UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Smeal College of Business has been tapped to serve as the sponsor and host of the international MBA Roundtable annual Curricular Innovation Symposium on Oct. 29-30.
Long respected as a premier forum for innovation in graduate business education, the event annually attracts more than 130 academic leaders and faculty members from across the country.
This year, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic placed in jeopardy the traditional in-person format, compelling the organization’s leaders to seek a partner with an extensive track record in delivering educational content and engaging learners online. Jeff Bieganek, executive director of the MBA Roundtable, said Smeal emerged as the ideal partner to reinvent the meeting and to ensure that it may continue while ensuring the health and safety of its attendees.
“The MBA Roundtable is excited to be delivering our annual Curricular Innovation Symposium virtually and is honored to have Penn State’s Smeal College of Business as our academic sponsor. This year’s theme is incredibly timely and important, and we are especially excited about the possibility of the increased participation of both our global membership along with faculty and program leaders who are focused on social responsibility curriculum,” Bieganek said.
“We couldn’t do it without the support of the Smeal College of Business who quickly and generously stepped up to support us in the virtual delivery of our symposium. Its long and successful history of delivering an extensive portfolio of online programs will be a tremendous asset to the success of our 2020 symposium. We are excited to see everyone at our symposium this fall.”
Upwards of 140 universities are members of the MBA Roundtable, 15% of which are international. The virtual format will allow multiple individuals from member and nonmember schools to participate in this year’s theme, “Building Increased Impact and Purpose into your MBA Program, meeting the demands for social responsibility, sustainability, and inclusion in the MBA.”
Brian Cameron, Penn State Smeal’s associate dean for professional graduate programs, serves on the roundtable’s board and has spoken at the symposium numerous times in the past.
“Penn State has been offering online education since 1999, and we are pleased to be able to use our experience and capabilities to develop and implement a variety of high-quality, highly-interactive virtual learning experiences for this premier event,” he said.
From 2014 through 2019, Smeal’s Professional Graduate Programs portfolio has grown from just four programs to 26. Smeal offers more concentrations and professional graduate certificates than any business school in the United States, with an integrated portfolio of classroom/residential, online, and hybrid options.
With more than 90,000 graduates throughout the world, Penn State Smeal has one of the largest alumni networks in the country.