ON CAMPUS
WRITER: Tor Johannessen CEMS Academic Director, Associate Professor – NHH
CEMS Block Seminar at NHH focuses on CSR and Climate Change The theme for the 2010 Block Seminar at NHH was “Corporate Social Responsibility, Innovations and Climate Changes”. After a thorough introduction to climate changes by some of NHH’s most competent professors, the whole group of approximately 40 students moved on to Voss Youth Hostel. For the past four years, the CEMS Block Seminar at NHH has been held at the end of August at Voss – an idyllic village 100 km from Bergen on the Bergen-Oslo railway. Many people believe that the famous and expensive Voss Water comes from this place, but actually, it is bottled in South-West Norway. Voss is a well-known winter resort, with slopes for almost any taste and proficiency, including hills for snowboarders. Every year, Voss hosts the “Extreme Sports Week”, with activities ranging from rafting, kiting and parachuting to paragliding.
CP and academic involvement to the fore The theme of the seminar was highlighted both by academics as well as by some of our CEMS Corporate Partners, such as Statoil and Statkraft, and all lecturers had included an ample amount of group tasks to be discussed by the participants. A very popular part of the stay at Voss was a mini course in team building, which is essential, not only for the semester abroad, but also for the students’ future careers. The course was held at the
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Voss Rafting Centre, and included a lot of different activities, such as learning how to catapult an egg and assure that it is received safely by another group. This required a lot of cooperation with others, which is extremely useful in any type of organisation. It is safe to say that judging from all the broken eggs, we could have made a lot of pancakes! The theme for the CEMS Block seminar later this year at NHH is “Corporations using Social Media: Impact on Branding, Identity and Profit”, and takes place on 22nd-26th August.