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"Creating the Future" incorporated a ceremony celebrating the anniversary as well as expert discussion on the challenges likely to face higher education institutions in the coming years.
In her introductory speech, Professor Danica Purg - who has led the IEDC for every one of its 25 years - said that the school has "a mission and a duty to promote and to stimulate creativity and responsibility, to make it possible for the leaders to be successful in a fast changing environment."
"In these new times of big changes and uncertainty in the social, economic and political setting, we need positive, creative and energetic leaders," she concluded.
Her view was shared by Professors Edgar Schein and Manfred Kets de Vries, both awarded honorary degrees at the event. In his address, Schein - considered one of the founders of organisational psychology - stressed that "currently there is too much preoccupation with competence, motivation and will, and at the same time not enough focus on values, ethics and humanity". Kets de Vries, a respected authority on global leadership, suggested that "in this age of greed and anxiety, short-term expediency prevails, while bold, imaginative leadership, taking the kinds of action that will benefit the next generation is sorely missing."
It was a theme built on in the keynote speech at the event, delivered by US management expert Dr Ichak Adizes. He argued that creativity, risk taking and courage are no longer enough to guarantee success and that developed countries no longer need entrepreneurial leadership but instead social leaders "that have the courage to change society driven by materialism to a society driven by values."
More than 450 business and political leaders, professors, alumni and friends of IEDC-Bled School of Management were present at the conference, which was opened by Slovenian president Danilo Türk.