This is a guest blog by Marcus Imir, a BA (Hons) Accounting and Taxation graduate.

AFECA (Association deFormations Europeennesa la Compatibilite eta l’Audit ) is a five-day conference, hosted with lots of universities across Europe. Each day is
unique, and themed on a different area of finance. The conference is hosted by a different university each year – the year I attended, it was held in Kavala in Greece. Students are placed into random groups each day with people from different universities so one day I could be with one person from BU, another from Bulgaria and also Germany. You work in those small groups each day on a case study with guidance from academics from each uni there, and then present your findings to the rest of the conference. Every morning we’d be given a brief case study and background of what’s expected and then you work in your team to research your ideas, using the internet and discussing the best approach within your teams. The approach is very much like work where there is no set in stone way to do it as long as you reach the end goal together. There were some language barriers working in the mixed groups but the majority did speak English. There
were some phrases that not everyone understood so we’d get out our phones and use Google Translate. It was generally very easy to work around.
The whole idea allowed me to see what it is like working with people from a completely different culture and background. It especially helped me now that I’m working in tax, as a lot of my clients are international clients and I know how to communicate better with people from other cultures.