'This Year's AMEC Is Both Challenge and Opportunity'

Analytics for Management and Economics Conference has ended at HSE University — St. Petersburg. In 2020, the conference had a distributed online format. Four months, thirteen tracks, over 300 participants from 20 countries — we tell you what it was like.

Analytics for Management and Economics Conference (AMEC) is an international conference that brings together scholars, lecturers, doctorate, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as business experts from all over the world. In 2020, the conference moved online, and more participants had a chance to discuss their academic interests, share ideas, and meet like-minded people.

It is the fourth time HSE St. Petersburg welcomes AMEC. It encourages active and motivated members of the international community with interest in management, economics, finance, and business, share their experience and ideas in a comfortable communication environment.

In 2020, AMEC's format changed. The previous conferences lasted a few days, but now the educational tracks are available online from September to December. There are 13 tracks on topics ranging from 'Data Analysis in the Industry 4.0. Era' or 'Entrepreneurship and Innovations on Emerging Markets' to 'Transformation of Business Models of Companies in Response to the Challenges of the Pandemic' and 'Analytics in Arts and Culture Management'. Foreign universities and centres collaborated with AMEC to organize some of the tracks presented in the conference. For example, the University of Vaasa assisted with an organization of the track 'Finance and Accounting', while the IÉSEG Center for Marketing Analysis in France contributed to the track 'Advances in Business Analytics'.

Angel Barajas, Head of the Department of Finance, Chairman of the Programme Committee:

This year's AMEC was both a challenge and an opportunity. Preparation for the conference took more than a year. We had started planning organisational moments in November 2019, but the last track ended just a couple of weeks ago. We had to hold the conference online, and the results turned out to be impressive: speakers from 18 countries presented over 100 reports. More than 300 persons participated in the conference, and over 40 people attended each of 13 tracks. Probably, we would not have achieved such results if we had had an in-person conference. Thus, I believe that the conference was fruitful from an academic point of view.

Unfortunately, we did not have any chance to show our hospitality and present our beautiful HSE campus on Kantemirovskaya street and charming St. Petersburg. But we do hope to do that next time.

I would also like to mention the incredible work of the conference's organizing committee. We had to follow complex technical requirements, but everything went rather well in the end. Another point I should mention is what major role chairpersons of the tracks had in the conference. I fail words to express my thanks for their contribution to AMEC!

Elena Rogova, Dean of the St.Petersburg School of Economics and Management, Programme Committee Member:

'This year conference was held entirely online. It lasted almost four months instead of two days. It was a challenge for us: we had to keep participants' attention and gather a worthy audience. And we completely succeeded in it. Participants from each track could listen to a lot of interesting reports, and students of other universities, as well as many HSE students, managed to attend the conference. Active work of the programme committee made all this possible. Unlike other online conferences I have ever participated in, we had vivid discussions within all the AMEC tracks, and our colleagues got valuable, comprehensive feedback.

We should individually thank the organizing committee. Accompanying all the tracks, they were working smoothly, so that we avoided any troubles.

Of course, we hope to have the conference on campus next year because nothing can replace live communication. But now we are experienced in hosting major international conferences online, and we can do it again if necessary.

Scholars and business experts from every corner of the world attended Analytics for Management and Economics Conference this year. The online format made it easier to take part in the conference as the internet access was the only technical requirement to join. The participants were from Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, China, the Netherlands, Norway, the USA, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, and many other counties. Bringing together viewpoints and ideas of almost the entire world community made the conference platform unique.

A collection of AMEC 2020 publications was issued following the results of the conference. It comprises over 100 works on management analytics, economics, and finance.