133 participants from 32 countries around the world (Albania, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Brasilia, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Ukraine, United States, and Zimbabwe) attended the conference and related events.
The pre-conference events on Wednesday, 20 September included company visits. Participants had a chance to visit one of three Chinese giants; Alibaba, Geely or Wensly. Since Zhejiang province is known for its entrepreneurial spirit and it is called the Silicon Valley of China, the company visits gave a unique opportunity to look inside these very successful companies that represent Chinese economic growth and entrepreneurial revival.
On Wednesday afternoon, CEEMAN with the help of IMTA Alumnus, Dr. Zoltan Buzady, organized a poster session on the conference topic “Rethinking entrepreneurship – Challenges for Management Education in Rising Economies”. The session attracted much attention and presented an opportunity for faculty and researchers (nine presenters from five countries) to showcase their experience and best practices in teaching and research.
The first day of the conference, Thursday, 20 September started with individual Dean2Dean meetings where 13 deans and heads of institutions met to discuss areas of common interest and future cooperation.
The 25th CEEMAN Annual Conference was officially opened at 10.00 a.m. with welcome address by Wu Xiaobo, Professor and former dean of School of Management, Zhejiang University, who greeted the participants and introduced the distinguished guests that opened the conference: GUO Huawei, Director General of the Department of Education, Zhejiang Province, China; HAN Jie, Vice Director General of Department of Commerce, Zhejiang Province, China; and SONG Yonghua, Executive Vice President of Zhejiang University, China. Also, the Slovene ambassador in China, H. E. Mr. Janez Premože addressed the participants at the opening. Participants were also greeted on behalf of the organizing institutions by WEI Jiang, Dean of School of Management, Zhejiang University, and CEEMAN President, Prof. Danica Purg.
Dipak C. Jain, Former Director, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, delivered the first keynote of the conference on the conference topic where he presented the evolution of management education, key issues that the intuitions are facing and how business schools will need to evolve in the future.
SONG Juntao, CEO Assistant of Alibaba Group, China, presented Alibaba’s mission- developing conditions in which making business is easy and related initiatives encouraging and enabling the SMEs to grow global.
The first session after lunch Entrepreneurship development in China – issues and opportunities, moderated by CHEN Ling, Professor for Family Business and Business History, School of Management, Zhejiang University, brought together Chinese leaders of various institutions: HUANG Wei, Dean, School of Management at Xi’an Jiaotong University; GE Jianxin, Party Secretary, Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics; JIANG Wanjun, Dean, Xi'an Campus of Guanghua School of Management at Peking University; SHEN Kunrong, Dean, School of Business at Nanjing University, WANG Zongjun, Dean, School of Management at Huazhong University of Science & Technology; and ZHAO Lindu, Dean, School of Economics & Management, Southeast University.
The afternoon panel on Entrepreneurship development around the world, moderated by Vladimir Nanut, Dean of MIB Trieste School of Management and President of ASFOR united eastern and western perspectives, with Antonio Freitas, Provost, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil, WU Xiaobo, Professor and Former Dean, School of Management, Zhejiang University, China, Toomas Danneberg, Vice-Rector for International Relations, Estonian Business School, Estonia, Sergey Myasoedov, Vice-Rector of the Academy of the Russian President, Dean of IBS-Moscow, President of the Russian Association of Business Education (RABE), Russia and Andreas Antonopoulos, Rector of University of New York in Prague, Czech Republic.
Early evening of the first official conference day was reserved for Alenka Braček Lalić, CEEMAN IQA Director, and Derek Abell, CEEMAN Accreditation Committee President and CEEMAN Board member, who explained why excellence and relevance are the fundamental conditions of CEEMAN’s IQA Accreditation.
The second conference day, Friday, 22 September, started with a bonus session with Alenka Braček Lalić, CEEMAN IQA Director presenting latest developments and findings of CEEMAN Research on Assessing Management Development Needs.
The opening session of second conference day matched the perspectives of entrepreneurs and deans from different continents on Entrepreneurship development with Janez Škrabec, President, Riko d.o.o., Slovenia; CHEN Zongnian, Chairman, Hikvision, China; Assylbek Kozhakhmetov, President, AlmaU, Kazakhstan; and Irina Sennikova, Rector of RISEBA University of Business, Arts and Technology, Latvia. The panel was moderated by Derek Abell, Professor Emeritus at ESMT-European School of Management and Technology, CEEMAN IQA Accreditation Committee President, Germany.
After the coffee break followed two panels on Perspectives on Entrepreneurship by Multinational Company with keynotes by Iztok Seljak, President of Hidria, Slovenia and LI Jianhua, Chairman of the Board of Hangzhou Wensli Silk Culture Co., Ltd.
Friday lunch break gave participants opportunity to reflect and discuss about the sessions and panels.
The last part of the Conference started with video address by Peter McKiernan, Professor of Management, University of Strathclyde, UK who presented views on Vision of Responsible Research in Business and Management in which he illustrated the gap between Hoping for Relevance but Rewarding Productivity.
Drikus Kriek, CEEMAN Interim Director and Vice Dean for Pedagogy at IEDC-Bled School of Management, facilitated the session on Mapping Entrepreneurship Development Strategies for Business Schools in world café format.
The conclusion of the conference was drawn by ZHOU Weihua, Associate Dean, School of Management, Zhejiang University, China, who summed up all the main conclusions of the 25th CEEMAN Annual Conference.
Official part of CEEMAN Annual Conference came to an end with 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 23rd CEEMAN Case Writing Competition, organized in cooperation with Emerald Group Publishing and 2017 CEEMAN Champion Awards recipients.
In the coffee breaks, the participants had a chance to interact with international publishers and service providers, including ETS Global, GMAC, Harvard Business Publishing, and SP International LLC Hong Kong.
The 25th CEEMAN Annual Conference concluded with a Gala Dinner at the Hangzhou New Hotel. During the gala evening, the hosts organized an interesting cultural program during which the participants had a unique opportunity to see School of Management, Zhejiang University students’ dance and song performances, which offered an interesting insight into Chinese student life and Chinese culture.
On Saturday, 23 September, sightseeing program around the beautiful Hangzhou was offered during which the participants had a chance to see not only important sightseeing spots of modern and ancient Hangzhou, but also had a tour of the impressive and immense Zhejiang University Campus.
The conference proceedings will be published by the end of the year.
Join us next September in Prague, Czech Republic.