Newsletter, August 2016
X-Culture new season about to begin, you can still apply
Can you recommend good IB professors from outside the U.S.?
We need help with developing training courses for the X-Culture Coaching Program
Upcoming Academy of International Business Southeast USA conference
Can you recommend companies with interesting products for the X-Culture competition?
Recent AIB and AOM conferences
Visiting scholar opportunity, the University of Macerata, Italy
X-CULTURE NEW SEASON ABOUT TO BEGIN
Dates:
2016-2a: August 29-October 15
2016-2b: October 1-November 25*
*Note: the U.S. Thanksgiving is Nov 25 this year. Because the U.S.-based students about for almost ½ of all students in the “late” track, we had to move the project end date to Dec 2. We will strongly encourage the teams to submit their work by Nov 25 to allow sufficient time for report grading, but the system will stay open through Dec 2 if the team needs more time to submit the report in the light of a major holiday coinciding with the project end date.
If you would like to participate in X-Culture this season, please submit your application as soon as possible here: http://x-culture.org/apply/
REFER GOOD IB PROFESSORS FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S.
The number of applications continues rising (this year about 30% more than last year, which was about 30% more than the year before). The problem is to keep our teams culturally balanced, we must recruit 4 participants from outside the U.S. for every participant from within the U.S. For now, the ratio of the application increase is more like 1:2 (when 1:4 is needed).
To keep our teams reasonably culturally balanced, we had to place many highly qualified U.S. applicants on a waiting list. They can only participate if we recruit more qualified participants from outside the U.S.
Hence, I am reaching out to you: if you know professors who teach IB or related courses OUTSIDE the U.S., please let us know. You can either refer them directly to the X-Culture website
http://x-culture.org/for-instructors/ ,
or send me their contacts and I’ll send them more information and personal invitations.
It does NOT mean, of course, that all applications from outside the U.S. will be automatically accepted. Quality is above all. But if you know the professor will do a good, your recommendation will help a lot.
HELP WITH DEVELOPING TRAINING COURSES FOR THE X-CULTURE COACHING PROGRAM
After a series of successful tests over the past few semesters, we’re officially launching the Certified X-Culture Coach Program. People who successfully completed X-Culture in the past will be offered an opportunity to receive training as global team coaches.
The program will require to:
- Apply to the X-Culture GVT Coach Program
- Take a theoretical training course in GVT coaching, includes:
- Pass a theoretical GVT coaching test
- If test passed, receive practical training by coaching X-Culture teams for one semester
- Pass a practical GVT coaching test to receive the X-Culture Certified GVT Coach Certificate
The coaches will be available on demand. If a team needs help or seeks feedback and suggestions on their work, they will be able to receiving coaching. If the team prefers to work autonomously, they don’t have to use coaching.
We’re now trying to develop the theoretical training program for the Coaches – and your help here would be much appreciated. Please let me know if you can help with materials for the following courses:
- International communication
- International conflict resolution
- Virtual electronic communication and collaboration tools
- Global virtual team leadership and management
- The art of business research and report writing
- Literature referencing styles
- Plagiarism and cheating
- Sexual harassment in international context
At a minimum, your help could be links to relevant short readings or videos. At a maximum, you can prepare a complete online course including video lectures, readings, and more. Any level of support would be appreciated.
The goal is to eventually develop a series of online course related to International Business that may be offered to a larger audience beyond the X-Culture crowd, possibly for a fee that will be shared with the course developers. This semester, the X-Culture Coach Program will be free, but if it goes well, it is possible there will be a fee. Part of it will be used to manage the program, but part may be shared with the course developers.
For now, of course, the main three goals of the program are: (1) Improve the experience of X-Culture students through availability of high-quality coaching, (2) Provide former X-Culture participants with opportunities to learn more, and (3) Improve quality of the reports submitted by X-Culture teams through coaching.
UPCOMING AIB-SE
On November 10-14, X-Culture will be participating in the Academy of International Business Southeast USA conference. This year, the conference is aboard of the cruise ship, leaving from Florida, going to Cozumel (an Island in the Caribbean region, Mexico jurisdiction), and back to Florida.
The X-Culture team will be presenting 14 papers/panel sessions/professional development workshops.
About 20 professors and 50 best X-Culture students will be attending the conference.
RECOMMEND CORPORATE PARTNERS FOR X-CULTURE
As we are trying to have a new list of corporate partners every semester, so our students work on a new set of challenges each time, we’re looking for companies with interesting products that are interested in using our help with solving their international business challenges.
If you have, work with, or know of a company that may benefit from collaboration with X-Culture, please let me know. It does not have to be a large company, but it has to be one that is interesting to expanding into new countries.
More information on what a company gets out of it and what we expect in exchange here.
It could be a great opportunity for you to score some points, too: X-Culture offers a tremendous value to our corporate partners, so the company management will love you more if you present them with this opportunity.
RECENT AIB AND AOM CONFERENCES
We just came back from the Academy of International Business (New Orleans, LA) and Academy of Management (Anaheim, CA) conferences where we presented a number of papers and organized several panel sessions. We had our usual X-Culture Dinner at each conference – a rare opportunity for us to meet in person. Thank you all who was able to attend!
Those who haven’t – hope to see you at the upcoming AIB-SE (cruise ship), AIB (Dubai) and AOM (Atlanta) conferences.
VISITING Scholar opportunity, the University of Macerata, Italy
Dr. Ernesto Tavoletti, one of the X-Culture Veteran’s, invited applications for a visiting scholar opportunity at his university in Italy. The University of Macerate is one of the world’s oldest universities and has a vibrant team of International Business scholars. The position is for a minimum of two months and offers a travel stipend of € 3.000,00 plus living accommodations. More information here: http://www.unimc.it/en/about/calls-for-applications-and-public-competitions
Please contact Dr. Tavoletti directly if you have any questions.