How do you gather great business leaders?
Denmark’s leading CEOs are once again among the speakers when the Aarhus Symposium takes place on the first Friday in November for the fifth straight year. Behind the event is a group of students, who - with skill, courage and curiosity - have created something special.
On Friday 4 November, you will find, among others, the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Jais Valeur (CEO Danish Crown), Bjarke Ingels (CEO BIG) and Peder Holk Nielsen (CEO Novozymes) at Fuglesangs Allé, where this year’s Aarhus Symposium will be held with a customarily impressive setup. And while it does not immediately show, the entire event is fully organised and run by students from Aarhus BSS.
But how do they do it, the students behind the Aarhus Symposium? According to Philipp Schröder, chair of the Aarhus Symposium and professor in economics at Aarhus BSS, by having an extraordinary level of ambition.
“Where many would be content with ‘repeating the success’, the Aarhus Symposium has a culture where you always try to exceed last year’s event. They have an exceptional ability and desire to reinvent themselves year after year, which not only takes skill - but also a good amount of courage,” says Philipp Schröder.
Cultural memory
You must be a student to be a part of the Aarhus Symposium. As such, a high turnover of organisers is part of the event’s DNA.
“The Aarhus Symposium has an ‘employee’ turnover rate that would turn most companies’ hair grey. But incredibly, they are capable of having a cultural memory and passing on their culture,” says Philipp Schröder, and continues:
“Perhaps it is related to the curiosity with which the students in the Aarhus Symposium approach things. A curiosity that becomes particularly powerful when combined with skill. I’m sure that Bjarke Ingels will be able to see himself in many of these young people when he joins the symposium,” says Philipp Schröder.
Leaders of tomorrow
No one knows what the future holds. But the Aarhus Symposium payoff, “Leaders of today connecting with leaders of tomorrow”, is probably not a completely unrealistic future scenario for the many people involved.
It takes a special kind of skill set to organise a setup the size of the Aarhus Symposium; To be able to split the event into smaller projects, set sub-goals, organise and structure preparations during an entire year so that it all culminates with an event in November where everything goes according to plan.
“There is no question that everyone who has been part of the Aarhus Symposium possesses a great deal of human capital and some very unique skills within project management. Invaluable competences, which can be used in any context in a company or organisation,” concludes Philipp Schröder.
The students are responsible for holding and running the Aarhus Symposium. However, they are supported by a board which, in addition to Philipp Schröder, includes Michael Svarer, professor of economics at Aarhus BSS and chief economic advisor as well as the two founders of the Aarhus Symposium, Jens Riis Andersen, management consultant at McKinsey & Company and Kasper Vinther Olesen, Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London. The Aarhus Symposium takes place on Friday 4 November. Almost 400 students secured a seat through the Aarhus Symposium Challenge. The remaining seats were snapped up in less than one minute. Further information on the Aarhus Symposium.
