UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2010

What do you bring to the birthday party of a ten year old? Especially if it has pretty posh parents and throws the party nowhere less than at Times Square in New York?

Crane and Matten have been invited to be the official Summit Bloggers for the 10 year anniversary Conference of the United Nations Global Compact this week Thursday and Friday in New York City. Over the next three days Dirk will keep you posted with news and updates on what is going on here.

I have never done such a thing, so expect a colourful medley of comments, lifeblogs from the sessions or just thoughts. Let me know what you think, too, so that we can learn as we go. I have no real idea where this will be going. In the spirit of the party, I am not in the mood of only talking about how naughty the boy has been over the last 10 years. This job is done by others already in the bloggosphere.

And besides, its not how I feel about the compact. In a world with serious governance deficits on the global level I think we can do with all we can. And here the UN Global Compact has changed the game remarkably, I feel. Thursday and Friday this week, around 1200 senior executives from member companies, some of them top brass, will talk about ethics in business, CSR, sustainability etc.. I still have vivid recollections how things were 10 years ago. The laughter and raised eyebrows of my colleagues in the German bank I was working at the time, when I told them I would take a job teaching and writing about business ethics: 'Business ethics: hahahah. What will you do in the afternoons?'. That was '99, so things have changed.

This being more a meeting of members of an organization rather than a normal conference I expect this to be quite exciting. I have also scheduled some interviews with senior managers, so lets see where that takes us.

Today I will first go to the meeting of the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME). The PRMEs are an offshoot of the UNGC which have been signed by many institutions of business education worldwide and which aim at implementing business responsibility firmly into the curriculum of business education.

So I have not yet decided on the birthday present. I have to see how the party goes and how the birthday boy looks from close. I will share my impressions with you.