On November 22 and 23, the 19th International Student Seminar on Management and Financial Issues was held. The event was organized by our School of Business Administration in Karviná and the Polish Technical University of Rzeszów, Faculty of Management. However, students from Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Jagiellonian University and Cracow University of Economics also participated. For the fifth time the competition was held completely online in MS Teams. Although the online environment brings many new challenges and we cannot meet in person and discuss our presentations during the evening cultural programmes, the ability to present our work properly online is very important in today's world. This gives students the opportunity to hone these skills, compare their performances with others and get feedback from a panel of experts. And thanks to the online environment, it doesn't matter if they are in another country on an Erasmus+ traineeship, they can easily join the competition from anywhere. The event was attended by 29 students from many countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, India. The expert jury consisted of 8 academics. The Faculty of Karviná was represented by a group of 18 students of all forms of study. The main organizer was Dr. Stoklasa in cooperation with the International Relations Office.

In the online environment, the presentations of the competing students are the main focus of the seminar. During the 10-minute time limit, each student can present their chosen topic in English. The most common topics were various student projects, term papers or theses, and the presentations were from many fields such as marketing, information technology, finance, management and other social science disciplines. After presenting, students receive questions from a panel of experts, as well as feedback on their presentations. Many thanks to the expert jury, composed of representatives of both universities, which included: Ing. Jana Šimáková, Ph.D., Ing. Ondřej Mikšík, Ing. Martin Klepek, Ph.D., Ing. Michal Halaška, Ph.D., 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 seminar traditionally ends with a "Closing Ceremony" during which the best students are awarded. They receive, in addition to a scholarship of 2,000 CZK, prizes worth 15,000 CZK. The jury did not have an easy decision this year either, as there were many excellent presentations. Some of them dazzled us with their style, others with their scientific approach to solving the problem, others with the perfect interplay of the presenting team. But some had everything, which is why they managed to make it to the top 5. The first place went to the Indian duo Annaliya Peter and Abin Mathew with their presentation "Sustainable Fashion". Second to fifth place went to students from Poland, namely Kinga Dębska and Adrian Kocur with their presentation "Situation of microenterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic", Andrzej Siuda with his presentation "Financial Consequences of Data Breaches", Aleksandra Pacana with her presentation "Cities of the future", and Piotr Gołuchowski with his presentation "Innovative approach to rental real estate". In addition to these first 5 places, this year the jury selected 3 students who showed great improvement compared to previous seminars. And we also recognized 2 students who were at our seminar for the first time, but showed an excellent performance that promises great potential for an overall win in future years. We extend our sincere congratulations to all the awardees, and we also thank all the participating students, the panel of judges, and both faculties. We look forward to seeing you at the next event.

This years winner wrote about us: "It was a great honor for us to participate in  the 19th edition of International Seminar. This was our first experience and we must admit that it's a great platform for the students to showcase their skills, improve and grow. The competition definitely exposed us to something new and it pushed us beyond what we thought we could accomplish. We can honestly say it has been one of the greatest things we have done during our studies here. Being awarded in this seminar has been the happiest moment during our university life. "Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity". So don't miss it guys. Grab the chance and create a life time experience."