With COVID-19 currently limiting travel, we thought it would be a good time to post an article about the great learning and networking opportunities at the most recent 2019 Executive MBA Conference.

Percept Research attended the Executive MBA Council annual conference in Orlando, Florida from October 13-16, 2019. Themed “Experience the Magic," the conference drew over 450 registrants from 152 schools and 26 countries. We are excited to share some of our experiences from the meeting.

Promising 2019 Management Education Insights

Approximately 85% of the EMBA programs in the council membership completed the 2019 Membership Program Survey, which is conducted by Percept Research. The Executive MBA Council includes more than 200 colleges and universities that administer 300+ programs in more than 30 countries worldwide.

This annual benchmarking survey revealed that member schools are receiving more applications than ever before with a 31.6% increase in applications received since 2015. The proportion of enrolled female EMBA students increased to 31.2% in 2019, the highest on record indicating a promising trend towards closing the gender gap.

Percept Research attended the ACBSP Annual Conference in Houston, Texas from June 21-24. The event hosted by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs brought together over 800 attendees.

The theme of the conference this year was ‘The Art of Developing Entrepreneurial Leaders’ with more than 70 sessions featuring presenters who are thought leaders in their respective areas, in three educational tracks: Accreditation, Teaching Excellence, and The Art of Developing Entrepreneurial Leaders.

Houston-style Welcome Reception with great sounds from the Brass Animals band

Sessions and panels covered topics such as ‘Assessing Student Learning Outcomes,’ ‘Teaching the Netflix Generation,’ ‘Using Learning Styles to Transform Business Education,’ and ‘Developing Soft Skills in Future Entrepreneurial Leaders’ among others.

The International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE) hosted its 2019 Annual Conference & Assembly Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 8-12. Percept Research was represented by Brian Mahoney, Managing Partner. The event brought together over 240 attendees.

The theme of the meeting this year was ‘Moving. Forward. Together’ and included a variety of technical presentations, accreditation training sessions, and a student case-study competition. The four-day conference was packed with sessions for faculty, deans, program managers and staff.

IACBE welcome 2019

Sessions and panels covered topics such as ‘Optimizing Student Success through Innovative Alternative Delivery Methods,’ ‘Integrating Data-Driven Simulations and Cases into Business Education,’ ‘Creating a Culture of Feedback,’ and ‘Determining Your Faculty IQ’ among others.

Brian Mahoney of Percept Research, attended the UNICON Team Development Conference held November 28–30, 2018 by the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.

This year's theme was " Executive Education & Beyond: Growth through Unique Partnerships." UNICON hosted sessions focused on thinking radically about the services offered by university-based executive education providers and how to collaborate with each other and competitors to continue to add value to the customers served.

Presentations, panel discussions, exercises and break-out sessions facilitated an exploration of how to be innovative and adapt to the increasingly crowded and competitive executive education landscape.

We are excited to share some of our learnings and experiences from the conference…

Percept Research attended the 2018 Executive MBA Council annual conference in Madrid, Spain from October 14-17. The conference theme of “Dream. Discover. Disrupt.” and included sessions such as “Lifelong learning in the digital age,” “Beyond Innovation: Extreme Disruption in Form and Content of Experiential Learning for EMBA Programs,” “Tilting at Windmills? Chatbots Can Disprove Your Tech Fears (and Make Students Think You’re Cool),” and “Disruption, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in EMBA Education” among others.

We are excited to share some of our learnings and experiences from the conference…

Percept Research, a leading management education market research consultancy, announced that Joy Steinberg has joined the client services team as a Qualitative Research Consultant. Joy will lead the firm’s qualitative research engagements including in-depth interviews, focus groups, and ethnography.  

Joy has consumer insights expertise with emphasis on qualitative methods and digital/social insights. Her rich client-side perspective is based upon experience with multinational organizations including The Clorox Company and Mary Kay, Inc. In addition, graduate training in International Relations with an emphasis on International Business (University of Texas – Dallas) with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies and Marketing Communications (University of Wisconsin – Madison) has helped her to address global business challenges and opportunities from a well-rounded perspective for her clients.

The International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE) hosted its 2018 Annual Conference & Assembly Meeting in New Orleans, USA on April 17-20. Percept Research was represented by Brian Mahoney and Rodney Alsup. The event brought together over 240 attendees.

The theme of the meeting this year was ‘Business Education: Learn. Apply. Experience’ and included a variety of technical presentations, accreditation training sessions, and a student case-study competition.

Brian Mahoney of Percept Research, presented insights into the future management eduation needs of the digital generations at the UNICON Team Development Conference held November 29 – December 1, 2017 at Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM).

This year's theme was "Creating the Future of Executive Education." UNICON hosted sessions on the impact of new technologies and how they may shape executive education in the very near future. Technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning have the potential to disrupt current content delivery models and their financial underpinnings.

Presentations, panel discussions, exercises and break-out sessions facilitated an exploration of new trends and technologies for executive development, the implications of the digital generation on business education, disruption in education and more.

Dr. Joyce Kurpiers and Brian Mahoney of the Percept Research team attended the Executive MBA Council 2017 annual conference in Seattle, Washington from October 22-25. The conference theme of Exploring the Next Frontier focused on important trends and approaches that are transforming how the workforce of the future is being educated.

The conference included sessions such as “Deepening Student Engagement on International Residency Trips,” “How to Create Futurists as An Outcome of Your Program,” “The Value of Formative Leadership Instruction in Executive Education,” and “Going the Distance with Working Professionals and Alumni” among others.

We wanted to share some of the interesting insights we heard at the conference:

Dr. Joyce Kurpiers and Brian Mahoney of Percept Research, attended the 2017 Executive MBA Council Western regional meeting from June 25-27. The University of Las Vegas Lee Business School hosted over 50 attendees at the event.

The theme of the meeting was, “Best Practices Across the Executive MBA Experience” and included sessions covering topics such as “Cultivating Leaders Who Transform Business,“ “EMBA Recruitment Trends and Best Practices,“ “Maximizing the Orientation Week Experience,“ “Best Practices in Online/Hybrid Course Design,“ “Unique Opportunities for Student Engagement,“ “Understanding the Millennial EMBA Student,“ as well as several other sessions.