With the traditional June Gathering of Managers, Serbian Association of Managers started marking its 15th anniversary
In the year of celebrating its 15th anniversary, Serbian Association of Managers (SAM) traditionally organised the June Gathering of Managers. The event also represented the opportunity sum up the challenging year, when Serbian Association of Managers provided active support to its members and the business sector, continued to contribute to the improvement of the business climate and be a responsible partner to the state and the business community in finding efficient solutions for maintaining business operations and employees. Events and projects planned until the end of the year were announced as well.
In 2020, 50 initiatives were executed and launched, with more than 4,000 active participants. During the state of emergency, SAM was the first to launch the ‘Business in Challenging Times’ online conferences for the business sector, whereas with the ‘Circular Migrations’ project, SAM pointed to the ongoing issue of young people leaving the country. The end of the year was marked by the Annual Awards ceremony under the RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP slogan, where awards for outstanding managers, employers and socially responsible companies were granted.
This year, when SAM is marking its 15th anniversary, the SAM Academy was established, with more than 30 renowned businesspeople as lecturers, aimed at further improving skills and knowledge of managers, future ‘leaders for the 21st century’. Activities expecting managers and a wider social community until the end of the year are announced as well.
‘A lot is behind us, and many important initiatives are ahead of us. Challenging times motivate us to be better, more agile and flexible to changes in the market and changes in needs of businesses. Our goal is that we all together work for the wellbeing not only of our members, managers, but also of entrepreneurs, companies and the entire society, as well as new, young managers and young generations. In addition to the SAM Academy, the first half of the year was marked by the 6th generation of the Mentorship Program, as well as a program for entrepreneurs, whereas in the second half we are continuing with regular activities, lectures for students. SAM is one of the partners in the Erasmus ADA project, wherein the ‘Advanced Data Analytics in Business’ academic master studies of Novi Sad University received an accreditation. This is the first of its kind program that has been accredited and I am very glad that we part of this project, which primarily aims to empower new generations with modern knowledge for the future. Also, we will focus on facilitating wide cooperation and connecting with businesspeople from regional centres across Serbia, because only unfirm regional development contributes to enhancing competitiveness of our country,’ said Dragoljub Damljanović, SAM President, who also pointed to the SAM Annual Awards ceremony held in December.
Jelena Bulatović, SAM Executive Director, also underlined the relevance of the 15th anniversary and everything that Serbian Association of Managers accomplished with the business community of Serbia, noting the following:
‘The June Gathering is the event where our association sums up achievements in the first half of a year and presents activities planned for a coming period. However, it has an additional role this year – to gather us all again in person, as well as to mark the official beginning of celebrating SAM’s 15th anniversary. As part of those activities, SAM will focus on work with youth in the coming months. Aiming to fully support future generations, SAM opened its doors for membership to the best university students in Serbia and we are happy to assist in their further development.’
As SAM’s major strength are people eager to share their know-how and experience, helping in shaping new leaders, who will be at the helm of the business sector of this country in the future, special charters of gratitude were granted at the June Gathering to SAM members who have been with it since the establishment, for efforts and long-standing commitment in building SAM as a credible organisation gathering most reputable professional managers in Serbia.
The guests were also addressed by Dejan Turk, CEO of A1 Serbia and Slovenia, the main sponsor of the June Gathering, who emphasised that we all need to be part of change and that it is necessary in life to do things that can make a big difference.
