ICFAI Business School organised its 10th International Conference on 27th and 28th June 2019. The theme of the Conference was “Developing Organizations for the future – Re-interpreting the Modern Business Landscape”. The conference had the following broad streams – Economics, Finance, Marketing, HR, IT, Analytics and other Management Disciplines.

The basic idea behind the conference was to understand the various trends that the business world is witnessing currently, major industry shifts and new technologies that would significantly impact the way businesses would operate in the years ahead and also how the corporate world is preparing for the same in the light of both disruptions and opportunities created by the convergence of artificial intelligence, data mining, IoT, the next Internet, supply chain engineering, business process change and wireless e-Business etc.

IBS Bangalore, as an AMDISA member, sent the invitations to the researchers in India as well as abroad. Around 60 papers were submitted for the conference out of which 44 were accepted for presentation during the Conference. The papers were submitted from various places in India as well as from outside India like Sweden, Nepal, and Bangladesh etc. These papers were divided domain wise into two parallel tracks during the two days of the conference.

The chief Guest for the conference was Dr. Gayathri Reddy, Regional Director, VTU and the Key Note speaker was Ms. Asha M, Associate Director (Compliance), KPMG. Dr. Gayathri talked about importance of inclusive growth and sustainable development in the era of technological disruptions. She suggested the management curriculum should be reviewed and designed to include sustainability aspect. Ms Asha spoke about “Future of Finance” and emphasised the need to change and up-skill during this period. She pointed that these disruptions can bring lot of opportunities if one is prepared well for them. She emphasised that it is important to go ahead and embrace the changes being witnessed during Industry 4.0 as per one’s capabilities.

In addition to the inauguration and paper presentations, there were two plenary sessions and one panel discussion as well. The first plenary session was by Prof. Ramachandran from Infosys Knowledge Institute (Principal Consultant, Author, and Speaker). Prof. Ramachandran delivered a lecture on “Skills for the Future – Neoskilling for Digital Transformation”. He spoke about how organisations and business leaders are thinking ahead, for the futuristic long-term needs of their organization and the overall ecosystem to excel and reap the benefits of Digital Transformation we are undergoing – also known as “neo-skilling” in short. Neo-skilling is holistic and beyond formal class-room training, requiring a mental metamorphosis which includes soft skills, cultural aspects and instils higher-order thinking in individuals and groups in preparation for the Workplace of the Future.

The second plenary was during valedictory session on the second day of the conference by Mr. Ashish Sharma, CEO & Co-founder – Bridgei2i. Mr. Ashish spoke about the importance of data in today’s world and its usage by organisations to enhance the customers’ experience. He also spoke about the current trends in this field and suggested areas/topics to the researchers to work on.

The panel discussion organised on the second day was on “the state of research activities in different countries.” The panel members were participants from different countries (Prof. Prakash Gautam from Nepal, Ms Eshnat M Mridha from Bangladesh, Dr. Joy Mukhopadhyay from PES University, Bangalore and Ms. Usha N from Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences. Dr. Srabasti Chatterjee moderated the discussion. One of the conclusions from the discussion was that the relevance of management research pertaining to its application in the industry remains very minimal with respect to the institutions and countries represented. Another very interesting observation was the challenges faced while doing intra-national research was more as compared to cross national research because of availability of data through exchange programs.

The papers presented were divided into four technical sessions – domain wise and they ran in two parallel tracks for two days. A total of 31 papers were presented during the conference including the 5 papers from other countries. The presenters including all the foreign delegates were taken for Conference Dinner where a cultural show was organised.

The conference ended with the valedictory session in which the first two best papers were announced. Mr. Dileep, R V Institute of Management, Bangalore, was given best paper award for his paper titled, “An empirical study on impact of exchange rates on Indian stock market”. The award included a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 10,000. The runner-up for best paper was Prof. Prakash Kumar Gautam from Tribhuvan University, Nepal for his paper titled “Perceived effectiveness of innovation in small and medium size hospitality enterprises in Nepal”. The award included a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 5,000. Prof. G V Muralidhara, Campus Head & Director, IBS Bangalore presented the conference summary and gave away the certificates to all the paper presenters. Conference Coordinator Dr. Manisha Singh proposed vote of thanks.

The conference was well attended and overall it was quite an enriching experience for all the participants be it the delegates, organisers or paper presenters.