17th International Student Seminar, again at SBA

  • Michal Stoklasa
  • 26.11.2021
On November 23 and 24, 2021, the seventeenth competition for the best presentations within the "International Student Seminar on Management and Financial Issues" took place. The event was organized by our Silesian University in Opava, the School of Business Administration in Karviná and the Polish Rzeszów University of Technology, the Faculty of Management.

Due to the unfavourable situation, the event was held completely online in MS Teams for the third time. Although the students missed the traditional evening cultural programme, this left more space for the professional programme and allowed students who were at that time in other countries, for example at Erasmus+, to participate. The event was attended by 34 students from many countries, e.g. Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, India, Bangladesh. Our faculty was represented by a group of 15 students from all forms of study. The main organizer was Dr. Stoklasa in cooperation with the International Relations Office.

The main focus of the online seminar are the presentations of the competing students. Everyone could present their chosen topic in English within a time limit of 10 minutes. Students mostly presented their projects, term papers or theses, and the topics were from many fields, such as marketing, information technology, finance, management, and other social science disciplines. After presenting, students receive questions from the expert jury, as well as feedback on their presentations. Many thanks to the expert jury, composed of representatives of both universities, which consisted of: Ing. Jana Šimáková, Ph.D., Ing. Dalibor Šimek, Ph.D., Ing. Daniel Kvíčala, Marzena Hajduk-Stelmachowicz, Ph.D., Pawel Perz, Ph.D., Paulina Bełch, Ph.D., and the main organizer and moderator of the event Ing. Michal Stoklasa, Ph.D. The aim of these joint seminars is to strengthen the students' presentation competences and to enable them to acquire professional terminology in English, to improve their presentation skills and, last but not least, their ability to respond to additional questions from the expert jury. 

The culmination of the event is traditionally an award ceremony for the best. In addition to a scholarship CZK 2.000 for participation, students can receive prizes worth CZK 8.000. Due to the constantly increasing level of presentations, the decision-making process for the international jury was not easy this time either. The first place was won by Polish student Jakub Zboch with the presentation "UV-C light as a solution for aviation during the COVID-19 pandemic". The second place went to Aleksandra Pacana, also from Poland, with the presentation "Railways in the 21st century". Third place went to our degree student Rahul Kalathil Purushothaman with the presentation "Think and Grow rich by Napoleon Hill". The student prize went to our student Matej Kuba with the presentation "Ryanair Business Strategy". Our sincere congratulations to all the awardees and thanks to all the participating students, the expert jury and both faculties. We look forward to seeing you at the next event.