XX Jubilee International MBA Congress

The XX Jubilee International MBA Congress was held on May 17-19, 2024, organized by the Krakow School of Business at the Krakow University of Economics. This is the largest event in Poland integrating the community of MBA students and graduates as well as middle and senior managers from various industries. This year’s edition was attended by over 300 people in total, and the main theme was “AI Powered Management – Evolution or Revolution?”.

The event touched upon current issues related to Artificial Intelligence, which in recent years has accompanied us at every stage of both our professional and private lives. Congress participants had an amazing opportunity to confront their views on the use of artificial intelligence in management with practitioners, experts, entrepreneurs, and scientists. The event included panel discussions, during which participants had the opportunity to exchange experiences in the use of machine learning tools, ask difficult, discussion-provoking questions and look for answers together.

This year’s edition of the International MBA Congress was opened by the Vice-President of the City of Krakow, Assoc. Prof. Stanisław Mazur, Ph. D., and the Director of the Krakow School of Business Assoc. Prof. Marcin Jędrzejczyk, Ph D. The event was inaugurated with a speech by Mr. Jarosław Królewski (CEO/co-founder of Synerise.  Wisła Kraków Football Club CEO/Owner.) entitled “Why We Need Inhuman AI.”

The XX Jubilee International MBA Congress included 3 thematic panels:

1. AI Powered Innovations in the Digital Transformation (Moderator: Paweł Morawski, Ph. D. – Director of the Integrated Management MBA Program at KSB KUE; Speakers: Raphaël Lemay – AI CoE Lead, Euroclear, Jarosław Dudoń – FCCA, Cisco and Krystyna Jarek, founder of Booster of Innovation),
2. Beyond the Hype: Real-World AI for Marketing Success (Moderator: Assoc. Prof. Katarzyna Sanak-Kosmowska, Ph. D. – Director of the MBA KSB + Clark Master Program at KSB KUE; Speakers: Anna Gasiorowska – CEO, ARIBO, Jacek Zielonka – CEO, PTR Digital and Jakub Ogiński – CMO, ATERIMA Group)

• The Strategic Issues of People Management in AI context (Moderator: Assoc. Prof. Beata Buchelt, Ph. D. – Director of the MBA in Healthcare Program at KSB KUE; Speakers: Anna Polak – Holistic Trainer, Mindfulness Certified Teacher (MBLC), Joanna Kotzian – Co-founder, Well.hr and Sławomir Czuż – Regional Delivery Head, LTIMindtree)

In addition to thematic discussion panels, participants of the MBA Congress could take part in various program points:

Lightning Talks – inspired by Ted Talks, on the first day of the Congress, participants could listen to 4 prepared short speeches covering the topic of Artificial Intelligence. The speakers included:

1. Andrzej Mikolajczak – Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Euroclear SA Krakow Branch Manager and Michał Paprocki Group Chief Information Officer (CIO), Group Management Committee Member at Euroclear with a speech entitled “May the Force Be with You: The Bright and The Dark Sides of GenAI”,
2. Wojciech Czakon – Chair of the Department of Strategic Management, Jagiellonian University in Krakow with a speech entitled “Why is the AI ​​revolution not taking off?”,
3. Agostinho Abrunhosa – Associate Professor from AESE Business School in Portugal (partner school of the Executive MBA Program at KSB KUE) with a speech entitled “Reimagining Business Beyond ChatGPT”,
4. Krzysztof Wojewodzic – AI R&D Architect and CEO of ESCOLA S.A. with a speech entitled “Everything Is Changing in AI, except of these 7 things.”

Workshops – as part of the event, our participants had the opportunity to take part in the practical part conducted by trainers with extensive professional experience. As every year, the Congress is a great opportunity to further improve your skills and broaden your horizons thanks to workshops attended by representatives of various industries. As part of this year’s event, we organized 7 workshops:

1. Strategic Leadership in AI/ML: A Comprehensive Framework from Solution Scoping to Deployment (Rostyslav Apostol)
2. Acting Workshop for business people (Don Allen)
3. TechPower – how to use GenAI in advertising? (Michal Domański)
4. Creative Experiments Workshop (Jowita Skalska and Marta Mleczko from Vivid Atelier)
5. Managing employee well-being – how is it possible? (Joanna Kotzian)
6. ATTENTION – attraction, retention, manipulation (Łukasz Czyż)
7. Mindfulness in Life and Leadership (Anna Polak)

Networking & Gala Dinner – during the Congress, participants also had the opportunity to exchange thoughts and experiences during free discussions and establish new business contacts. An important event on the first day is the annual Gala Dinner combined with a charity auction. This year works of art and items of special artistic value were auctioned, and the collected funds amounted to over PLN 56,000. PLN will be allocated to the Psychiatry Clinical Department for Adults, Children, and Youth University Hospital in Krakow.

The unique event closing the Congress was a family picnic organized at the Royal Kraków Golf & Country Club in Ochmanów, near Krakow. The picnic is both a great opportunity to strengthen integration between Congress participants and the opportunity to take the first steps in playing golf. A special point of the program was the tournament for the KSB UEK Director’s Cup, which was won by the graduate of the 26th edition of the Executive MBA Program, Ms. Anna Rzemieniec.

This year’s MBA Congress was a great success, and the accompanying Charity Auction had an incredible outcome. We would like to thank the entire team responsible for organizing the event, which included: Krystian Bigos, Ph.D., Katarzyna Lipińska, Martyna Frydrychowska-Bogacka, Łukasz Czyż, Gabriela Paleta, Agnieszka Żur, Ph.D., Paweł Morawski, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. Katarzyna Sanak-Kosmowska, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. Beata Buchelt, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof.  Marcin Jędrzejczyk, Ph.D., Monika Bulsza, and a team of KSB UEK Apprentices.

We cordially invite you to the XXI Edition next year!