The 7th ITALK: User Experience and its Relevance to Branding

ITALK (Institute Talk) is a platform that connects Chinese students with international business professionals. It was initiated by Prof. Florin Baeriswyl, who also devised China's first Bachelor's course in Brand Strategy and Management, here at SIVA·DeTao University in Shanghai. His promise has always been ‘every student will get a job’. And the purpose of ITALK is to help students prepare for internships and future jobs.

Former ITALK speakers include e.g. Diana Chou - Chairman of the Dragon General Aviation Group, Oliver Peters - head of R&D at Bosch GmbH Germany, Laurent Megret - Volevatch China Director from France.

On March 27th, The 7th ITALK was held in Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts (SIVA)'s 'Big Eye' theatre, with over 500 people in the audience. Matthias Roebel, CEO and co-founder of Ming Labs, talked about UX (User eXperience) and its brand relevance.

Ming Labs is a digital innovation and transformation company with offices in Berlin, Munich, New York, Shanghai and Singapore. Describing his work with clients such as BMW, DENZA and Mapbox, Matthias emphasized the impact UX has on brand recognition, and explained the importance of this new discipline in the digital age.

One aspect of ITALK is the public speaking and Q&A platform it offers students. Speeches from three ISIB students showcased what they have learnt on their Brand Strategy & Management course.

ITALK offers a platform for the communication between ivory tower and business world. Students learn from masters across wide range of fields and get contacts with industry leaders, which will greatly help them in job-hunting. This is exactly what ISIB wants and upholds: making student get job and become future branding elites.