Volume III, Issue VI
22nd May, 2019
Summer XlX
ICBM 2019 – Building a bridge between Academia and Industry
Sagarika Shahriar, Subyeta Sarwar Journalists
Faisal Bin Iqbal News Editor
With a total of 260 paper submissions and over 300 participants, including 40 delegates from overseas, , Brac Business School (BBS), Brac University successfully organised the 2nd International Conference on Business & Management (ICBM) from the 25th to the 27th of April, 2019 at The Westin, Dhaka. This year’s theme, “Industry Focused Global Research Trend In Business and Management,” discussed the effects of globalization on the business world and its integration into the education sector with academics and renowned industrialists from our country and abroad. Day 1 - PhD colloquium and paper producing workshop The PhD colloquium and paper producing workshop was the main focus of the day, and was started off by the Dean of BBS Professor Dr Mohammad Mahboob Rahman, Associate Professor at BBS Dr Md Mamun Habib, and Professor Dr Tzong-Ru Lee from National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. Dr Rahman claimed that the workshop was an outstanding opportunity for young students who are going to start their doctoral studies. Dr Lee and Dr Mamun shared their personal experiences and provided a useful framework for academic paper writing, starting from how to find a topic to the infrastructure and methodology of a well structured paper. Day 2 ICBM 2019 was officially inaugurated with a short opening ceremony on the 26th of April at 9:30AM, in the presence of the honourable guests, distinguished speakers, faculty members, and participants. The ceremony had Professor Dr Vincent Chang, Vice-Chancellor of Brac University as the Special Guest, Mr M. Anis Ud Dowla, Chairman of ACI Group as the Guest of Honor, Professor Dr Mohammad Mahboob Rahman, Dean of BBS as the Session Chair, and Associate Professor Dr Md. Mamun Habib from BBS as the Program Chair. Dr Dipu Moni, Minister of Education, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was also supposed to grace the inauguration ceremony with her presence, but unfortunately had to cancel at the very last moment due to state related matters that needed her attention; the honourable minister sent her blessings and best wishes for the conference. The day was jam-packed with intriguing sessions including two keynote presentations and three parallel presentation sessions for the participants and some of the invited foreign academics. The keynote presentations were delivered by Professor Dr Tzong-Ru Lee, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed from BBS, along with industry talks from Mr M. Anis Ud Dowla, and Mr A. S. M. Mainuddin Monem, Deputy Managing Director, Abdul Monem Limited. The three parallel sessions saw presentations from the participants and some of the invited guests on various topics, including finance & banking, economics, marketing, technology management, human resource management and so on. The highlight of the day, however, was the Academia-Industry discussion session which brought academics from home and abroad as well as some of the most renowned business personalities and industrialists of our country, including top level representatives from ACI Group, BRAC Bank Ltd, IPDC Finance, RUNNER Automobiles, Abdul Monem Ltd, bKash, Mutual Trust Bank Ltd, A.H. Khan & Co. and The Westin, Dhaka. The session was moderated by Dr Rahman as the two groups discussed the need for industry involvement in academia, as well as academic involvement in industry. Day 3 The final day also featured two keynote presentations and three parallel sessions. Keynote and industry-related presentations were delivered by Professor Dr Hui-Ming Wee, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan, Mr Hafizur Rahman Khan, Chairman, Runner Automobiles Limited, Professor Dr Mirza Azizul Islam, BBS, Mr Mominul Islam, Managing Director & CEO, IPDC Finance Limited, Mr Anis A. Khan, Managing Director & CEO, Mutual Trust Bank Limited, Professor Dr Akbar Ali Khan, BBS, and Mr Sanjeev Gathani, CEO, BBG, Singapore. One of the more unique sessions of the day was the “Meet the Editors” session. The speakers of this session were Professor Dr Hui-Ming Wee and Professor Dr TzongRu Lee, and the session was chaired by Dr Md. Mamun Habib, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of a Scopus Indexed Journal. The conference was brought to a close with the distribution of certificates for the top four papers of ICBM 2019. Mr. K M Khalid, MP, State Minister, Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was the Chief Guest on the final day and handed out the certificates to the best authors and crests to the conference organising committee. Finally, Dr Habib closed the event with a vote of thanks to the event sponsors. ICBM 2019 was a huge success, because of the relentless efforts of its Conference Secretariat, organising committee and volunteers. The event also received tremendous support from several high-profiled sponsors, including: ACI Limited – Platinum Sponsor BRAC Bank, RUNNER Group, IPDC Finance and Abdul Monem LTD. – Gold Sponsors Mutual Trust Bank Ltd. And bKash – Silver Sponsors A.H. Khan & Co. and Better Business Governance (BBG), Singapore – Supporting Sponsors.