Author: Michal Stoklasa

On 18 and 19 May, the 20th 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 Jagiellonian University and Cracow University of Economics also participated. For the sixth time the competition was held completely online in MS Teams. The ability to present our work properly online is very important in today's world. This event 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 4 academics. The Faculty of Karviná was represented by a group of 14 students of all forms of study. The organizer was Dr. Stoklasa in cooperation with the International Relations Office.

The main focus of the seminar are the presentations of the competing students. 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, ecology 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: Marzena Hajduk-Stelmachowicz, Ph.D., Pawel Perz, Ph.D., Paulina Bełch, Ph.D., and 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 10,000 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. But some had everything, which is why they managed to make it to the top 5. The first place went to the Polish student Barbara Malinka with her presentation "CBDC - the future of money?". Second place went to Annaliya Peter, an Indian student of our faculty, with her presentation "Bye bye home". Third place went to Polish student Kinga Dębska with her presentation "Accommodation & Gastronomy - before and during COVID-19". Fourth place went to another Indian student of our faculty Sanjay Prassad Gopalswamy Dhanalakshmi with his presentation "Business under ocean". Finally, the fifth place went to a Polish student Jakub Domagała with his presentation "Pension benefits in Poland". Apart from these first 5 places, this year the jury selected 2 other students who gave perfect presentations. One of them was our student Patrik Vašíček with his presentation "Cleanliness in Japan". 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.