Students of Business Administration visited the World Business Dialogue in Cologne, Germany

April 1, 2015

In March 8^th, 2015 students of Business Administration from AUCA visited the World Business Dialogue in Cologne, Germany, which is one of the largest international student-run business conventions worldwide. The trip was supported by the Student Intellectual Life Committee (SILC) grant, which supports student-initiated projects, professional development opportunities, and student research. It awards small grants every month to AUCA students. The goal of SILC is to promote excellence in research, learning, and overall intellectual development of students at AUCA.

The purpose of SILC is based on the acknowledgement that student’s scholarly experience is an integral component of Liberal Arts Education, and that such research-based learning will better prepare students to fulfill their plans, aspirations, goals and dreams. 

Adel Sultanbekova, junior student of Business Administration who was also the one to receive grant from SILC shared with us her impressions about the visit to Cologne, Germany.

“The World Business Dialogue is the largest international student-run business convention worldwide which takes place every year in Cologne, Germany. It creates a multicultural dialogue across generations and hosts, and exciting discussions between international students, experienced executives and the world’s top-class speakers. Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg (Mayor of New York City) or Dr. Josef Ackermann (former CEO of Deutsche Bank) count among the most notable speakers from previous editions. This year’s topic 'Power to the people: Redefining interdependencies in a trembling world' attracted 250 students from 60 countries, 45 pioneering speakers in their field and many well-known and innovative companies on March 12^th and 13^th. In an world changing faster than ever before, the WBD 2015 focused on changing power structures between today’s world players. The conference had three main panels: Employer vs. Employee, Politics vs. Economy and Business vs. Customer.

Inspiring discussions included topics such as power of hidden champions, mobility, logistics, micro-entrepreneurs, corporate responsibility, sustainability, robots, software, digital transformation, global leadership, innovation culture, and customer engagement. Former Prime Minister of Netherlands, German government and top management representatives from companies like BMW Group, Ford, Yandex, Bayer, Henkel, Detecon International, Ernst&Young, Simon-Kucher & Partners, and Boston Consulting Group gave interesting and inspiring talks. One of the most valuable guests, Hal Varian, chief economist of Google and emeritus at the University of Berkeley, California, took part in the public panel on digital absolutism.  Another memorable event from the conference was an impressive Ford Motor company tour that showed what a lean manufacturing actually is. Some additional benefits the conference provided were a chance to apply for internships at partnering companies. 

I was able to meet truly incredible students from Yale and Harvard universities working on their startups or, despite their young age, successfully developing businesses. This gives a great motivation to work harder in order to keep up with them and the fast changing world as a whole.

Another interesting memory from my trip is the Microsoft company tour. After the conference, I met a WBD participant working for Microsoft in Seattle, and who was planning a visit of the office branch in Berlin. Thanks to her, I was able to get a truly inspiring glimpse inside one of the best IT companies. The company really values its outstanding employees.  From the award wall in the office, I could notice that some people have worked there for 10, 15 or even 20 years. This did not surprise me given the impressive work environment and conditions. This mini company tour was another valuable experience from my trip to WBD, proving one more time that networking really matters.

I encourage AUCA students to apply to the conference as Dialogue Project participants. During two months, Dialogue Project participants can experience intense business exposure by working on real business cases provided by partnering companies and thus. This is a great way not just participate in the panels but also contribute to the conference itself Participation of Dialogue Project students is fully sponsored by the chosen partnering company.  

Overall, WBD is a unique opportunity to approach representatives of the global economy and to establish contact with motivated fellow students from around the world. It is also a great chance to learn new skills from workshops, gather new inspirations from talks and panel discussions, meet well-known company representatives and leaders of tomorrow to analyze and discuss current innovations, social trends, new business models and other important topics in today's economy.

This valuable event greatly broadened my vision and showed new heights to strive for.  I would like to thank AUCA for granting me such opportunity. In fact, the trip would not have been possible without support from SILC. It is truly pleasant to realize that university fully supports students’ participation in extracurricular activities.”

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