sustainable and solidary, notably regarding catering to create inclusive Olympic Games, and debate social business gastronomy projects.

-          Plastic Pollution – Covering the growing environmental pollution caused by plastic waste, talks will revolve around coastal and marine protection, and how to improve recycling and waste management by social business.

-          Solidarity and Refugees – This theme aims at discussing project fostering more human solidarity and notably towards the climate and war refugees around the world, how to create social business solutions to support refugees.

-          The Paris 2024 Olympic Games – Debates and workshops will discuss & design solutions on how to guarantee the inclusiveness and impact of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games through social business.

The summit will also include a presentation and discussion about Prof. Yunus latest book, "A World of Three Zeros".

In addition, a plastic exhibition will take place in front of the Paris City Hall during the summit.

The full agenda, speakers and additional information can be found under:http://gsbs-2017.com

Agenda highlights:

-          Social Business Youth Challengers‘& Pioneers' meeting (4-5 Nov), at MakeSense's office (11, rue biscornet - 75012 Paris)

          Global Social Business Summit (6-7 Nov)

-          5th Social Business Academia conference (8-9 Nov) at CitéInternationaleUniversitaire de Paris

To participate in specific sessions of the summit or to request an interview with Prof. Yunus, or Mayor Hidalgo, please contact:

Grameen Creative Lab: Liza Patris / liza.patris@grameencl.com / 06.46.02.55.36

Ville de Paris: Simon le Boulaire / simon.leboulaire@paris.fr

Agence APCO Worldwide: Cécile Striffler / cstriffler@apcoworldwide.com

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About Grameen Creative Lab - The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL) was founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and his Creative Advisor Hans Reitz. Their shared vision is to serve society's most pressing needs – globally. The Grameen Creative Lab is designed to accelerate and spread the Yunus spirit of social business.

About Yunus Centre- Yunus Centre is the resource center for all Grameen social business related activities both globally and in Bangladesh. It ensures the rollout of the rollout of the global social business movement through various events, social media, publications, and websites. The Yunus Centre also helps forge lasting, productive relationships among all social business institutions around the world. The Centre is chaired by Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and its Executive Director is Ms. Lamiya Morshed.