GREEN LIGHT TO THE SUMMIT
Izmir University of Economics students are proud to have represented Turkey abroad successfully. This year’s “Challenge Future”, youth programme, was organized by CEEMAN-Central and Eastern European Management Association Network in Slovenia. EGIAD (Aegean Young Businessmen's Association) and Damla Aktan, Challenge Future Chapters Network President, and students Neslihan Dülger, Ali Dayıoğlu, Bengü Güngör attended the organization on behalf of Turkey. Both EGIAD and Damla Aktan (IUE) were given the “Inspiration of the Year 2013 Award” for their local contributions to the countries with their, “The Future of Jobs” titled Project. The Turkish team’s success gave a green light to 2014 summit to be held in Turkey.
The Summit has been an organization where more than 100 participants from 35 countries, including Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Africa, Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Lithuania, Malawi, and Pakistan, discussed about unemployment and the future of work. The participants of Challenge Future, which has been organized in Slovenia since 2010, worked on creating and implementing solutions to the problems in their own countries with the projects they developed.
Damla Aktan, the President of Challenge: Future Communities and Ph.D. student at IUE Business Management, said, “We have been representing our country in this organization since 2011. We, as a youth, are working to come up with solutions for subjects like sustainability, climate changes, hunger, income disparity, poverty, and children’s rights that are in the interest of the whole nation. This year we worked on unemployment and the future of jobs.” Aktan announced the good news about a resolution made to hold the next year’s “Challenge Future” summit in Izmir. Aktan said:
"This decision was really important. In this way, representatives of the countries will come to Izmir and work on solutions for our city, for Turkey. These applicable solutions will be very beneficial to both our city and our country. Sustainable energy, city branding, food safety, and innovation are some of the planned subjects to be discussed. The participants will be researching about Turkey throughout the year. They will develop ideas about our city and country on these subjects. We will start applying to the ministries and respective institutions that can support Izmir’s recognition worldwide. We hope we receive the positive support we need and more than 100 young representatives can generate projects for Turkey and Izmir throughout the year.”
Neslihan Dülger, the Club President of IUE Challenge Future, on the other hand, pointed out that they had a chance to meet the leading names of the Slovenian politics and economy. Dülger stated they received training on creativity and entrepreneurship form a world-renowned global management consulting firm, A.T. Kearney.
