The conference opened on September 24 with the Deans and Directors Meeting, chaired by Prof Jim Ellert, Former Dean of Faculty and Professor Emeritus at IMD Lausanne, which focused on “Business Schools Responses to Global Crisis”. Milenko Gudic, Managing Director of CEEMAN’s IMTA, and Al Rosenbloom, Professor at Dominican University, US, presented the findings of the CEEMAN Survey on Business Schools Responses to Global Crisis, conducted in August and September this year, while deans from business schools from Latvia, Russia, Lithuania and Turkey presented their experience and challenges in dealing with the crisis by developing appropriate responses to meet customers’ needs and the institutional needs of business schools. This was followed by roundtable discussions, which enabled small group discussions and plenary presentations of their results. Dr Manuel Escudero, Special Adviser to the United Nations Global Compact, Head of PRME Secretariat, and Executive Director of Research Center for the Global Compact, USA talked about the importance of the PRME (Principles of Responsible Management Education) initiative and a commended CEEMAN’s pioneering role in it. The meeting was a very interactive event, with a lot of insights coming both from the speakers as also from the audience.

The 17th CEEMAN Annual Conference was opened later that day by Danica Purg, CEEMAN President, and Boriss Kurovs, RISEBA Rector, followed by a presentation on current situation in the Baltic countries by Mr Andris Vilks, Chief Economist at SEB Bank and advisor to the Prime Minister of Latvia. The main conference day started with a CEO panel with Katrine Judovica (Chairperson of the Board, Narvesen Baltija Ltd, Latvia), Janez Škrabec (General Director, Riko, Slovenia), George Logush (Vice President, Kraft Foods, Ukraine), Gleb Ibragimov (Vice-President, Diana Holding, Russia) and Matej Potokar (CEO, Microsoft, Slovenia). The panel, moderated by Virginijus Kundrotas, President of Baltic Management Development Association, presented corporate views on the crisis and the role of business schools in this respect.

The conference then continued with a brief summary of the Deans and Directors Meeting discussions by Jim Ellert, while the highlight of the event was the keynote speech of Prof Nancy Adler, S. Bronfman Chair in Management, McGill University, Canada, a leading authority on cross-cultural management and organizational development, who highlighted the interconnectedness of everything in our lives and importance of responsible actions by individuals, companies, governments and management development institutions.

The moderators of the four parallel workshops presented then specific issues related to the respective educational programs: undergraduate, MBA, executive education, and corporate programs. Prof Derek Abell, Professor Emeritus of ESMT – European School of Management Technology, summarized the conference deliberations in a concluding word on Commonalities and Local Responses from Governments, Businesses, and Business Schools.

The conference concluded with a great gala dinner at the historical Blackheads’ House in the center of Riga, where Dr Ichak Adizes delivered an inspiring and provocative talk on Leadership in the Times of Crisis and What CEEMAN Could Do About It. During the gala dinner several awards were delivered: Prof Danica Purg, CEEMAN President presented certificates to new CEEMAN members; Prof Randy Kudar, CEEMAN Accreditation Director delivered CEEMAN IQA (International Quality Accreditation) certificate to RISEBA for being reaccredited for another period of six years; and Prof Vladimir Nanut, head of CEEMAN Case Writing Competition Jury presented the award to the competition winner Francis Bidault of ESMT, Germany and thanked Emerald Publishing Limited for supporting the competition.

On Saturday, CEEMAN Annual Meeting was held, where CEEMAN presented its achievements and developments in the past year and presented plans for the future to its members and welcomed their ideas and suggestions. The participants of the meeting congratulated CEEMAN on excellent work done, and enthusiastically supported all new initiatives, including IMTA modules on the educational material development, further CEEMAN involvement in the PRME initiative, the development of the new CEEMAN portal, and the launch of the global youth competition Challenge:Future, founded by Third Millennium Knowledge company (Slovenia), CEEMAN and IEDC-Bled School of Management (www.challengefuture.org).

In the Information Session on CEEMAN IQA, Randy Kudar emphasized the need for a continuous self-improvement process which is promoted and facilitated through CEEMAN IQA accreditation process, which in turn provides an important marketing tool for accredited management development institutions.

The sightseeing tour on Saturday afternoon was an opportunity to learn more about the Latvian history and culture and to experience the beauty of the fascinating Riga city. Informal discussions in such an inspiring environment strengthened the old and established new friendships within the growing CEEMAN family, while also resulting in new joint initiatives and projects among CEEMAN members and other institutions which participated in the event.

“Your Conference was a wonderful occasion: dynamic panels and provocative and rigorous speakers, - all of it providing food for thought,- combined with friendly and thriving leisure moments, such as the Gala so well conducted by Irina [Sennikova] and Danica [Purg]. All in all the conference was a great opportunity to get to know many interesting people, and certainly I have brought back to the UN and PRME a lot of new insight into crucial problems - such as CSR implementation - which is a contribution that one does not find in many other academic conferences.”
Dr Manuel Escudero, Special Adviser to the United Nations Global Compact, Head, PRME Secretariat and Executive Director, Research Center for the Global Compact 

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Deans and Directors Meeting: Global Crisis and Business School Responses

Global Crisis and Management Education: Challenges and Opportunities

Al Rosenbloom and Milenko Gudić (findings from the CEEMAN Survey on Business Schools Responses to Global Crisis)

Responding to Customers Needs: Implications for Faculty, Research, Educational Programs

Al Rosenbloom A Look at Curriculum, Faculty and Research (findings from the CEEMAN Survey on Business Schools Responses to Global Crisis)

Leonid Evenko Russian Business Schools in the Time of Credit Crunch

Responding to Internal Business Needs: Institutional Responses

Milenko Gudić A Look at Institutional Viability (findings from the CEEMAN Survey on Business Schools Responses to Global Crisis)

Nerijus Pačesa Institutional responses to changing internal needs: ISM case

Nakiye Boyacigiller Business School Responses to the Global Crisis: The Case of Turkey

PRME in Response to Global Crisis

Manuel Escudero

17th CEEMAN Annual Conference: Local Responses to Global Crisis

Andris Vilks Political-Economic Realities in the Baltic Region

George Logush Corporate Views on Global Crisis: Threats and Opportunities

Fedor Ragin Summary from a parallel workshop "How are Business Schools Dealing with Global Crisis: Educational and Institutional Challenges - Executive Programs"

All presentations will be available in video format shortly on

www.videolectures.net/ceeman

Contact: ceeman@iedc.si, Tel +386 4 57 92 505, Fax +386 4 57 92 501

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