Annual Conference 2025 - Sofia, Bulgaria

The 38th Annual Businet Conference was held at the Hilton Sofia in Bulgaria, between the 12th and 14th November. There were 3 keynote addresses and 23 Best Practice Workshops.  A Panel discussed ‘Working with Asian Partners’. And the event also featured a ‘re-imagined’ Thinking Out Loud session where delegates took to the stage to present their motivation for being at the conference.  Alongside the 16 Working and Special Interest Groups who met to consider ideas, activities and projects for international collaboration, the new Decision Makers Forum considered HE challenges and opportunities from a strategic point of view.

Keynote Presentations

• Toleen Badawi | Unlocking GenZ Potential: Coaching Strategies for Future-Ready Multigenerational Workforce
• Jānis Grēviņš, PhD | Re-Imagining Higher Education: Combining Digital Innovation and Human Ingenuity
• Michael Jack Meallam | Beyond the Classroom: Cultivating Change Agents
• Panel Discussion | Working with Asian Partners (Panel: Tarun Anand, Toleen Badawi and Michael Meallam)
• Thinking Out Loud | Facilitated by Owen Ross

Workshop Presentations

• Griet t'Servranckx - Sharing and Discovering Best Practices in Collaboration with a Global South partner
• Toleen Badawi - Bridging the Generational Gap: Practical Coaching Tools to Engage and Retain Gen Z Talent
• Tijs van Es - Business Modeling Game: Stimulating Entrepreneurship in Education
• Elizabeth Soliday-Naui - Staying Informed, Staying Relevant: Empowering the Academic Community to Monitor and Integrate AI Innovations
• Marco Lamas - Online Entrepreneurial Mindset Behaviour Analysis: Empowering Students and Educators through Data-Driven Curriculum Design
• Gene Vangampelaere - Prompt Engineering – Get More Out of AI
• Paweł Urgacz - Innovation Starts with the Teacher – So Why Do We Keep Forgetting Them?
• Dominique Ropson - The Brain-Gut Connection : Eating for Focus & Learning
• Deborah Vanbeckevoort, Kristel Vanstalle and Jurgen Basstanie - Crossing Borders: The Essential Role of Language and Intercultural Preparation in International Student projects
• Danny Volkaerts - 🧠Think with AI: How Collaborative GenAI Agents Can Supercharge Your Workflow in Education & Research
• Heidi Verveacke - Beyond Borders and Bottom Lines: Developing Inclusive and Global Business Leaders
• Owen Ross - Student Success by Design: The TUS Blueprint for Reducing Dropouts
• Faith Fung & Marlies de Vette - How project-oriented education leads to impact during graduation
• Dr Noelle O’Connor and Dr Trevor Prendergast - Embedding Digital Competencies in Higher Education Curricula: An Irish university perspective
• Tibor Vörös - Too Much to Do, Too Little Support? Burnout in Universities Discussed
• Michael Meallam - Beyond Profit: Inspiring the Next Generation of Social Innovators (Because the best ideas don’t just make money—they make change)
• Jānis Grēviņš - Re-Imagining Higher Education – The Role of AI
• Sven Cerulus - Celebrating 5 years of E³UDRES² European University Alliance: lessons learned and the road ahead
• Ria Slingerland, Marina Letonja and Helge Fischer Game4Change - When students need to be activated
• Tony Johnston and Dr Noelle OConnor - Inspiring tourism entrepreneurship to support Refugees
• Jesmond Friggieri - Navigating the Challenges of Gen Z in the Workplace
• Margarita Katsarova,Visit Sofia – Bulgaria Unveiled: A Journey Through Bulgarian Traditions, Tastes, Scenery and Academic Excellence.
• Julia Huismann - Intercultural Challenges in the Global Classroom in the times of Geopolitical conflict: One size fits them all?

Businet would like to thank Visit Sofia for their support and contribution to the 38th Annual Conference.