I’ve been going to the international conference of the Oriental Business and Innovation Center (OBIC) since 2018. That is whenever the world allowed me to do so. I couldn’t go last year, though I had bought my flight ticket and only went online this year. Online is not bad, but enjoying your coffee breaks and lunches in your own home is not as exciting as chatting around real food and beverages in Budapest.
And yet, it had been a great conference. Professional, warm, with just the right mix of local touch, in the perfect amounts.
The theme of the conference this year? And the programme? And Book of Abstracts? You can find all the information here: https://www.obic-bbs.hu/en/obic-conference-2021/ or if you prefer Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/obicbbs.
What you cannot find, however, is the inner dynamics and chemistry of the event. That you can experience only by participating.
For example, after one of the plenary sessions, the speaker, Professor Voskressenski, was asked many questions mostly variations around what you can see in the picture below.
The answer, with a smile, was along the following points:
“Interesting question. Thank you. Russia has a very good relation with China, but this relation is not an alliance. It’s a partnership. They understand each other, it’s about economic benevolence. There’s centralization clearly, but it’s because of the uncertainties we have to face. So what should the US hinder?” (An approximate rendition of his words)
And as an echo, the words of David Morris during a round table on “The Rise of New Technologies and National Security Challenges”: Russia and China are comfortable together.
These are only glimpses. However, I could not possibly skip our own participation in Panel C2 of OBIC – “Culture and Education in the Era of Digitalization” moderated by Professor Emerita Judit Hidasi. We had been blessed by the presence of some of our colleagues from home, thank you Dana Radler and Irina Ion. And possibly others. One of the disadvantages of this otherwise excellent cloud event was that we could not see each other. There’s no perfection, is there!?!
The discussions in our panel were vivid, with good questions and challenging answers. The only disappointment – more time for discussions. Again, real coffee breaks and meals are great for networking and continuing discussions beyond the programme.
My personal takeaways from this event? There are too many and too important to discard in a last few words. Therefore, I’ll write another post.
