On the evening of April 13th, the 2018 Fudan iLab World Café, one of the most popular activities among students, was held at Management School. All the 2017 Fudan IMBA students and 20 alumni got together to communicate, connect and share. This event, aiming at encouraging free, open and in-depth interaction, was organized in accordance with the concept of “Action Learning”. By providing a platform for students to exchange ideas and perspectives effectively, the café provided an opportunity to meet new people, to actively contribute new thinking and to benefit from collaborative dialogues. 

Mr. Sun Long, Executive Director of Fudan IMBA program, delivered an opening speech to unveil the event. He gave a warm welcome to the alumni who spared time to participate in the event and communicate with the students. Meanwhile, he expressed his best wishes to all students for good performance in the future iLab projects.

After the opening speech, 4 alumni with rich experience were interviewed by the event host Ella Wang. They shared their experience, insights and achievements from previous projects and encouraged the students to face the challenges in projects. Their humor and wisdom inspired us to work harder and make iLab project more successful. 

The activity session began immediately after the interview. Different from the last World Café, the organizing team designed a role playing game, named iLab Werewolf, to replace the situation discussion. In the iLab Werewolf, the team members in each table would play the role of troublemakers or problem-solvers. They faced the real scenarios to solve problems under the observation of an alumnus/alumna. 

When the game started, every student was completely immersed in the game. The problem-makers would purposely make difficulties for others. The problem-solvers did their best to deal with them. You could tell the tension and also joy from the students’ faces, body language and tones. Some students were so good at acting that their performance greatly enlivened the atmosphere.  

After finishing the discussion, team members visualized their thinking on a piece of paper and shared it with others. It was quite impressive that the ideas and illustrations were full of insights and creations — every group was different. Then one group member presented their perspectives with vivid language.

Finally, students voted for the best team and every member of the best team got a gift as the recognition of their hard work. At the end of the event, all the participants took a photo together while they wished themselves successful with the ongoing iLab project.