Riga will host in a hybrid format again the three international scientific/applied sciences conferences Business Competences, Trade Marketing and Business Environment. It will be organized by the Riga Business Conference Center in cooperation with ISMA University.

Prof.Dr.B.Hallier explained : " As the European Retail Academy we empower this initiative as we see an ongoing continuity in this cross-border platform for the Baltic countries which have an unique history and which is a bridge-builder for all territories around the Batic Sea - and last but not least it is a mix between university research and business-cases".
 

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At her stay for vocational training within the ERA-network Susanne Järvenpää checked three cities along the river Rhine - all belonging to the German county of NRW, but each with a different history and urban revitalizatrion strategy. Bonn was choosen after World War II as a "provisorial capital" of West Germany as it was small and unimportant : ready to hand over its functions again to Berlin after Reunification of Germany. Today it has its charme by its University and the UN campus - and relaxing green bicyle-routes along the river side.

Cologne was once beside Jerusalem, Byzanz/Konstantinopel and Rome the fourth Holy City : the Dom is dominating the city skyline. The Catholic Church is still a big factor in the daily life. Düsseldorf on the other hand is the administration center of all NRW : the Gate of Glass of the regional Government's Prime Minister is significant for the political claim of transparency.
 

After graduating from school in Finland Susanne Jarvenpaa first explorered Japan by working there for nearly 5 years , then being for nearly 2 years in the UK before returning to her home-country to serve as a Lapland tour-guide.

Now Susanne is cooperating in Germany with the network of the European Retail Academy via the Rovaniemi partner. "Life-long-learning is a must in our permanent changing world" she explained her intentions about her traineeship to Prof.Dr.B.Hallier during a walk through the historic part of down-town Cologne.
 

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The vocational training of Joni Harrinkosti and Veeti Maaninka both from the School of Rovaniemi/Finland now in Germany was used to connect by Zoom for 90 minutes with Dr.Alina Pukhovskaya/Russia beinfg trainee at 2006 and Dr.Violena Nencheva/Bulgaria (trainee 2021/2022) and now teaching in Mexico to exchange their experiences about the start and continuation of the ERA-MainSite and its SubSites and the potential technical new options for improvements in the next three months.

For Prof.Dr.B.Hallier the Zoom Workshop served the following ambitions : a) It was a Trainee Workshop : leaving the Teacher only backstage . b) It was a flat hierarchy with ages spread from 74 years down to 17 years. c) The focus was with the youngsters : having the IT-knowledge of young people who in their traineeships want to learn the use of Applied Sciences - but being by this the real drivers of innovation.

Already for more than a decade youngsters from the school in Rovaniemi/Finland come for vocational training to the HQ of the European Retail Academy in Germany. Their field of Applied Sciences is according to Prof.Dr.B.Hallier to learn all steps of Communication during their stay: attention, interest, desire, action . Last but not least the traineeship is always a mix of training on the job + understanding the local culture.

In May/June 2022 Joni Harrinkoski and Veeti Maaninka follow the former trainees and develop a Content-Page for all News of the main-Site of ERA www.european-retail-academy.org ; furtheron they will help to upgrade the ERA-IT-technologies. The supervision comes digitally by far-distance by the former Bulgarian trainee Dr.Violena Nencheva - now living in Mexico. This Team will be already in May digitally in touch with the next trainee from Finland who will arrive in the end of June to stay in Germaqny in July. This way of remote training + on-the-job units will be the future of learning according to Hallier.