Thank you for the successful workshop

Fully booked, the international workshop of 'Buddhist Values in Business and its Potential for Europe' was successfully organised in Brussels, Belgium on 24-25 November 2012.

Partly inspired by Bhutan's Gross National Happiness, the workshop attracted 40 people from business, public, religious and academic organisations - Buddhist and non-Buddhist. Participants from outside of Europe were also welcomed.  Their active participation and open-mindedness made the event a real success to be continued...

Our objectives were to:

• explore, discuss and agree on key characteristics of profitable business enterprises aligned with Buddhist inspired values;
• discuss business models to support the development of such enterprises in Europe;
• explore Gross National Happiness, its relation to Buddhism, and implications for business management;
• put the idea/culture of Buddhist inspired Business Management on the public agenda,
• create an informal working group to advance the agenda of Buddhist inspired values in entrepreneurship.

Experts and practitioners who inspired, contributed or facilitated at the workshop:

• Dasho Karma Ura, President, Centre for Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, Bhutan who is one of the key architects behind Gross National Happiness
• Prof. Laszlo Zsolnai, Director, Business Ethics Center, Corvinus University Budapest and founder of Buddhist Economics Research Platform
• Dr. Karma Phuntsho, Research Associate in Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge and Founding Director of the Loden Foundation in Bhutan that supports social enterprises
• Joel Magnuson, Ph.D., professor of economics in Portland, Oregon, USA. Internationally recognized economist specializing in non-orthodox approaches to political economy.
• Bart Weetjens, awards winning social entrepreneur and Zen Buddhist teacher, APOPO, Tanzania
• Dharmachari Keturaja, managing director of Windhorse:evolution which is one of the leading suppliers of giftware in the UK based on values derived from the Buddha’s teachings.
• Zoltan Valcsicsak, founder of The Social Profit Maker and founding president of the Hungarian Bhutan Friendship Society

Main organisers:

Buddhist Economics Research Platform | Loden Foundation, Bhutan | Hungarian Bhutan Friendship Society

Key partners:

European SPES Forum  | European Buddhist Union

Sponsors and supporters:

Loden Foundation | Starwoods Hotels

Venue:

Atelier des Tanneurs

Thank you for all who made this event a success !

Read the speakers' presentations HERE.