CEMS Club Conference (CCC) for Spring 2019 was held at the Graduate School of Management (GSOM), St. Petersburg University (St. Petersburg, Russia) from March 1st to 2nd by the CEMS Club Support Function of the Student Board. The conference brought together 24 CEMS Club Presidents/Vice Presidents from around the world. CEMS Club Beijing Vice President, 2016 Class of MiM-CEMS program student Xu Wang attended the conference on behalf of CEMS Club Beijing.

St. Petersburg’s Meeting

During the two days' conference, current projects by the Student Board were reviewed and explained. Burning topics including cohort integration, corporate partner acquisition/retention, and alumni management were discussed. And special topics such as CEMS election & handover and CEMS Club financing were addressed. Meanwhile, 3 new projects (Regional Event Planner, CC Dashboard, Connecting “Heads”), and 3 initiatives (Responsible Leadership Ambassadors, CEMS Women Network, Sustainability) were introduced and called for involvement by the Student Board. These new schemes are designed to streamline the global coordination of CEMS Clubs, promote inter-club collaboration, and respond to the call for a responsible, fair, and sustainable leadership.

During the conference, Panel Discussions were held to address local issues, in which participants enthusiastically brainstormed and shared experience to solve issues ranging from events attendance to corporate partners/non-corporate partners management. Best practices were shared afterwards, allowing presidents to learn from others and leverage their ideas. As a creative session, Elevator Pitches invited several presidents to present their fresh ideas and initiatives, get valuable feedback and lay the groundwork for future cooperation. Presidents from CEMS Club Barcelona, St. Gallen, Rotterdam, and Vienna shared their new actions in sustainability, multi-committee events, handovers, and CEMS Welcome Week.

Corporate Partner Session with HILTI

A special session with CEMS Corporate Partner HILTI was held in the afternoon on March 1st, followed by a networking dinner. After a brief introduction of HILTI Group and HILTI Russia, managers from HILTI marketing department and HR department conducted a workshop on the topic of “Managing Multicultural and Virtual Teams”, where concepts of interpretation "filter", cognitive biases and the OSCAR Feedback Model were discussed, helping the presidents foster better cooperation within the global CEMS community.

2019 Spring CEMS Club Awards

The organization of the CEMS Club Awards consists of two parts: online voting and best practices. The online voting evaluates the club on 6 categories (Formal & informal social events, Raising awareness initiatives, Interactions with Alumni, Corporate Partner relations & career development, Communication and support from CEMS Club, Overall CEMS experience), and is conducted only towards students in their CEMS year. The best practices were divided into 6 categories, submitted by the presidents, shortlisted by the CEMS Club Support Team, and voted in the Student Board to generate winners of the semester.

The highlight of the last day of the conference was the announcement of 2019 Spring CEMS Club Awards. Congratulations to CEMS Club Vienna, Rotterdam and St. Gallen for their excellent jobs and winning the awards!

The two days'conference in St. Petersburg was fruitful and fulfilling, as it connected presidents from all around the world to share their fresh ideas and best practices. I can actually learn from their strengths to build our CEMS Club better, and meanwhile help them face their own challenges by leveraging our experience. The dedicated Student Board, CEMS Club Support Function Team and Corporate Partner HILTI opened a window for all the members to learn, to collaborate, and to grow. I truly enjoyed this global event and felt more than committed to make our CEMS Club Beijing better with the support of all our club members. Being a part of the CEMS Family is definitely one of the best experiences I have ever had at THU!

Xu Wang

CEMS Club Beijing Vice President

CEMS Club and CEMS Club Conference

The CEMS Club is an official representation of CEMS students from each University in the CEMS Global Alliance. The Club aims at providing a structure to unite CEMS students and help them make the most out of the CEMS experience and community, relying on the CEMS core values relating to global citizenship. There are CEMS Club Conferences held each year for the CEMS Club Presidents to share best practices, get insight into CEMS Head Office and Student Board projects, address common topics and network. It is a useful platform to meet and discuss common issues with other presidents while creating new relationships and a more cooperative environment across the CEMS Clubs.