More than 800 people were the guests at the anniversary of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University. On September 23, alumni, teachers, partners, students, applicants and friends of the Business School gathered at the Mikhailovskaya Dacha campus. There was an interesting activity for everyone.

In addition to the business and festive program, GSOM SPbU guests were treated to workshops, quests, business games, cases, and public talk.

At the “Ups & Downs: True Stories of a Career Path” section, Business School alumni spoke about their first steps in their careers, the challenges they faced, and, of course, successes.

Over 30 years, more than 9.5 thousand people have graduated from the Business School, most of whom are now working in senior positions in international and domestic companies, government agencies and public organizations. Who shared their stories: Ekaterina Senicheva, product manager at Yandex.Food, Lidiya Sycheva, brand manager at CUS, Grigory Lyubachev, co-founder of the corporate messenger “Pachka”, Oleg Zemskov, executive director, Agile Transformation Department of Gazprombank.

“I am grateful to GSOM SPbU for friends, family, and of course for world-class education and the best teachers!”, “GSOM SPbU gave absolutely everything, I even found my last job through the Business School chat. Thank you for the amazing connections!” “GSOM St. Petersburg State University opened the world for me,” said alumni.

When some graduates shared personal experiences, others discussed effective leadership tools. A team brainstorm with elements of design thinking “Team Management in the New Reality” brought together those who think about work even during a holiday.

Another serious topic was discussed at the meeting of the Business Club of alumni and students of MBA/EMBA programs. Now business means, on the one hand, a high level of flexibility and speed of decision-making, and on the other, a properly built strategy and long-term planning. How to combine speed and strategic planning without making mistakes? Participants in the discussion “Company Strategy: New Trends” tried to answer this question.

For those who are interested in modern teaching methods, the Center for Teaching Excellence in Business Education at GSOM SPbU held a workshop “Difficult Students. Who are they, and what should the teacher do with them?

Those who wanted to escape from serios topics could mint a commemorative coin as a souvenir and admire the work of the scribe artist, who collected all the important meanings about GSOM SPbU from the guests of the holiday, visualized them and embodied them right in front of the audience into a large-scale work.

You could learn more about the Business School on a campus tour: the ultra-modern dormitories of the Mikhailovskaya Dacha were open that day to everyone. And participants in excursions to hybrid classrooms learned about the technological innovations of GSOM SPbU. Currently, the Business School has 4 classrooms for classes in a hybrid format, and a 5th hybrid classroom for group work is a new development by the Business School team. The classroom configuration allows us to significantly expand the range of educational tools available for the hybrid learning format and diversify the educational experience of students.

The Scientific and Educational Center “Digital Technologies in Education” at GSOM SPbU introduced guests to a VR public speaking simulator, where they could improve their speaker skills and overcome fear.

Another unusual format: participants in the quest “Build your dream dorm in Minecraft” learned to work harmoniously in a team. Today, Minecraft is used for immersive training at GSOM SPbU, for example, to make it easier for students to learn the principles of project management.

In total, 7 parallel events were held, 6 stands were open, 4 interactive platforms and various excursions were organized at the Mikhailovskaya Dacha on the anniversary Day of GSOM SPbU.

The celebration of the 30th anniversary of GSOM SPbU ended in a cosmically beautiful way - with the concert “Hans Zimmer VS John Williams” performed by Dreamers Orchestra under the direction of Stanislav Chigadayev. Masterpieces of music from “Interstellar”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Gladiator”, “Star Wars”, “Harry Potter”, “Indiana Jones” and other famous films became an excellent culmination of the anniversary.