Technology, Sustainability, and Tourism Forum at Narxoz Business School

On April 19, 2019, Narxoz University hosted an international forum on Technology, Sustainability, and Tourism. Forum accommodated speakers and participants from 12 countries, including scientists, industry practitioners and professors from the U.S., Great Britain, Singapore, Poland, Ukraine, Iran, India, Russia, Uzbekistan, Italy and other. Forum purpose, contents, and format were interesting and quite extraordinary for Almaty audience, in total there were about 70 participants genuinely interested in specific sections.

Director of the Qazaq Research Institute for Futures Studies (QRIFS) at Narxoz University, Dr. John Sweeney shared ideas and insights into how the Central Asian future might look like beyond resilience and adaptation. During the workshop hosted by research fellows of QRIFS participants discussed how might Kazakhstan and Almaty look like in 2050. Debates and discussions were extremely interesting and exciting.

Dr. Anjan Ghosh provided an overview of issues in social entrepreneurship, its sustainability and a forecast for the future. The audience was thrilled and motivated to do further research in social entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan.   

Particularly heated debates broke out around Artificial Intelligence, the issues of which Dr. Mirco Milletari highlighted. A particularly important question that worried participants: Do we need to create some form of governance to regulate AI? Will it be a human or another more advanced form of AI?

During session III: “Situating the New: Tourism, City Branding, and Shifting Identities” there were presentations by practitioners and professors from the UK, Russia, Ukraine, USA, and Kazakhstan. The speakers shared practical experience in the development of tourism and discussed interesting ideas on promoting the brand of cities, creating a bureau for the development of tourism and much more.

It is important to note that during the forum new opportunities emerged for joint cooperation, research and practical projects in the field of technology, sustainable development, and tourism.