The third Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Summit is scheduled to take place at Jeddah Hilton Hotel on Dec. 1-3. This year the focus will be on the innovative strategies companies should adopt and the huge challenges they face towards achieving sustainable social development. Approaches and ways to help make the wheel of economic and social development spin faster will be highlighted during the three-day summit. "The event has proved to be successful over the past two years and put major corporate social responsibility issues in the spotlight," said Dr. Badr Al Shibani, Managing Director, APCO Saudi Office. For her part, Hoda Abdelhay, the conference producer at Informa, the organizer of the event, said this year the summit will emphasize the pivotal role companies can play to ensure sustainable social and economic development. "This summit has effectively contributed to raising corporate and public awareness about social responsibility over the past two years. This time the topics will be more varied," she added. The topics that will be discussed during this major event include strategic and sustainable CSR approaches, the importance of integrating social responsibility and sustainability in educational programs and curriculums, how to create sustainable programs that support local social enterprises to drive the nation's economic and social development, King Khaled Foundations' social sustainable programs, moving from PR-driving CSR to strategically aligned social investments and maximizing NGO and corporate relations. For the third year running, Al-Zahid Group will be the headline sponsor of the event. Other companies supporting the event are Construction Products Holding (Platinum Sponsor), P&G (Gold Sponsor), BAE Systems (Silver Sponsor), TalentS (Associate Sponsor) and Microsoft (Technology Sponsor). — SG
