Events & Conferencing News South Africa

Discovery Invest Leadership Summit launched

The Discovery Invest Leadership Summit, which is due to take place Wednesday, 22 July 2009, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, was launched today in Sandton at a press conference, at which some of the speakers set the scene for their presentations tomorrow.

Adrian Gore, CEO and founder of Discovery Holdings, told the media: “As Discovery, we are very excited to be hosting this summit as we firmly value the power of leadership.

“The timing of this summit is right because the world is going through a lot of bad patches, including the global recession and other socio-economic challenges, which has brought about a lot of debate on policies and key decisions.”

Wendy Luhabe, businesswoman and chairperson of Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), said that the severe moral leadership decline that gripped the world in the past 30 years has incapacitated many leaders to deal effectively with various challenges of today's society.

Luhabe, who is also the wife of COPE deputy leader Mbhazima Shilowa and co-founder of Wiphold, said that she will be sticking to the importance of quality leadership.

The Tipping Point

Renowned author Malcolm Gladwell said that his speech will be drawn from his book The Tipping Point and parts of the work that he has been doing for the New Yorker, and will also talk about the leadership that aspires to creativity, innovation, patience, discipline and many other good qualities.

Ronnie Apteker said that much of his talk will focus on how leaders could move away from their Powerpoint habits, embrace the concept of story-telling and start motivating people to reach a certain level.

“Leading by example, being nice to people and having a good and positive attitude is perhaps the best way to inspiring people,” he said.

California-based Shaun Tomson, one of tomorrow's speakers and an environmentalist, was also present at the press conference and said that most of his talk will concentrate on how its leadership style has been inspired by the ocean in the past 44 years.

The remaining speakers will be Sir Richard Branson and Mathews Phosa. For more, go to www.theleadershipsummit.co.za.

About Issa Sikiti da Silva

Issa Sikiti da Silva is a winner of the 2010 SADC Media Awards (print category). He freelances for various media outlets, local and foreign, and has travelled extensively across Africa. His work has been published both in French and English. He used to contribute to Bizcommunity.com as a senior news writer.
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