During the 2022 IPBS Business Innovation Summit competition, students from around the world collaborated to innovate sustainable business practices.
Four Elon students participated in the 2022 IPBS Business Innovation Summit, a four-day event designed for students to collaborate and innovate in the context of sustainable business practices.
Elon is a member of the International Partnership of Business Schools (IPBS), a consortium of 13 leading business schools in Europe, North and Latin America.
During the summit, Junzhi Meng ’23, Paul Kuttène ’22, Payton Donnan ‘24 and Halley Brewer ’24, who are all part of Elon’s International Business Dual Degree program, worked virtually in global, cross-cultural teams to develop profitable ideas to tackle critical business challenges. Mengs’s team placed second in the challenge, and Kuttène’s team placed third.
The Elon students were integrated into teams with students from universities all over the world, such as Lancaster University, Northeastern University, Rollins University, NEOMA Business School and more.
Reflecting on the experience, Meng shared, “This was the first time I attended a competition. It was a very special experience and many groups had lots of innovative ideas which gave me another perspective to think about the problem. I would like to thank IPBS and Elon for providing us with this opportunity to work with different students from all over the world.”
The summit also allowed students to gain professional development skills through workshops organized by LinkedIn, Google and the Boston Consulting Group, as well as panel discussions with industry leaders and alumni from IPBS schools. The event was organized by a group of students from IPBS schools with the intention of providing a platform for networking and learning within the IPBS community. Elon seniors Moritz Lederer ’22 and Matthias Ferring ’22 served on the summit’s executive board.
Elon’s International Business Dual Degree program is for students who are invested in global education and desire to immerse themselves within a different country and culture. Participating students spend two years at their home institution and two years abroad at a partner school. Elon is partnered with ESB Business School at Reutlingen University in Germany, NEOMA Business School in France, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy, and Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Spain, to offer students the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in international business from Elon and a second degree from a partner institution in four years.