IAVE World Volunteer Conference 2008: Corporate Forum

Thursday, April 3, 2008, 10:30am-5:30pm, Hotel El Panama, Panama City

These are both exciting and challenging times in the arena of corporate volunteerism.  Exciting because never before has the corporate sector been as involved and strategically engaged in community investment, and employee volunteerism is a key driver of this movement.  Challenging because along with this keener focus comes new influences and changes in landscape that must be considered, along with uncertain global economic and environmental factors.  It is clear from the growing interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, including research & development and measurement & evaluation, that no business, particularly businesses with global footprints, can achieve success without considering corporate volunteerism as a key component in their overall CSR and business strategies.

The Corporate Forum will highlight the multi-faceted role of employee engagement programs in global volunteering and will draw on the experience of subject matter experts as well as case studies from a variety of companies with national and international breadth.  Throughout the day, there will be opportunities for information exchange, interactive dialogue and discussion, sharing of best practices, and networking.

The Forum consists of two sessions with a break for lunch, and will offer a variety of speakers, presentations, panel discussions, and interactive dialogue.  

10:30am - 12:00pm  Morning Session 

• Welcome & Opening
• Introduction of the Global Corporate Volunteer Council (GCVC)
• Corporate Volunteering World Overview
• Highlights from G-CVC Member Company, Vale Brazil 
• Interactive Exercise: Development of Global Stakeholder Directory

12:00pm-14:00pm Lunch

14:00pm-17:30pm  Afternoon Session 

• Hot Topics Panel Discussion: Disaster Response (UPS - U.S.), Skill-Based Volunteering (Unive - Netherlands), Addressing the MDGs (GM - Colombia), Organizational Transformation (Points of Light/Hands On Network).
• Building Global Leaders through Public Service
• Corporate Program Panel Discussion: Banco General, Panama Canal Authority, Citi (Panama) and Disney (Argentina).
• Closing Remarks: Disney

Company representatives, NGOs interested in corporate community involvement, and all interested participants are welcome to join us at this exciting Forum!