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Business Week 2013

Starts:
Finishes:
Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street

No booking required

Our theme for Business Week 2013 was Sustainable Working Life and Well-Being, which encompassed the research in all four departments of the School.

In the Business Week lecture series, we explored the concept of “information overload” and how it affects individual performance, as well as reviewing the technologist’s dilemma at a macro level. We examined the legacy of the recession, the impact on our mental health and why the affluence of the western world does not appear to correlate with increased levels of personal happiness. Can we learn from recent mistakes and create a more balanced approach for our economy and our society?

Workplace change is probably the only element of working life that can be guaranteed at present, but with constant change comes the need to increase engagement and resilience. What are best practices in employee engagement and how can we successfully drive change through complex businesses but satisfy the need to remain competitive?

Our academics and keynote speakers provided some responses to these dilemmas as well as posing other thought-provoking questions.

Alongside this event, the School launched its Centre for Sustainable Working Life and had a range of experts and practitioners in the well-being field present during Business Week to add a pragmatic and entertaining element to the week.

Philip Powell

Pro Vice-Master (Enterprise and Innovation) and Executive Dean, School of Business, Economics and Informatics

Programme

Monday 24 June 2013

Computer Science and Information Systems

2.30pm Fighting infobesity through statistical language models
Dr Dell Zhang (Birkbeck)

4pm Raising awareness of environmental initiatives through smartphone technology
Professor George Roussos (Birkbeck) and Mitch Steprans (inmidtown)

The Andrew Booth Memorial Lecture
6.15pm Rich or right? The technologist's dilemma
Ken Olisa OBE

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Organizational Psychology

2pm Introduction to Sustainable Working Life
Professor Tom Cox CBE (Birkbeck)

3.30pm The Centre for Sustainable Working Life at Birkbeck
Dr Juliet Hassard (Birkbeck)

The Alec Rodger Memorial Lecture
6.15pm Engage for Success, putting people at the heart of our approach
David MacLeod

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Economics, Mathematics and Statistics

2.30pm Have consumers in rich countries become harried in their attempt to increase the productivity of their leisure time?
Professor John Driffill (Birkbeck)

4pm Happiness and Capabilities
Professor Ron Smith (Birkbeck)

The Ronald Tress Memorial Lecture
6.15pm How can we make the economy more innovative and creative – and reduce the risks of monopoly, predation and harm?
Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta

Thursday 27 June 2013

Management

2.30pm Europe and the Crisis: Hard Times for Workers
Dr Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick (Birkbeck) and Professor Richard Hyman (LSE)

4pm Elizabeth Cotton (Middlesex)
The politics of mental health at work

The Lord Marshall Memorial Lecture
6.15pm Business in a Changing World
Willie Walsh

Stands

To support our theme of Sustainable Working Life and Well-Being, you will have the opportunity to meet a range of practitioners who are working in the field or have a story to tell about an aspect of well-being related to work, including:

The Birkbeck Enterprise Hub
A student-led non-profit organisation striving to cultivate entrepreneurial ideas and support new ventures. Meet some of the entrepreneurs who are developing their businesses in the health and well-being arena.

Nutritional advice
Chat to our visiting team about your current diet or lifestyle to get some personal tips on how to improve your well-being and reduce stress.  Also, try our exercise bike and see how much energy it takes to make a smoothie!

Korean Hand Therapy
Combining Chinese medicine with kinesiology and reflexology, Korean hand therapy will help to balance your nervous system, create a sense of relaxation and enhance your immune system.
 

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