Due to Corona one of the big challenges for the educational sector is going hybrid Prof.Dr.Hallier stated after the Magros Conference organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the magazin Suvremena trgovina/Croatia.

One of the pioneers of digital communication within the professors of the European Retail Academy is according to Hallier his friend Prof.Dr.Theodor Purcarea from the Romanian American University (RAU) in Bucarest. "Using Holistic Marketing Management already for years for the digital dialogue beyond borders also connected with tools of social media for further communication is a benchmark for European Academia" Hallier added. "RAU's hybrid Opening Ceremony of the New Academic Year 2020/2021 shows how to link education and teaching with aspects of health in the new Corona-virus impacted times which might become a normal for us in the near future; Corona became an accelerator for technical innovation and change of consumer behaviour !" Hallier claimed (see also News Shymkent at Link).
 

"My MA-thesis at Hamburg University was a comparison of economic reform potential in East Germany, the Czech-Slovak Republic and Yugoslavia" Prof.Dr.Hallier remembers the beginning of the 70ies "but in the 80ies our focus was the integration of West Europe. The East got lost from our research screen : we were busy to optimize our international distribution; the Fall of the Wall in autumn 1989 came for all of us as a total surprise".

"Nevertheless I was on a private initiative already in February 1990 visiting together with some retail-friends Dr.Klaus Wenzel of the East German Trade Institute - touring with him HO-stores, coops, department stores in East-Berlin - and signing in Leipzig at the University a contract with Prof.Dr.Klitzsch for scientific cooperation. In the summer vacations 1990 we exchanged 80 students for vocational training to West Germany. My Call was answered by West German companies for sponsorships and families being ready to host at their homes the East German students. We all had been inspired by thankfullness for the German peaceful Reunification and the international setting (2 plus 4 talks in Moscow) for a joint East - West balanced Peace Contract and Vision of Co-Development" Prof.Dr.Hallier added.
 

The reputed trade Conference MAGROS in Zagreb is organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Croatia/Slovenia and the magazin Suvremena Trgovina. It is one of the biggest events for retail/wholesale in this area. The 2020 Conference will be attended among others by the Minister of Economics of Croatia, Dr. Tomislav Covic ; the introduction into the Retail trends 2020 will be delivered by Prof.Dr.B.Hallier (full progam: see LINK Magros). One day later in the city of Osijek the traditional logistics conference BMLL will be held (Link).

For Hallier the entrepreneurial spirit as well as the understanding for the historical/cultural background are very important for a peaceful Pan Balkan development (Link). "This is the region where the Habsburg Monarchy and the Osman Empire stood for controversies between Orient and Okzident : here World War I started and where in World War II and in the inner-Yugoslavian War in the 90ies of the last century ethnical and religious differences clashed. We have to support economic, ecological and ethical options for a sustainable development across borders at the Balkan territories" he stated at the Conference announcement.
 

"Due to the chances Germany got in 1989/1990 by the Reunification I felt the obligation as the managing director of the EHI Retail Institute to support Prof.Jindra in the knowledge transfer towards a social market economy in the Czech-Slovak Republic." Prof.Dr.Hallier remembers. "We discussed topics in workshops with entrepreneurs of start-ups and disseminated the results by lectures or via the national press - or even published a tri-lingual Special in preparation of the EU-accession."

"Those initiatives of Civil Society created the conditions for groupings like industry associations and employers' federations to emerge. The process of privitization started primarily in the trade and services sectors. They were the innovation drivers in those disruptive times". In 2011 Prof.Hallier was awarded with a doctor honoris causa by the VSE Prague Link) .
 

Prof. Jiri Jindra was head of the Czech-Slovak Research Institute of Trade when in 1989 the Wall between East and West broke. He immediately visited with a delegation Prof. Hallier at the EHI Retail Institute in Germany and both agreed to start a close cooperation. In 1993 Jindra was back at the university in Prague and became Dean of the International Faculty of the VSE. Books to be mentioned from that time are Trade Logistics (1993) and International Retailing (2002).

But Prof.Jiri Jindra was also a personality to communicate not only in academic circles but he was a Professor for Applied Sciences. He helped to establish the first Czech Retail Association (SVAZ OBCHODU) and he initiated the Czech Retail Summit which he presided for over a decade. At that annual Conference he brought together retail/wholesale, politicians and researchers. In size and content it was an unique light-house for all Central Europe. The flavour of that event kicked-off the idea to create together in 2005 the European Retail Academy. "Thank you, my dear friend, for all the thoughts and connections you brought into our network - you incorporated not only knowledge but you have been "The Gentleman" beyond international academia." B.H.