ICESOS 2016: Regional Economic Development Through Entrepreneurship and Innovation

On Thursday, 21st of April, 2016, Opening Ceremony of International Conference on Economic and Social Studies 2016 (ICESOS’16) has been held in Conference Room of International BURCH University.

Distinguished representative(s) of Embassies of Ukraine, Palestine as well as representative of Chamber of Economy of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other governmental and non-governmental institutions attended this event. This year’s keynote speakers included Mr. Muamer Jarović, CEO in Elatec company and Prof. Dr. Zlatko Lagumdžija, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The theme of this year’s conference is “How entrepreneurship and innovation can benefit regional economic development”. The conference builds on ground breaking research regarding the triple helix approach to regional economic development, which can be beneficial to the Western Balkan region. In addition it broadens the latest research from our relationships with regional educational partners, local and regional government network as well as the region’s business community.

Rector of BURCH University, Prof. Dr. Teoman Duman opened the conference by addressing the audience and explaining the importance of the continuous conference of this kind not only for BiH, but for the region as well. He emphasized that BURCH is there to support this kind of activities, and that it is encouraging all innovative and productive projects. Speaking about “Entrepreneurship and innovation” at ICESoS’ 16 is definitely a way to respond from perspective of one Higher Education Institution to new challenges of this kind.
Dean of Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. Ali COŞKUN thanked everyone who joined the conference, and especially thanked to the keynote speakers emphasizing importance of having such a relevant people at the conference to address issues of “Entrepreneurship and innovation”.
Chair of the Conference, Assist. Prof. Dr. Merdžana Obralić announced new ICESoS’17 and kindly invited all participants to join the conference again. Representative of Chamber of Economy of FBH, Mdm. Andreja Softić expressed her gratitude for this kind of an event and emphasized that Chamber of Economy of FBiH always supports academic activities, and that “Entrepreneurship and innovation” definitely deserves this kind of attention as given in this conference.

First keynote speaker, Mr. Muamer Jarović explained role of innovation, entrepreneurship and being up to date with the market from perspective of his business experiences through being a CEO in Elatec company. Audience was able to learn about entrepreneurship and innovation from real life experience of Mr. Jarović who selflessly devoted his time, knowledge and experience with people using his own company as an example. The first keynote speech focused on entrepreneurship and innovation in micro perspective.
Second keynote speaker, Prof. Dr. Zlatko Lagumdžija held impressive presentation with focus on entrepreneurship and innovation from macro perspective and its implications for micro one. He conducted benchmarking of BiH with EU and USA, as well as with the plans of UN when it comes to most important aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation. He concluded that as a country, Bosnia and Herzegovina is having progress which is slow, but still not late to be faster and to catch up other more developed countries. He also focused on issues of digitalization, related forecasts and implications for entire society, and concluded that education will have to follow technological developments in order to prevent chaos that may happen in the opposite case. Accordingly, HEIs have crucial and very responsible role in terms of preparing society for innovative technologies that are developing very quickly.

The Q&A session exposed audience’s interest to ask, discuss and contribute to the topics presented by key note speakers.
Rector of IBU, Prof. Dr. Teoman Duman handed the plaques as a sign of gratitude to keynote speakers, and after the joint cocktail, sessions of presentations started according to predetermined program.

Number of abstracts: 75 submitted papers
Number of participants: 115