Over 160 participants from 34 countries around the world (Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe) attended the conference and related events.
The pre-conference events on Wednesday, 28 September included 2nd PRME CEE Chapter Meeting, Individual Dean2Dean meetings, presentations by partners (Peregrine Academic Services, Accezz International and AACSB International Business Intelligence Services). On Wednesday afternoon, CEEMAN with the help of IMTA Alumni organized for the first time a poster session “My Solution to Educational Challenges in the Digital World”. The session attracted much attention and presented an opportunity for faculty and researchers (nine presenters from seven countries) to showcase their experience and best practices in teaching and research.
On Thursday, 29 September the participants first attended the session on preliminary findings of CEEMAN Research on Management Development Needs in Dynamically Changing Societies that attracted much attention as the research in being conducted in 19 countries with more than 30 partners involved.
Since Estonia has a strong information technology sector and has been mentioned as the most "wired" and advanced country in Europe in the terms of e-Government and successful tech start-ups and initiatives, the conference participants had the opportunity to experience it first-hand at the Experiential Workshop “Digital Realities”. During the workshop they attended a presentation about various Estonian e-solutions at e-Estonia showroom, followed by meetings with successful high-tech and start-up companies (Fortumo, Linguist, Skeletontech, Mooncascade, Ziraff, Cybernetica, Rubik's Solutions), and concluded with a brainstorming session (mini-
hackaton) led by Garage48 Hub.
The official opening of the 24th CEEMAN Annual Conference that took place on Thursday afternoon set the mood for the conference with interesting contributions of keynote speakers. Vice-Rector for Research at Tallinn University of Technology Renno Veinthal talked about Estonian education system and the influence of digitalization. Taimar Peterkop, Director General of the Information System Authority, talked about how Estonia creates conditions and engages various stakeholders for digital innovations and entrepreneurship while Erki Urva, the Chairman of the Management Board of the Estonian Information Technology Foundation for Education HITSA, presented the opportunities and challenges the increasingly digital world brings to educators.
The second conference day, Friday, 30 September started with a session on the new framework of the CEEMAN’s International Quality Accreditation (IQA) with Alenka Braček Lalić, CEEMAN IQA Director, and Derek Abell, CEEMAN Accreditation Committee President and CEEMAN Board member.
Friday continuation of the conference was opened by the conference chairperson, Sergei Filonovich, Dean, National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Russia who passed his word to the moderators of the three panels that followed during the day. The first panel, Business Keynotes: Digitalization and Its Impact on Business School Markets and Competition was moderated by Seán Meehan, Martin Hilti Professor of Marketing and Change Management, CEEMAN Board member, IMD, Switzerland and included contributions of Thomas Marschall, Disruption Advisor, Business Angel Investor, Denmark; Ratko Mutavdzic, Director Cloud Services, Microsoft CEE, Croatia, and Kaspars Kaulins, Country Manager, Pedersen & Partners, Estonia/Latvia. Each of the panelists presented their views, from business/strategy perspective to technology perspective and HR perspective. View key insights from the business panel
The second panel on Management Education and Research for a Digital World – Content was moderated by Toomas Danneberg, Vice-Rector for International Relations, Estonian Business School, Estonia. During the panel the participants had the chance to hear more of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) integration in education from Holger Patzelt, Vice Dean Academic Affairs, TUM School of Management, Germany; on Data Analytics: A new imperative in business education from Eitel J.M. Lauría, Director, Graduate Programs, School of Computer Science and Mathematics, Marist College, USA; Nicola Kleyn, Dean, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa, presented her views on the importance of leveraging the greater context in order to maximise a business school’s impact, while Venus Lun, Associate Head of the Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong/China talked about boosting problem-solving skills by instilling glocal mindset. View insights from the panel
Rein Riisalu, business consultant, faculty member at TSEBA, Estonia moderated the third panel on Management Education and Research for a Digital World – Process in which Niko Slavnič, business owner, business angel/investor, and educator from Slovenia talked about creating unicorn leaders by combining start up practice and business school theory; Assylbek Kozhakhmetov, President of Almaty Management University, Kazakhstan presented the role of knowledge management in developing modern universities; Ivo Matser, CEO, ISM University of Management and Economics, Lithuania introduced how university operations could be boosted with the help of technology; and Peter McKiernan, Strathclyde University, UK, talked about management research relevance. View insights from the panel
Alenka Braček Lalić, CEEMAN IQA Director and lead research investigator, and Andrew Main Wilson, AMBA CEO and current PRME Steering Committee Chair, shared some insights and reflections from the preliminary results of CEEMAN research on Management Development Needs, while Sophia Opatska, Dean of Lviv Business School and Yaroslav Pavlov, Director of Distance Learning Programs and IBS-Moscow, RANEPA, presented their impressions and learning points from the experiential workshop.
Speakers’ presentations and videos with main points from the panels are available on the CEEMAN conference website (http://www.ceeman.org/conference), Materials section.
The conference closed with the CEEMAN Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony, where certificates were delivered to new CEEMAN members, schools that have acquired the IQA Accreditation, and to the winners of the 22nd CEEMAN Case Writing Competition, organized in cooperation with Emerald Group Publishing and 2016 CEEMAN Champion Awards recipients.
In the coffee breaks, the participants had a chance to interact with international publishers and service providers, including Peregrine Academic Services, Microsoft, AACSB International, Accezz International, EFMD, CarringtonCrisp and others.
The 24th CEEMAN Annual Conference concluded with a Gala Dinner at the stunning Seaplane Harbor where the participants had a unique opportunity to climb aboard a submarine and see other genuine items such as icebreakers, seaplanes and other maritime models, and were entertained with Estonian folk song and dance performances, as well as appearance of the legendary Estonian pop singer Anne Veski.
On Saturday TSEBA organized a sightseeing program around the charming Tallinn Old Town and most important sightseeing spots, as well as a tour of the Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration.
Speakers’ presentations and video collections are available at www.ceeman.org/conference, while the conference proceedings will be published by the end of the year.
Join us next September in Hangzhou, China!
The 25th CEEMAN Annual Conference will be hosted by School of Management, Zhejiang University and will discuss the topic of “Rethinking Entrepreneurship: Challenges for Business Schools”.