Some of the unsolicited Testimonials, the event received

Just to say thank you for making it possible for me join the Zurich meeting - and my congratulations on a truly inspirational event. It certainly revived my passion and challenged me to think more ambitiously !

Karen Buckley Congratulations for an outstanding conference ? talented people and creative interweaving of knowledge and heart learning. And thank you for the opportunity to produce another Women?s Forum. We loved creating the beauty and inspiration. The women and men received it warmly, with many comments afterwards on the shifts in perception that it invited.

George Starcher This is simply to thank you for your heroic efforts to gather this great group of dedicated SiBs. I really enjoyed the conference, talking and sharing with so many soul mates. At the same time I felt the real complimentarity of our two networks. In a way it is ironic that EBBF is more focused on its core values, which are an expression of the spirit and spirituality that bring SiB members together. This is even more reason for me and some other EBBF members to be involved with and contribute to SiB.

Urs Zimmerman Thank you for:
? engaging so enthusiastically on the topic of business ethics, spirit in business and humanity
? bringing in all the wonderful and visionary speakers and moderators
? creating this powerful and inspiring energy
? allowing an atmosphere of presence and sharing
? bringing all these compassionate and caring people to Switzerland (where there is an urge for business ethics...) Yes, this was the most touching and connecting conference I have ever attended. The fertile ground for prospering towards an economy that will not work against human beings but with and for human beings.

Jan Willem Kirpestein It was a wonderful conference. I enjoyed the deep conversations which I had. You did very good work.

Debby Edelstein I am so very grateful that you found me across the miles and invited me to attend the incredible gathering last weekend. It was such a wonderful experience for me to arrive on the first night not knowing a single person - other than a few email addresses who I looked forward to linking with faces! - but feeling so incredibly at home and realising that it's the same conversation that I'm a part of in South Africa. It truly is a global conversation and it's such a privilege to be part of it. I made such wonderful personal connections with so many people and I'm still riding the wonderful wave of energy it's given me. I promise that it will reenergise my work in South Africa and I will share South African developments with the Spirit in Business community as they unfold.

David Berry It was effervescent and inspiring throughout.

Hans Jecklin I wish to thank you and congratulate to the conference of last week-end. I have experienced it as a very inspiring event that has created contacts with wonderful people who think and act from a shared background; it indeed feels well to know that one is not a lonesome traveller but one of a whole network moving in the same direction: evolution at work! I am also glad to have been able to contribute some small parts to the great mosaique the two days displayed, and I have seen that they also created some positive resonance. A big THANK YOU! - Thanks and respect also to the many helpers who were responsible for a sensitive and smooth organization !

Max Burger-Calderon
Hard power is the past > Soft power is the future
Soft = by example > Hard = by rules
Soft = you preach wine and drink water > Hard = you preach water and drink wine
Soft = employees get served first > Hard = leaders get served first

Peter de Bruin ?The forum was outstanding. I made great connections and was very inspired. I will come again next year, wherever it may be, even in Cape Town !?

Dorota Ostoja Zawadzka Thank you so much for the conference, letters and photo. I'm very much honoured to be part of Spirit and Business community. The conference was very inspiring and it is hard for me to get back to mandain business live right now. In your last email you have mentioned about the possibilities for conferences in England next year. We are planning to have Be The Change conference in September 2005 on the barge. I'm looking to the first multinational event. I would like very much for you to be there as I hope to have the Spirit In Business one in Poland very much.

Lynne Franks Congratulations, it was a huge success this weekend and I personally had some very special connections.

Enrico Giraudi A heartfelt thanks for two days so rich in encounters and emotions. Marinella and Maria Laura absolutely want to contribute, the moment you wish to do something in Italy. Just like our friend Narajana says, ?Visionary conceives the impossible. Missionary makes it possible?.

Caroline Ryan I wanted to extend my gratitude and thanks for your organisation of the Z?rich conference and my invitation to participate. I very much appreciated the chance to be amongst like-minded and spirited colleagues and will look forward to the next opportunity when it arises. I think the conference in itself was extremely well received, the location inspiring and the catering excellent. I left with some wonderful insights, some new heart-connections and a refreshed spirit - so thank you to you and your team for all your hard work in bringing the conference into being and for my opportunity to be present.

Malcolm Allan Thanks for inviting me to participate in the Z?rich SIB. I learned a lot that was new, inspiring and applicable to my life and work. What a great network of people you and your fellow SIB stewards have created. In reflection, I have concluded that there is much that spiritually aware and spirit-full businesses can do to help places regain or create spirit and will be thinking on this in my future work. There is an undoubted connection here between spiritually aware people, businesses and places. My best wishes for your continued success.

Birgitt Williams thank you for a wonderful conference and for allowing me to participate in it. I am grateful that you kept my space open for me. We had an overflowing room with 16 people in it and I think it went well...and Spirit worked with us....

Gundula Schatz I enjoyed the conference very much ? it was extremely exciting to meet so many different people from all over the world. So congratulations to that global network you were able to build up in just five years !

Craig Neal I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the conference and have many ideas on what we might be able to do together in the future. Many wonderful connections and relationships were formed and instigated.

Roland Mees It was my first time that I attended a SiB conference. And I can tell you: I enjoyed it very much.
This was really good and substantial. The atmosphere, the people, the GDI, all in all, made it an impressive experience for me. The way we worked with each other, the way we listened to each other was heartwarming and encouraging. I am convinced that the SiB network contains great promises for the future.

Marc Luyckx Ghisi Many thanks for this marvelous opportunity you gave me to assist to SiB's Z?rich event.

1. What a quality of human persons around. This is a much more rich than other business meetings. Congratulations.
2. I have been touched by the quality of the spiritual energy around. I feel enriched and spiritually challenged by the meeting.
3. I am also admirative of your effort to tackle seriously the paradigm shift in economy and finances.
This is really very courageous and avant-garde. I have written a small article on the "transmodern entrepreneur" that I have dedicated to you 3, that I will probably insert in my new book. You will not learn anything new, but please receive this as a sing of my deep gratitude and friendship.

Fionnuala Herder-Wynne It was a wonderful, wonderful forum. Inspiring, grounded and powerful. Thank-you for every thing that you did to make it happen. As I said to you then, if there is any way that I can be more involved, whether that is practically to organize things or to be involved in discussions or conversations, let me know. I am very open to supporting SiB in any way that I can.

Cornelius Pietzner A quick note to congratulate probably exhausted leaders on a really, really good conference.
Creative, good networking, good place, easy to get along and meet people, many people on stage, diverse, fun, content-rich but not top-heavy. You did a good job and I want to thank you. I found it valuable and learned a lot. I hope my very small contribution was also helpful.

Alan Harpham Di and I did enjoy ourselves tremendously. Thanks for organizing a wonderful conference.

Kristin Engvig Thank you for organizing an inspiring event. Although I couldn't be part of all of it, the hours I were there were of great inspiration to me. I felt that I was connecting to like-minded people and got a doze of support and clarity that what I am working on is the right thing. Great job.

Peter Paul Leutscher  It was superb !

Daniel Heini I was very impressed. Congratulations for having organized such a great event. It was so good to see how many other leaders have a similar way of thinking.

Gustav Seewer I would like to express my deep thanks for the invitation to the SiB Forum. It was a good time and many contacts and talks remain in my thoughts. I am sure that one or the other idea can be transferred in a concrete way - as one example I will try to bring the concept of stewardship into the ENTERPRISE Foundation. At the Forum I realized of what enormous work you and the team have accomplished in making it possible. I have big respect and hope that we can work together in a project in the near future.

Albert Pelach I am very glad I decided to participate in the Forum Spirit in Business: I liked the format and content of the meeting and I also made good contacts. (By the way, the articles in the folder of the conference are also informative and interesting).

Marieke Kersten A big thank you for enabling me to be here at this wonderful conference. It has been a real (re)treat. As a token of my appreciation I want to offer my paper on spiritual based leadership, which basically brought me here in the first place. As I am taking my first steps on this path of uniting Spirit and Business, I am excited about the road that lies ahead. All the best in all of your wonderful endeavours, and thanks again from the bottom of my spirit.

Sabine Bellefeuille I wanted to thank you, for inviting me. I had a great time, unfortunately I had not much time to talk with you. Seeing you three made me feel like I was welcomed in a family. I had not even expected that you remembered me. The women?s forum has touched me deeply. I am also very grateful for the great work spirit in business does. It gives me hope to see how many people are investing there time and talent to make a difference. We try to do it in our small company, too.

Homero Santos Many thanks for the kindness of your words. Meeting all of you in Z?rich was a high joy. The Conference itself raised a lot of new inspirations in my mind and spirit. It meant a great experience for me. I hope that our aim of having next SiB Conference in Brazil may really come true.

Peter Heslam Thank you for your part in making the Good Leaders Great Leaders conference so inspiring, challenging and encouraging !

Dagmar Hlebic Many, many thanks for this wonderful event. I was deeply moved and impressed by the business - stories and the energy in the room. I?m looking forward to London or Brazil or Zurich.

David Batstone During the event, I led a panel on the theme of ?redefining hard power and soft power? in business. I took ?hard power? to refer to the propensity in the modern organization to operate by metrics. The mantra: If you can?t measure it, then it must not be important. Strange, even educational institutions and non-profits have taken to this wisdom.
?Soft power,? on the other hand, usually refers to intangibles like creativity and imagination, compassion and care, integrity and character. I raised in the panel my concern that once we accept these categories, then we fool ourselves into thinking that only hard power is vital, for it impacts the bottom line. Soft power, on the other hand, is peripheral to the core business operation. I reject that notion. How many companies have lost market value in the past decade because they failed to appreciate they key importance of these ?soft? qualities ? Metrics are useful, and necessary, but they are meant to be indicators of company performance. Somewhere along the highway, instead of being a guide post on the journey signs became the destination.

Mark Tigchelaar Many thanks to you, the Board, Alain and the other facilitators, for hosting such a wonderful Forum ! The power of worldwide connections with kindred spirits shows up as hard power !

Dirk Elsen This conference has made me really think and reflect deeply.

Sidler Angelika Thank you, once again, very much for the organization of this extraordinary, truly inspiring event at the GDI - and for giving us the chance to guide the workshop on behalf of SIB Switzerland. I was very impressed by the variety of great personalities that gathered there in such a dedicated, committed and humble manner.

As your mission is really important to this world I'd love to serve your organization in the future with any kind of help I can provide. Please let me know if you can need some organizational or other support in your activities.

Maria Laura De Rosa I would like to thank you for the magnificent experience which I lived through in Z?rich. It marks a new beginning in my life, a marvellous beginning full of promises and projects. If you think it proper, I?d like to take up the responsibility of organizing your next conference here in Italy, with Marinella?s and Enrico?s help

Beat Curti Congratulations for your outstanding achievements with the forum. I was touched, surprised and impressed. You have come a long way, worked hard and have created an outstanding ?Gesamtkunstwerk?. I am proud of you !!?.

Frank Buunk - Also if you did not understand the English language, you could feel the concentrated energy of all the people with more or less much of the same world-view. It did not only touch, it did convince. It did give most of the people some therapy and it works because they are open for the messages this conference gave us.