The Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University (GSOM SPbU) for the first time held a meeting of the GSOM Family Global alumni community in an online format. The event brought together 430 alumni, students, faculty and partners of the Business School from 19 countries.

 

“This year we transformed the global alumni meeting and, thanks to the online format, we were able to come together, despite different countries, time zones and closed borders. This was impossible to imagine before! In 2019, we began to discuss the development strategy of the Business School for the next five years. The result of our joint work is already visible today, we have begun to implement the new mission of GSOM — to create knowledge, develop leaders and change the world for the better. And at this new stage in the development of the Business School, the GSOM mascot — the polar owl Freddie — returned to us. Let this become a symbol of the new achievements of GSOM and the GSOM Family community, because the success of the Business School is the success of its alumni. Thanks to everyone who participates in the development of GSOM SPbU: only together we can achieve the most ambitious goals,” said Olga Dergunova, Deputy President - Chairman of the Board of VTB Bank, Director of GSOM SPbU at the opening of the conference.

 

The central panel session "Anti-crisis management: the virus as a trigger for big changes" became the most attended section of the conference. Top managers of the largest Russian and international companies discussed the impact of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus on various business areas: FMCG, e-commerce, telecom. The experts reviewed the changes that have taken place not only within organizations, but also in the market as a whole, tools and practices for adapting to the new reality.

 

The PINE platform chosen for the event allowed participants to switch between parallel panel discussions: “FinTech in banking: how innovation is changing the financial sphere”, “The future of marketing in the context of new technologies” and “Entrepreneurship without borders: how to do business in Russia and in the world?".

 

Debates became a new format of the conference: alumni of the Business School, representatives of Russian and foreign corporations and startups shared their arguments in favor of building a career in a corporation or starting their own business.

 

Consultants and business coaches held a series of workshops where they talked about the impact of uncertainty on leaders and the creation of effective management teams, shared universal approaches to conscious movement towards a better life and the basics of information "hygiene".

 

In total, GSOM Family Global was attended by 30 speakers from 10 countries: the USA, China, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Finland, Hungary, France, and representatives of more than 10 partner companies of the event — MegaFon, Lenta, P&G, L'Oreal, VTB, Skillbox, Coca-Cola, MARS, Uniqlo and others.

 

During the conference, 9096 rubles were raised for care of the GSOM SPbU mascot – owl Freddie: this amount will cover the cost of feeding and caring for the totem bird for two months. You can always find out the latest news and support the project at GSOM web.

 

Read more about panel discussions and feedback from GSOM Family Global members in the final materials.