A November cornucopia of leadership conferences

November is here and that can mean only one thing: It’s almost December and almost 2013. But before we say a somewhat premature goodbye to 2012, say hello to these fine forums coming up in the next few weeks!

• Harvard Business School Cyberposium (November 4; Boston). Event program aims to provide an opportunity for MBA students, academics, and industry leaders to focus on the trends and ideas impacting technology and business. The program addresses topics such as content and distribution; new media industries; bandwidth; copyrights; storage; and data transmission. Read more.

• Women in Leadership Institute (November 7 – 9; San Francisco). Event is self-described as equipping “women leaders with the strategies and skills to catalyze change, accelerate development, gain visibility, and create sustainable operating results.” Event aims to provide guidance for F1000 women executives on how to improve their performance in their current jobs and how to develop the skills and abilities to move up to the next executive level.

• Fast Company Innovation Uncensored/San Francisco (November 8; San Francisco). Event focuses on the “groundbreaking business solutions across every industry” that are regularly discussed in the company’s magazine and on its Website. The program is self-described as “a day full of provocative thinking and great workable business ideas” and aims to “give attendees live access to top business visionaries and the companies to watch.”

• Triple Bottom Line Conference Europe (November 8 – 9; Zurich). Event is self-described as “the leading annual environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and impact investing networking and learning event in Europe” and aims to bring together asset owners and asset managers for education and networking around sustainable investment issues. Topic areas of interest are integrated reporting in Europe; integrating ESG into portfolios; how hedging can be ESG-compatible; fund performance and structure; post-Fukushima – alternative energy in Europe; and low carbon investment. Read more.

• Wall Street Journal CEO Council Annual Meeting (November 12 – 13; Washington, DC). Event is an exclusive gathering of chief executives of global businesses personally invited by WSJ editors to meet with a goal to “develop a tangible, ranked list of priorities in the areas that are most important to the strength of business and the economy.” Topic areas for 2012 include energy; healthcare; economic growth; corporate finance; and big data. Read more.

• GreenBiz Verge San Francisco (November 12 – 13; San Francisco). Event focuses on the convergence of energy, IT, and sustainability. The program reviews new products and services from a senior management perspective focus, with specific coverage in such areas as sustainable cities and how cities are engaging with service providers.

• Washington Ideas Forum (November 13 – 15; Washington, DC). Event aspires to bring together a group of “newsmakers, industry innovators, and leading journalists for two days of debate, conversation, and idea-sharing.” Topics covered at the forum include the current and future state of politics, business, media, education and the non-profit sector within the US and throughout the world.

• United Nations Climate Change Conference—COP 18/CMP 8 (November 26 – December 7; Doha, Qatar). The 2012 COP gathering is the 18th meeting of the governing Conference of the Parties since the UNFCCC adoption in 1994. The forum will also be the 8th Conference for the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, referred to as “CMP 8.” The conference agenda, which typically includes several hundred sessions, includes discussions of the Convention’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), as well as bilateral and multilateral meetings dealing with assorted climate change issues. Read more.

• Business for the Environment Climate Summit (November 26 – 27; London). Event aims to “gather thought leaders from industry, government and NGOs to share innovations and strategies for achieving zero-based targets and transformative climate solutions.” Policy discussions are designed to lead directly to recommendations for action on the part of businesses and governments, and these are subsequently presented to attendees at the UN’s COP 18 meeting (see above). Accordingly, a segment of the first day’s agenda is given over to working group discussions around a range of policy topics, with the intended deliverable being “business policy recommendations and commitments on climate action.”

• Sustainable Brands Conference London (November 27 – 28; London). Event focuses on “how better brands will shape the future by keeping tabs on the changing playing field, and how to make smarter strategic moves, and leverage game thinking and play to spur creativity and innovation, teamwork, customer engagement and loyalty, and behavior change for the better.” The program focuses on such topics as growing shared value through collaboration within a value network; building business value while encouraging sustainable consumption; and sustainability disruptors look to reshape the future.

• Bloomberg BusinessWeek Global Green Business Summit (December 4; Singapore). Event aims to “gather policy makers and international business leaders to examine and discuss proven green solutions, their practicality, and the impact on the economy.” The event’s agenda examines such topics as lighting: the LED revolution; bringing the first generation of electric vehicles to scale; and the infrastructure challenge; while also placing a special focus on host country Singapore. Read more.

Noteworthy conferences beginning agenda planning this month

• Stanford Graduate School of Business’ Center for Entrepreneurial Studies will begin agenda development for its Stanford Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Conference being held in March 2013. Event is a one-day student-run program held on the Stanford University campus and sponsored by the GSB’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES) and Entrepreneur Club. The program’s goal is to provide entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and students with information for evaluating and developing new opportunities and ideas.

• Forbes will begin developing the agenda for its Business Leadership Forum being held in April 2013. Event aims to “provide executives and business leaders key insights on how to best compete in today’s fast-changing business environment.” The event’s program examines “how IT, combined with business best practices, can help satisfy elemental and urgent needs of business today.” Read more.

• Global Reporting Initiative will begin solidifying the agenda for its Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting scheduled for May 22 – 24, 2013 in Amsterdam. Event aims to provide attendees with “practical tools to ensure sustainability reporting leads to transparency, accountability, and improved sustainability performance” and “develop a common reporting language.” The program includes topical sessions based on major issues of the day; “Learning sessions” that cover such topics as the business case for sustainability reporting; and an “Academic Conference” that features debates on topics such as assurance of sustainability reporting, carbon disclosure, NGO accountability and carbon performance and measurement.

• Richard Attias & Associates will begin agenda planning for its New York Forum taking place in May 2013. Event is self-described as “a call for action by the business community to reinvigorate the economy and to find new confidence and credibility.” The one-day agenda consists of a series of solo presentations in the morning session by eminent government officials, corporate executives, academics, and others, followed by an afternoon of taskforce meetings designed to identify “a set of practical, actionable steps for organizations’ leadership teams that will be prerequisites or catalysts for success in the near and long term.” Read more.