Every year, the Presidents from each CEMS Club gather in a unique city for the annual CEMS Club Conference. The main objective of this event is to share best practices between each other and the student board. Presidents are sponsored their flights to the conference andit is one of the highlights of being a CEMS Club President. This blog explains how the conference went this year, before the storm of Covid-19 hit most countries.
24 CEMS Club Presidents and 3 organising members from the Student Board gathered in the beautiful city of Warsaw for the Spring 2020 CCC this year. Due to the special situation of corona virus, not everybody could attend in person, but luckily our CEMS Club Dublin President, Kat Cupova was able to fly for the weekend and represent us. During the two-day conference, Presidents and Student Board Representatives shared best practices on event management, sustainability efforts, and club management while also discussing local and global issues impacting the world and the CCs around the world. The conference was supported by CEMS Corporate Partner ZEB consulting who sponsored the winners of the CEMS Club Awards.
Student Board Representatives welcomed the Presidents to the conference. This was followed by an opening remark on SGH and Warsaw by Grzegorz Augustyniak (CEMS Programme Manager at SGH), Aneta Szydlowska (CEMS Corporate Relations Manager at SGH) and Hanna Siuta (President of the CEMS Club Warsaw). Then each of the 24 Presidents from around the world had the chance to introduce themselves and their CEMS Club.
The session then proceeded with information sharing and a workshop where Presidents came together in teams to discuss the challenges faced within CEMS Clubs and how to overcome them. ZEB consulting then presented the awaited CEMS Club Awards, after a brief introduction to their company and their long-lasting relationship to the CEMS Alliance. Through a livestream on the @cems_alliance Instagram page, students around the world had the chance to follow ZEB, as they announced the final winners of the CEMS Club Awards (HSG (1st Place), NUS (2nd place), and WU (3rd place)). Congratulations to the winners, who will receive sponsorship by ZEB for their efforts and diligent work in the previous semester!
After productive discussions and informative presentations by the CEMS Global Office, the day was closed with a sustainable vegetarian dinner with traditional Polish specialties.
The second day was about spreading information about the different initiatives taken by CEMS and the Student Board regarding the continuous improvement of the program. Academic development, interactions with Corporate Partners and Alumni, and the ET20 strategy were three of the main issues discussed. This was followed by a finance workshop on how to manage funding of CEMS Clubs and elevator pitches by Presidents suggesting new ideas to execute globally. The pitches had a strong focus on possible collaborations between CEMS Clubs and how Clubs can facilitate the integration of students in their city. During a “burning issues session”, immediate concerns were addressed, including how to attract exchange students and how to optimise communication with Corporate Partners.
This valuable information gathered each year is in attempt to further improve the CEMS Clubs in following years, helping to create the best experience possible for CEMsies around the world.