Official opening of the 20th Annual BMDA Conference
The 20th Annual Conference has been officially opened on 6th of October by the asoc.prof. Leonas Balasevicius – Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation of Kaunas University of Technology, Dr. Virginijus Kundrotas – honorary president of BMDA and Dean of Adizes Graduate School, Prof. Edita Gimzauskiene – president of BMDA and dean of School of Economics and Business, Prof. Panagiotis (Takis) Damaskopoulos -the Industry 4.0 ERA Chair holder at KTU School of Economics and Business and the Executive Director and Head of Research of the European Institute of Interdisciplinary Research (EIIR) in Paris, France, who also acts as the Chairman of the Conference and European Commissioner - Mr. Virginijus Sinkevicius.
20th Annual BMDA Conference started with the keynote speech “Collective Sensemaking for a Future that Makes Sense” by Mr. Jerry Michalski who is a technology consultant, former managing editor of Release 1.0, a technology newsletter and founder of Sociate.com and ReX (USA). Mr. Jerry Michalski has talked that Reliable" institutions like democracy, capitalism, employment and journalism have been cracking for years and will be different in 2050. And raised the question, how can we make sense together through this turbulence, plus anthropogenic chaos, so we can construct a better world, especially at a moment where some actors are intentionally undermining discourse, facts and the notion of "us"?
The second keynote speech was delivered by prof. Paul Timmers who spoke about European Sovereignty on Top of the Agenda of Government and Business Leaders.
The first Conference panel “Geo-economic and Geopolitical Challenges and Scenarios” was dedicated to the analysis for the key geo-economic and geopolitical changes of our time and their implications of management and sustainable economic development. Even though it might be too early to confidently extrapolate current trends too far into the future few would doubt that they will have a significant
impact in the restructuring of the economic and, indeed, political order in which business and society have
operated to this day.
This panel was moderated by Prof. Panagiotis (Takis) Damaskopoulos - The Industry 4.0 ERA Chair holder at KTU School of Economics and Business and the Executive Director and Head of Research of the European Institute of Interdisciplinary Research (EIIR) in Paris, France, Poland/France/Lithuania. Panelists: Mr. Jerry Michalski - an American technology consultant. He is the former managing editor of Release 1.0, a technology newsletter. He is the founder of Sociate.com and ReX, USA; Dr. Rolf Alter - senior Fellow at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin; Member and Vice Chair of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (UNCEPA), Germany; Prof. Paul Timmers - research associate at the University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute, Professor at European University Cyprus, Visiting professor at KU Leuven and the University of Rijeka; Senior advisor EPC Brussels President of the Supervisory Board Estonian eGovernance Academy and CEO of iivii, Belgium; Dr. Marius Jurgilas - member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, Lithuania; Mr. Kęstutis Sabaliaukas - adviser, Industry 4.0 Policy Division at the Ministry of Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania, Lithuania.
The Second panel “Capital and Policy Responses to Digitalization Challenges and Value Creation” addressed the responses of the financial sector and relevant government policymaking organs to the post-pandemic period and the context of the above mentioned geo-economic and geopolitical transformations. The main theme concerns the issue of digitalization and its role in sustainable value creation, but equally important, how ‘value’ itself is becoming a subject of economic and social contestation.
Panel as was moderated by prof. Monika Petraite - full Professor and Principal Researcher of the Research Group Innovation and
Entrepreneurship at the KTU School of Economics and Business, Lithuania. Panelists: Mr. Nicholas Coutts - former Vice President, Global Distribution Channel Strategy IBM, a visiting lecturer and tutor on executive education on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design MBA Programmes at multiple business schools in Europe, Poland. Mr. Aidas Malakauskas - head of Financing Transformation Swedbank, Lithuania. Mr. Ņikita Kazakevičs -director of the Innovation and Technology Department of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, Latvia.
The third panel “The Real Cases on the Latest Digitalization Transformation” turned attention to concrete cases of processes of digitalization and vale creation as they have been experience is selected organizations and in the wider context of the geo-economic and geopolitical changes of our time, as well as those associated with the post-Covid period.
The panel was moderated by prof. Mantas Vilkas - operations and Technology Management professor and a member of the Digitalization Research
Group in KTU School of Economics and Business, Lithuania. Mr. Paulius Bulota - leader of Company Peikko Lietuva, Lithuania. Mr. Tomasz Brzostowski - vice-president of Hitachi Vantara’s Global Finance Shared Service, Deputy General Manager for Hitachi Ltd., Poland. Mr. Šarūnas Savickas - digital Innovation Manager at Littelfuse, Lithuania; Ms. Gaļina Robertsone - quality Manager Baltics at HAVI, Latvia. Mr. Maxim Zakletskiy - Managing Director, Hella Lithuania, Lithuania.
The day has been finalized by the lovely dinner at the heart of Kaunas city.
