In mid-February, during the students’ min-term break, GBSB Global Business School offers its annual Global Study Trip to Geneva, Switzerland exploring themes regarding ethics, international trade relations and intellectual property as it relates to sharing information and cooperation. During this two-day event, students will have the unique opportunity to attend dynamic lectures covering the history, functions and current work being performed by the United Nations, World Trade Organization, and World Intellectual Property Organization.
GBSB Global Business School coordinates these annual Global Study Trips to offer students a exclusive glimpse into one of the many fields of international business available to them. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. Students from GBSB Global Business School Barcelona’s master degree and master of business administration programs are invited to convene on this international stage in one of the most utopian cities in all of Europe. The organizations, the UN, WTO, and WIPO, that the students will visit February 15-16, 2017 are normally closed to the public, but the relationships GBSB Global Business School has established with these institutions allows for these visits to be arranged.
This year, the Global Study Trip will begin at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where students will meet a representative from the organization that will guide them through the second largest limb of the four main global locations. A core member of the United Nations Family, the organization’s work helps to promote peace, rights, and well-being. Housed in the Palais des Nations, a testament to the exceptional architecture of the 20th century.
GBSB students will have the incredible opportunity to take part in a general overview of the facilities, with one specific stop to the conference room with an ornately designed 4,600-foot squared dome ceiling painted in varying colors. The imagery is too big to be entirely grasped by the human eye, ever changing as the observer changes his position. This work, created by the Spanish artist Miquel Barceló, reinforces the altruistic metaphor of the complex world in which we live in today. "The world cannot be properly understood from one perspective".
During past Global Study Trips, students were involved in discussions about the global financial market and the ethical problems that exist with rating agencies worldwide. In this discussion students looked at how rating agencies across the world manipulated the evaluations which impacted markets. Other years focused on fair trade and the relationships first world countries had with the developing world.
Every year the institution’s objectives change and the discussion on humanity including:
- peace and security
- climate change
- sustainable development
- human rights
- disbarment
- terrorism
- humanitarian and health emergencies
- gender equality
- governance
- food production.
The next major destination on the students’ agenda is the headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Here, students once again meet with a representative that will usher them through the organization, describing the highlights of the institution’s primary function dealing with the rules of trade between nations. During last year’s visit, Olesia Abdullaeva, a GBSB staff member recalls the WTO representative who addressed her group, Josep Bosch, discussed dispute settlements and took the group on a very exclusive visit to a room where ambassadors represent their countries to discuss policies and a place where negotiations occur. This visit is truly memorable, where past groups have had the occasion to take pictures in the seat of their country’s ambassador, inspiring these young minds and offering insight into the world of opportunities in international business that await after graduation.
The guided tour of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) rounds out the events in Geneva. The main objective of this institution is to manage the development of balanced and efficient international intellectual property that helps foster innovation and ingenuity around the globe. This will be the first-time GBSB Global Business School will have the chance to enter this institution. The primary objective of WIPO is to act as a global service that helps file, manage or search patents, trademarks, designs, and appellations of origin, and in turn, deals with protecting this intellectual property.
The GBSB Global Business School Study Trip Has Become a Tradition
GBSB Global Business School organizes these annual Global Study Trips to institutes and businesses that are normally closed to the general public, but the relations GBSB Global Business School has established with these institutions allows for these visits to be arranged. Here at GBSB, we take pride in fostering a network of influential organizations, groups and individuals to add value to the students’ academic experience. These unique connections can lead to amazing opportunities after graduation.
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Written by Emily Dawn Szajda
