Bled (Slovenia), 13 – 19 May and 21 - 28 May 2012 - After a Sunday's opening ceremony new generation of General Management Program began with their studies at IEDC-Bled School of Management. Altogether 19 participants from 7 countries will spend 2 weeks at IEDC in order to complete Modul 1.

IEDC-Bled School of Management hosted “RoundTables for Practising Managers” - a unique opportunity for developing managerial skills with experienced managers and a dedicated faculty out of the MBA classroom. Practicing managers in MBA programmes from innovative business school from the UK, Ukraine, Iceland, Slovenia, Mexico, Sweden and a number of other countries around the world came together for a week to focus on learning from their own managerial experience.

IEDC-Bled School of Management hosted the “CEE Corporate Responsibility and Philanthropy conference” organized for the second time by Studio Moderna in partnership with Impact Economy, Switzerland. The main focus of the conference was the need to increase the awareness of the importance of corporate social responsibility that has to be followed by the change of the individuals’ and corporations’ actions; only then concrete effects for the future of the world can be expected.

A regional meeting with business people and mayors from Gorenjska region entitled “Development of economic and cultural cooperation with Great Britain”, was attended by over 40 business people and distinguished guests; the guest speaker at the event organized by British Embassy and British Chamber of Commerce in Slovenia (BCCS) in co-operation with the Bled Municipality, was Ms. Vikki Dean, Director of European affairs in charge for policy towards Eurozone and the Single market.

Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva, Coca-Cola Chair of Sustainable Development at IEDC-Bled School of Management, was one of the six speakers at the 8th “Talk at Henkel”, organized by Henkel at Vienna Erdberg. This year’s event, hosted by Henkel CEE President Mr. Günter Thumser, was titled “Sustainability as a survival principle for our society”.

Seven teams representing some of the leading Slovenian companies participated in a two-day IEDC Case Study Competition (CSC), organized by IEDC Alumni Club Slovenia. After all the teams presented their final solutions of the business case, Dr. Nenad Filipović, Academic Director at IEDC-Bled School of Management, who led the competition, announced that the winning team is the one from Elektro energija Ltd, represented by Robert Jelenc, Polona Osovnikar, Damjana Mes Plestenjak, Teja Perjet, Jan Šorli and Jan Zakrajšek.

IEDC-Bled School of Management donated for humanitarian cause: the certificate of appreciation was held over on International Day for Mine Awareness (4 April), when the 1st Annual charity Mine Awareness Night To Make a Difference (MANMADE) dinner took place in Sarajevo. The main goal of this inspirational event was to spread mine awareness and raise funds for landmine eradication. Over 200 guests were welcomed by the hosts of the dinner Mr. Perry F. Baltimore and Mr. Nermin Hadžimujagić.

On 2-4 April, IEDC-Bled School of Management was hosting a group of 30 program directors, managers and coordinators from 24 institutions from 15 countries, who took part in the eighth Program Management Seminar (PMS), organized by CEEMAN international management development association headquartered at IEDC. The PMS is designed for managers of educational programs, program administrators and program coordinators, and also institutional leaders interested in the further enhancement of their competitive position through achieving excellence in the area of program management.

Over 70 business people from India and Slovenia attended a business meeting and networking event “India and Slovenia as Business Partners”, organized by the Embassy of India to Slovenia, Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and IEDC-Bled School of Management.

At the concluding event of Challenge:Future Summit 2012 that took place in Bled from 16-21 March, WeBuilt:Africa from Nigeria and Rush Hot Chilli Brains from Russia were selected as the teams who have developed the most innovative and sustainable ideas; the Nigerian team convinced the jury with the idea of designing and fabricating trade-specific market stalls with recycled materials for the vendors in the informal markets and eventually homes spanning the slums of its many countries, while the Russian team developed the idea to create universal social network uniting all volunteers, charity funds and social responsible entrepreneurs by providing them common ground for action. The title of the most innovative school in C:F community was conferred to the Faculty of Economics, Podgorica (Montenegro). The Challenge:Future Summit gathered 80 innovative and socially responsible youth from 38 countries, who – in a dialogue with respected educators, business and political leaders - searched for the solutions »Towards Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Future«, the central topic of the global yout summit under the patronage of UNESCO. Besides the honorary speaker, President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr. Danilo Türk, the C:F Summit program featured a number of world-respected speakers, including futurist Joel A. Barker, business strategist Deepa Prahalad, former OECD Secretary General Donald Johnston, climatologist Lucka Kajfez Bogataj, entrepreneurs Riccardo Illy, Sandi Češko and other.