120 oikos members and alumni packed their bags and booked their flights to Barcelona, Spain to participate in the oikos Spring Meeting 2018 from March 8 to 11. The Spring Meeting is our annual event hosted by different chapter every year. This year oikos Barcelona volunteered to welcome oikees to their mesmerizing city.
The Spring Meeting was comprised of a conference and workshops on Sustainable Tourism and Mobility, as well as of the oikos Legislative Meeting.
Conference and Workshops on Sustainable Tourism and Mobility
Sustainable Tourism and Mobility was the topic of the Spring Meeting this year. Dr. Oksana Udovyk, UNWTO representative spoke about the importance of Sustainable Tourism in relation with the Sustainable Development Goals, while Ricard Santomà, a professor at ESADE Business School, discussed challenges posed by tourism industry. Subsequent panel enabled the oikos members to debate the topic with the speakes.
Workshops organised by sustainability oriented companies enabled our members to learn how
sustainability is integrated into real business models. The oikos workshops also discussed sustainable tourism and mobility from different angles. For example, workshop on Pluralist Economics focused on solving the problems in sustainable tourism industry considering different perspective of the diverse schools of economic thought, meanwhile Knowledge Exchange Workshop devoted attention on sharing sustainable mobility practices from different countries.
In addition, oikos Chapters presented their local projects during the Project Fair and walked around Barcelona with the hosts from oikos Barcelona Chapter.
oikos Legislative Meeting
The participants had an opportunity to meet candidates for oikos President 2019&2020, listen to their speeches and ask questions during the debate session. 29 chapters out of 38 eligible to vote took part in the election. Majority of them (58,62%) voted in favour of Clémentine Robert, oikos Reims alumna, former oikos EB and current oikos Outreach Manager. Clémentine will officially take office in October, 2018.
Part of the Legislative Meeting also focused on discussions around topics vital for our organization. The participants debated and voted in favour of the new wording for oikos vision and mission, as well as for our core values of respect, integrity, accountability and openness, that have been our guiding principles for the past 30 years. oikos Annual Report 2017 was also approved during the voting session. In addition, oikos Belgrade and oikos Lund became full chapters of oikos.
The Spring Meeting enabled our members to meet their friends from the oikos community and get inspired for a fruitful year ahead.
Pictures from the event are available on our flickr page.
