CEMS Virtual European Forum

To provide an alternative for students and corporate partners, and to make sure that the great work of the all engaged teams was not wasted, the CEMS Student Board managed to digitize and unite these regional events into a “Virtual European Forum” in a two-week’s short regard.

Under the leading of Patrick Timmer (SBR of Aalto), and the coordination of Helena Egge (SB President), the Virtual European Forum Organizing Committee was quickly formed and started to work. 18 CEMS Students collaborated virtually across borders – based in Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America (with 14 hours’ time difference), and functioned across general organization/ technology/ marketing sectors to make this event happen.

The CEMS Virtual European Forum lasted from 16th to 26th April. In these 11-days’ time, VEF offered not only Skill Seminars, but also a webinar, and a social event of Global Running Cocktails.

With the efficient organization and multi-channel marketing, VEF successfully cooperated with 13 CEMS Corporate Partners who offered 14 skill seminars and got 270 students participating from 27 CEMS partner schools, with 252 of which needed ECTS for graduation. Additionally, 54 students joined the “Anti-Globalization” webinar by Prof. Sandy Pepper from LSE. And 170 students and 70 alumni participated in the first edition of Global Running Cocktails from 33 countries.

After the VEF ended, the feedback was very positive both from student side and Corporate Partner side. Around 85% of the students expressed that they are “extremely satisfied” with the Skill Seminars; and all of the Corporate Partners expressed that they are “extremely satisfied” with the communication with co-hosts (students from the VEF Organizing Committee).

The success of VEF addressed the CEMS community’s unitedness and capability. It was also a huge inspiration of how to efficiently organize an online event.