Dr. Joyce Kurpiers of Percept Research attended the 2018 Executive MBA Council Western regional meeting April 29 – May 1. The Thunderbird School of Global Management hosted the conference as one of the Glendale campus’s final events before the school’s move to its new Arizona State University location. Along with ASU, the University of Arizona also co-sponsored this conference, which gathered about 60 attendees.

True to form, Thunderbird’s Keaton Allen opened the conference with humor and clear logistics for the meeting’s events. Executive Director Michael Desiderio then reported on the Council’s recent achievements, upcoming events, and the state of the Executive MBA industry.

Dr. Joyce Kurpiers of Percept Research attended the 2018 Executive MBA Council Southeast regional meeting February 25-27. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Coral Gables, FL, hosted the meeting with co-sponsors Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business and Florida International University’s College of Business. The event brought together about 100 attendees.

To open the conference on Monday, Melissa Holland and Florida Atlantic University’s Vegar Wiik delivered a warm welcome and opening remarks. On Tuesday, Executive Director Michael Desiderio reported on the Council’s recent achievements, upcoming events, and the state of the Executive MBA industry.

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 of Percept Research attended the 2017 Executive MBA Council Midwest regional meeting July 17-19. Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management hosted about 50 attendees at the event.

After a welcome and opening remarks from Weatherhead Assistant Dean Deborah Bibb, EMBAC Board Chair Elmer Almachar (Northwestern Kellogg) reported on the Council’s recent achievements, upcoming events, and the state of the Executive MBA industry.

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.              

Dr. Joyce Kurpiers of Percept Research, attended the 2017 Executive MBA Council Southwest regional meeting from June 13-14. The Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business hosted about 50 attendees at the event.

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.