Hundreds of business leaders from around the world will share their insights and opinions on “The Entrepreneurship Imperative” — the overriding theme of this year’s event.

The event is being held with the support of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah from Jan. 22 to 24, with  Prince Turki Al-Faisal, chairman, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Labor Minister Adel Fakeih and Education Minister Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, are scheduled to deliver separate keynote speeches. 

George Buckley, chairman and CEO of 3M, will deliver the keynote address at  the opening session on Sunday, focusing on the institutionalization of entrepreneurship. 

John A. Quelch, distinguished professor of international management, vice president and dean at CEIBS, the leading China-based international business school, will moderate most of the panel sessions at the Forum on the first day. Dr. Quelch is the Senior Associate.

The program is sponsored by the Saudi Arabian  General Investment Authority (SAGIA), which supervises the attraction of foreign investment into the country, and manages Saudi Arabia’s competitiveness agenda in an effort to improve the country’s business environment.

As a result of its efforts, SAGIA’s National Competitiveness Council, and the Saudi government as a whole, the Kingdom is now considered the eighth largest recipient of FDI with inflows of $35 billion in 2009, 11th Easiest Place to Do Business according to the World Bank-IFC’s Doing Business Report, and the 21st most competitive country in the world according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.

The GCF has grown over the past five years to become one of the biggest gatherings of political, business and thought leaders. 

The event has also helped its organizers, the SAGIA, to launch important initiatives to highlight the progress Saudi Arabia has been making in pushing its economic competitiveness agenda. 

“GCF 2012 sessions will discuss all forms of entrepreneurship and related aspects such as failure and risk,” an official statement from SAGIA released on Friday said .

“It is a  process of creating something new and valuable by devoting the necessary time and effort, by embracing the accompanying financial, emotional, and social uncertainties, and opening up to the resulting rewards of personal and possibly monetary satisfaction.”

The agenda will touch on all forms of entrepreneurship — from social entrepreneurship to government; corporate and intrapreneuruship to the importance of failure, the value of risk as well as the anatomy of an entrepreneur, amongst many more. In addition, this year, the GCF will present a series of breakaway workshops that will expand on some of the valuable topics discussed onstage in small and intimate workshops.

The sessions on the first day of the Forum will be dedicated to the various aspects of entrepreneurship.  “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur”, “Dare to be Great — The Art of Failure”, “Artepreneurs: Creating Business and Jobs”, and “Generation C — Click, Connect, Communicate, Collaborate” are sessions that are expected to offer wide-ranging and interesting insights about business success and competitiveness in today’s world.

The list of key speakers and panel is an indication of the diversity of knowledge and experience likely to be shared at the forum. 

It includes  Magatte Wade, entrepreneur, founder and CEO, The Tiosanno Tribe; Christian Klingler, member of the board of management, Volkswagen AG; Fadi Ghandour, founder and CEO, Aramex; Len Schlesinger, president, Babson College;  Hassan Al-Tawadi, secretary general, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee; Ana Dutra, CEO Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting; Amy Rosen, president and CEO, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship; Bruno Lafont, chairman and CEO, Lafarge; David Sproul, chief executive, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Regions; Jean-Pascal Tricoire, president and CEO, Schneider Electric; Sean C. Rush, president and CEO, JA Worldwide; and Shahid Ansari, Provost, Babson College.