For the 18th time, our students competed at the traditional event for the best presentations within the "International Student Seminar on Management and Financial Issues". The event took place on May 5 and 6, 2022, and was organized by the Polish Technical University of Rzeszów, Faculty of Management, in cooperation with our School of Business Administration in Karviná. Due to the still unfavourable situation, the event was held completely online in MS Teams for the third year. All participants were thus deprived of the traditional several days long program full of not only presenting, but also getting to know the country, but we could devote all the more space to the professional program. Another benefit is the possibility to involve students from several other countries who would otherwise not be able to come to the event in person. The event was attended by 31 students from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, India, Morocco, and others. Our faculty was represented by a group of 15 students of all forms of study. The organizer was Dr. Stoklasa in cooperation with the International Relations Office.

The aim of these joint seminars is to strengthen students' presentation competences and to enable students 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. Each competitor was therefore allowed to present their chosen topic in English within a time limit of 10 minutes. The students most often presented their projects, seminar papers or theses, with contributions 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 organizing universities, which included: Marzena Hajduk-Stelmachowicz, Ph.D., Pawel Perz, Ph.D., Paulina Bełch, Ph.D., and Ing. Michal Stoklasa, Ph.D.

At the end of the seminar there was the traditional award ceremony for the best presenters. In addition to a scholarship of CZK 2,000 for participation, students can win valuable prizes. The level of presentations is constantly increasing, so it is often really difficult for the jury to decide. We are all the more pleased that our student Lucie Ivanecká won the first place with her presentation "The development of life insurance in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic". The second place went to Klaudia Walanus from Poland with her presentation "Decision making and cognitive bias". The third place was shared by our student Milan Vítek Kulikowski with his presentation "Cultural and social marketing environment of Japan" and Polish student Aleksandra Pacana with her presentation "Autonomous vehicles". The student prize was awarded to Polish student Natalia Siorek with her presentation "2 + 2 = 5". We would like to congratulate all the winners and thank all the participating students, the jury and both faculties. We look forward to seeing you at the next event.

This year's winner Lucie Ivanecká wrote about the event: "The International Student Seminar has become my favourite event during my studies at SBA. It has always been a huge benefit and an opportunity for me to improve my presentation and English language skills. This year's seminar was even more valuable to me than usual. It was my last one and my first time winning it. I really appreciate this opportunity and I recommend it with all my heart to students who are not afraid to step out of their comfort zone for a while, learn something new from the world of finance or management and meet students from another university. Believe me, you will not regret this experience!"