From May 19 to 23, 2025, the Department of Management and Smart Innovations of the Faculty of Management and Business Design held Management Week at KNUTD. The program included various events: Hackathon "Management + Design = Innovation", personal branding competition for students "I am a Brand", social experiment "Social Influence of a Leader", scientific and practical seminar "Career Trajectories in Management". The course of events is described in more detail below.
The Hackathon "Management + Design = Innovation: from a creative idea to a successful business", which was dedicated to Science Day, was held on May 20, 2025 as an interdepartmental event of the Faculty of Management and Business Design. Information about the Hackathon "Management + Design = Innovation: from a creative idea to a successful business" is provided at the link: https://knutd.edu.ua/pod-ta-publkats/news/18663/
On May 21, 2025, the student personal branding competition "I Am a Brand" was held. Its purpose was to develop skills in effective self-presentation, personal brand building, and professional positioning among higher education students.
The moderators of the event were Svitlana Nevmerzhytska, PhD, Associate Professor, and Tetyana Tsalko, PhD, Associate Professor, both from the Department of Management and Smart Innovations.
The competition was attended by first-year students majoring in “Management”, who had the opportunity to showcase themselves in various categories such as the video presentation “My Brand – My Story” and self-presentation in the form of a personal achievements portfolio titled “Present Yourself to the Employer,” among others.
The evaluation criteria included creativity, consistency of the personal brand image, logical structure, visual presentation style, and communication skills.
All participants of the competition demonstrated vivid presentations of a personal brand with a coherent story and interesting visual design.
The winners of the competition, according to the results of a secret vote of the present higher education students and teachers of the Department of Management and Smart Innovations, were:
1st place - Anastasia Yakubovych;
2nd place - Vadym Kravchenko;
3rd place - Viktoria Sokolenko.
The winners received certificates and prizes for a non-standard approach to self-positioning, strong personal motivation as a future manager-leader and effective communication with the audience.
The "I Am a Brand" competition marked another step toward the professional growth of higher education students and the creation of an environment that fosters the development of young leaders.
On May 22, 2025, students majoring in “Management” took part in the social experiment “The Social Influence of a Leader”. The aim of the experiment was to demonstrate how task context, authority, and group dynamics influence the perception of a leader and their social impact.
During the lesson, a well-known social experiment with portraits was recreated, and when groups of participants analyzed photographs of individuals who were presented as “famous scientist, Nobel laureate”, “famous athlete, chess champion” and “convicted fraudster”. Despite identical visual data, the psychological portraits formed by the students were radically different - from positive leadership qualities to suspicious character traits.
The moderators of the experiment, lecturers of the Department of Management and Smart Innovations Olena Vartanova, Doctor of Economics, Professor and Nataliya Kyrylko, PhD, Senior Lecturer.
The experiment made it possible to clearly demonstrate the influence of social conformity, authority, framing, the label effect, stereotyping, halo effect, mechanisms of attachment and consistency in managerial interaction. Based on the implementation of practical techniques, the students not only critically reconsidered the role of social influence, but also discussed the risks of biased judgments in the professional activities of a future manager.
On May 23, 2025, the Department of Management and Smart Innovations hosted a scientific and practical seminar "Career Trajectories in Management: How to Become a Demanded Specialist of the Future".
The event was moderated by Svitlana Bondarenko, Doctor of Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Management and Smart Innovations. The specially invited guest was Natalia Shabatyn, brand manager of the leading Ukrainian outsourcing and personnel leasing company "Fillin".
The seminar participants – higher education students and teachers – discussed current challenges and trends in the labor market, requirements for young specialists, as well as personal and professional development tools for successful career growth in the field of management.
Natalia Shabatyn shared her practical experience in forming a specialist brand, the features of working in the HR field, and tools that help young specialists become competitive.
The event was held in a dynamic format with active involvement of the student audience in discussions and practical cases. We sincerely thank all participants for their active participation and wish them inspiration for further professional development!
09.06.2025
