OPINION
The countdown continues to our LARGEST EVENT IN THREE YEARS
CEO’S COLUMN
Andrew Main Wilson outlines the preparations taking place ahead of the AMBA & BGA Global Conference 2022 in Lisbon – our first in-person conference since 2019
hen you read these words, there will be just six weeks to go until the AMBA & BGA Global Conference, taking place in
sense of this time of flux, to recognising the innovations we can share as a global community, and to preparing together for the next phase of challenges we will face together. In Lisbon, our speakers will be tackling issues such as defining the innovation cycle through uncertainty, disruption, remoteness, and a pandemic and asking why innovation is a societal issue and not a tech one. We will be also addressing the urgent action needed in terms of the climate emergency and finding out how Business Schools can lead the way in developing responsible, diverse, leaders of the future, and the tools needed for the challenge ahead. And we will be unveiling and explaining AMBA & BGA joint accreditation and the updated criteria, as well as debating what the new normal will look like for business education and exploring opportunities in lifelong – and now ‘lifewide’ – learning. We will be asking whether MBA programmes are still ahead of the curve in the business world and tailored to students’ needs. I have no doubt that the conference will represent a busy four days, but we’ve punctuated
these important conversations with luxury networking lunches, dinners, and tours so there will be ample time to digest the topics – alongside some delicious meals – in inspiring contemporary and historic venues, while catching up with other members of our network with whom you might not have spoken since the start of the pandemic. As the AMBA and BGA networks continue to grow, with BGA in particular drawing in more and more international Business Schools, the conference will provide you with the opportunity to make new contacts from all corners of the globe. So far, geopolitics and uncertainty have dominated the news agenda for most of 2022, with unrest taking the headlines away from Covid-19 (to which we had sadly become accustomed) but AMBA’s ethos is one of inclusivity, of diversity, of collaboration, and of responsible management, so, as always, our conference is an opportunity for the AMBA & BGA family – as a global force for good – to work together to explore solutions, as we always have done... and always will do.
Lisbon, Portugal, from 15-18 May this year. We’re approaching the final stages of preparation for this unique event. While, we hosted world-class virtual conferences, forums, summits, webinars and other events from the beginning of the pandemic, you could say that this particular in-person event represents three years of planning. We’ve worked to bring our network together in one place, to experience ground breaking thought leadership, and reconnect face to face after years of lockdowns and restrictions. I know from receiving many personal messages from across the AMBA family, that you’re looking forward to being together as much as we are to welcoming you. Since our last conference in Istanbul in 2019, our world has changed beyond recognition, and much of the conference programme in Lisbon will be dedicated to making
Andrew Main Wilson, CEO, AMBA & BGA
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