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.              

Percept Research, a North Carolina-based market research consultancy, announced today that Steve Keppel has joined the client services team as a Service Quality Consultant. Steve will help lead the firm’s service quality consulting engagements using both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. He will also serve as a key resource in translating client custom research into actionable recommendations.

Dr. Joyce Kurpiers and Brian Mahoney of Percept Research, attended the 2017 Executive MBA Council Northeast regional meeting from June 5-6. The Cornell SC Johnson College of Business hosted over 50 attendees at the event.

The regional meeting included sessions covering topics such as “High Demand Courses,” “The Value of Coaching,” “Being Agile in Times of Disruption,” “Evaluating ROI using KPIs in Career Management,” “Integrating Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation into the EMBA Curriculum,” and “What Will the Landscape be in 2025” for discussing best practices.    

We wanted to share some of the interesting insights we heard at the meeting...

• Alex Baranpuria (Ivy Exec) suggested three potential funding sources for EMBA students including SoFi, Common Bond, and Prodigy.
• Marissa Hairston (Cornell) pointed out that some companies will not offer financial support to employees with terminal degrees while Geoff Miskinis (MIT) indicated that his university considers his students full-time and eligible to compete for fellowships. EMBA students can have an advantage over other students that do not have real-world experience to demonstrate impact in their fellowship applications.
• Bill Schmidt (Cornell) provided an insightful presentation referencing the story of Ignaz Semmelweis and his hypothesis of ‘death particles’ illustrating resistance to data-driven insights. The ‘Semmelweis reflex’ is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms.

 Percept Research, a leading management education market research consultancy, announced that Susannah Stayter has joined the client services team as a Marketing Communications Consultant. Susannah will help lead the firm’s consulting engagements such as information sessions optimization, influential testimonial development, social media strategy, and marketing communications. She will also serve as a key resource in translating client custom research into actionable recommendations.

Jerry Provost and Brian Mahoney of Percept Research, attended the UNICON Team Development Conference held November 30 – December 2, 2016 at the Luskin Conference Center, hosted by UCLA Anderson Executive Education.

This year's theme was "Transforming Others, Inspiring Ourselves." Part inspirational and part operational, the interactive three-day experience leveraged attendees’ expertise and provided a platform for rich dialogue and collaboration.

Panel discussions, exercises and break-out sessions facilitated an exploration of the individual’s changing relationship with organizations that increasingly push decision making onto a flattening hierarchy.

Session group worksheets on enhancing UNICON benchmarking research

Jerry Helisek and Brian Mahoney of the Percept Research team attended the Executive MBA Council 2016 annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana from October 22-25. 

The conference theme of Redesign & Renewal, focused on innovative perspectives on the global shifts that are shaking the foundation of the graduate MBA education worldwide and explored the ways EMBA programs can maximize their efforts to meet the needs of business leaders in a swiftly changing environment.

 Jerry Helisek (Percept Research) greeting attendees at our table

New Orleans is a colorful and vibrant city embodying the conference theme of redesign and renewal. The city has rebounded and recreated itself following the events of hurricane Katrina. Over 300 delegates attended the conference from 114 business schools representing 30 countries.

Time to Talk Research!

Executive MBA Toolkit Session

Brian Mahoney (Percept Research) co-presented a session called “Future of the EMBA: What the data say” with Tanya van Lill, (University of Pretoria) during the EMBA Toolkit, a one-day program held before conference sessions begin. Toolkit attendees learned the must-knows of the Executive MBA industry, tuition concerns, including admissions, marketing, program delivery, budgeting, student expectations, and more from industry veterans.