UK academics share insights into business events in IJBEL STUDIO session

14 September 2022 – The recent fifth instalment of the International Journal of Business Events and Legacies’ (IJBEL) IJBEL STUDIO Series at Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) featured visiting academics from Brunel University in a session hosted by Prof. Andreas Zins, Chief Editor of IJBEL and Dean of Curtin Malaysia’s Faculty of Business.

The academics comprised Prof. Ainurul Rosli, Dr. Asieh Hosseini Tabaghdehi, Dr. Jane Chang and Dr. Sharifah Alwi, who shared their views on business events in the United Kingdom.

Prof. Ainurul, who is currently leading a UK government scheme to upskill and build human capacity, spoke of her programme to help small businesses to grow. She elaborated how her team organises online and offline training and events to cater to different groups of business participants, with a focus on not only capability building for the businesses, but also the capacity of academics handling and dealing with these businesses.

Dr. Tabaghdehi, meanwhile, highlighted the need for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to digitalise as well as capitalise on available and new technologies to grow their businesses in a post-COVID-19 economy.

Dr. Chang, who is academic and impact lead for the Executive Education Programme in the UK, said she aimed to facilitate knowledge transfer from the United Kingdom to Malaysia. She hoped that through knowledge transfer, academics and researchers in Malaysia will be able to create a better ecosystem that ultimately helps local SMEs.

According to Dr. Chang, knowledge transfer between academia and industry is one of the most promising measures to strengthen economic development. Importantly, government agencies should realise that in order to move forward, they cannot work in silos and should instead embrace social innovation through knowledge transfer partnerships with academia.

She added that in the business event context, all stakeholders including the organisers, government, host community and general business, need to be aware of their respective roles and impacts. Universities are in a good position to initiate collaborations among these stakeholders to create better social value, thereby leading to a greater ecosystem and event legacies. The impacts will be significant and long-lasting, she said.

Dr. Sharifah supported this view, saying that knowledge sharing between academia and business owners should be one of the main support mechanisms for SMEs. She also said that strategic direction is the key to success in the business events industry.

IJBEL is Sarawak’s online platform for students, academics, researchers, industry practitioners and policymakers to understand the relationship between hosting business events and correlating activities such as management, economics and entrepreneurship among many other disciplines.

Launched earlier this year, it is the world’s first online journal to merge business events and legacy topics and is jointly published by Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak) and Curtin Malaysia in collaboration with Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sarawak, the Sarawak Research Society and other partners.

The IJBEL STUDIO Series is a secondary platform that presents IJBEL in a studio setting to with interests in business events and would like to learn more about related issues such as marketing, tourism development, management, economics, entrepreneurship, hospitality and legacies, among others. The series also provides participants with comprehensive guidelines for writing and submitting papers to IJBEL for publication.

Contributions of research papers from the industry to IJBEL are highly valued. IJBEL publishes major papers, reports and reviews providing high-quality content that advances knowledge for researchers, practitioners, consumers and policymakers. The journal can be accessed at ijbel.businesseventssarawak.com and enquiries can be directed to Managing Editor Dr. Tiong Ying Ying at tiongyingying@curtin.edu.my or Editorial Secretary Dr. Fayrene Chieng at fayrene.chieng@curtin.edu.my.

For more information on Curtin Malaysia, visit its website at curtin.edu.my or look for Curtin Malaysia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or Tiktok.

Prof Andreas Zins (3rd left) moderating the session with (L-R) Dr Sharifah Alwi, Dr Asieh Hosseini Tabaghdehi, Prof Ainurul Rosli and Dr Jane Chang.