Johannesburg will play host to the 30th annual Pan Pacific Business Conference which will be co-hosted by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) at the Sandton Convention Centre from 3 – 6 June.
Themed ‘Forging the Legacies of Emerging Economies’, this is the first time this convention has been held outside the Pan-Pacific Rim with representation from a number of high level delegations from 18 countries including South Korea, USA, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Spain, Indonesia and China to name just a few.
The conferenceserves as an important forum for the exchange of ideas and information to promote understanding and cooperation among the peoples of the world.
States Programme Chair, Professor Sang M Lee from the University of Nebraska says, “The theme is most appropriate for the Johannesburg conference in view of the fast changing global economic order and ever increasing roles that emerging economies play, especially a dynamic South Africa.
During this conference we shall explore how the legacies of emerging economies are forged by examining developing organisational leadership, the dovetailing of economic and workforce development, the war for talent and the flexing of technological muscle on the local and global stages.”
According to Prof Gerhard Roodt, Chairman of the local organising committee from the University of Johannesburg, there is much to be learned from the Pan-Pacific Business Association, “The association counts many emerging economies amongst its members and their journeys show much commonality with countries in our part of the world. A sharing of experiences will yield lessons for both regions.”
Conference delegates will hear discussions on how global organisations make sense of localised mindsets; the role of universities in developing leadership; the lack of entrepreneurial small and medium-sized businesses in Africa; how to recruit and retain the right employees; how diversity sparks creativity, as well as the use of technology to pull local perspectives into global product innovation.
International keynote speakers include visionaries like Sang, president of the Pan-Pacific Association, who coined the term ‘convergenomics’ to describe how megatrends across the globe transform human behaviour and shape organisations and Prof Fed Luthans of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an expert on leveraging psychological capital as a competitive advantage.
Among a host of South African speakers are Bobby Godsell, Chairperson of Business Leadership; Daneel van Lill, Executive Dean of UJ’s Faculty of Management; Jabulane Mabuza, Chairman of Telecom SA and Kofi Amegashi, Managing Director of Adcock Ingram South Africa.
Along with panel discussions, 34 concurrent breakout sessions will be held focusing on a range of public and private organisations and projects that have succeeded or failed in attempts to foster globally sustainable trade and development. Sectors that will come under examination will be health, education, communication technologies, tourism, human resources and marketing.
The Pan-Pacific Business Association, formed in 1984, provides a forum for scholars, executives and government officials to discuss issues relating to an improved quality of life. It emphasises effective utilisation of human resources, technology and multilateral economic activities across borders. It promotes an understanding industrial and trade policies in member countries, as well as their socio-cultural backgrounds. It facilitates the adaptation of new management approaches, development research and the export of education programmes through co-operative arrangements.
