On May 11 and 12, during the spring edition of Impact’22, a new thematic track will be introduced – Mental Health & Wellbeing. Mental health is currently one of the most important aspects in the business world. The outbreak of the pandemic, and recently the war in Ukraine – these are events that have highlighted the need to take care of the psychological balance of employees. Mental health is an extremely important aspect of both private life and work. This topic was not part of public debate until recently, but today it is difficult to imagine a conversation about business success without considering the mental health of employees. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic turned the lives of almost everyone upside down, both on a personal and business level. It was a time when our psychological balance was severely tested. Current events related to the ongoing war in Ukraine also have a huge impact on the quality of our lives. According to the latest research by UCE Research, over 60% of Poles declare that they have observed the first signs of depression in themselves. Daily challenges, work-related stress, and the instability of the surrounding world affect our feelings and make us increasingly attentive to our needs. Many companies are introducing new programs aimed at improving employee well-being. One of the benefits that an increasing number of organizations are implementing is, for example, round-the-clock individual therapeutic care or on-demand coaching, aimed at people struggling with stress, burnout, or crisis situations. The issue of depression among employees and struggles with mood disorders seems to be extremely relevant in the current situation. The Mental Health track is being implemented in cooperation with Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and Mindgram. Special guests will include Małgorzata Ohme, a well-known psychologist with many years of experience and the founder of Mindgram – the first comprehensive online psychological support platform in Poland. David Liebers, a resident physician at NYU Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry, and Tomasz Skrzypczak, Country Director at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, with nearly 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, will also speak on the Impact Stage. Impact’22 attendees will listen to discussions on mental health and medical solutions available to help diagnose, treat, and even prevent mental illnesses. Furthermore, discussions will also address the issue of obesity in society, which is becoming an increasingly pressing problem. The conference will take place on May 11 and 12 in Poznań.

Similar to last year, the organizers of Impact’22, as part of this year's edition, are continuing to develop the innovative art track. The goal? To promote Polish culture on the international stage and show what a marriage of broadly understood art and the business world can look like. Special guests of this year's Impact edition, who will perform as part of the art track, include Karol Misztal, founder of Yestersen, Michał Brański, co-creator and head of strategy at Wirtualna Polska Holding, and Emilia Kina, a young generation painter whose exhibition can be admired in Milan. The conclusions drawn from the conversations and meetings held during last year's art track clearly showed how important an element art can be in modern business and how much room for action is provided by cooperation between these seemingly distant fields. One of the more important topics addressed within the art track during this year's edition will be the impact of the visual quality of our surroundings on well-being and the standard of daily functioning. How do hotels use art in their activities, what is good design, and does the view from a hospital window affect a patient's health? Another important topic will be the work of young artists and their presence in the art market, as well as an attempt to find answers to whether a moment of great change awaits us. Collections gathered by banks will serve as an example in the discussion about the place of art in investment thinking. There will also be summaries of the art market, both off and online. Every edition of Impact is primarily about people. It's about invited guests who introduce listeners to the world of their field and allow them to understand it better. This is particularly important when the discussion concerns art. Each Impact edition is accompanied by cooperation with a young generation artist who prepares a special painting, which becomes part of the Impact Art Collection. This time, we have invited Emilia Kina, a graduate of painting from the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2015, she has been regularly creating and exhibiting, and her works have found their way into collections such as the National Museum in Gdańsk. Her paintings, in form, refer to tapestries, frozen curtains, obscuring an undefined view. The window can be treated here literally as a material frame, more of a scenographic element than a frame from reality. In her work, the artist also refers to 19th-century studio photography, where landscapes and draped curtains served as backdrops for portrait photos. In her works, the Albertian window becomes a painting in itself, showing a world obscured by the delicate material of canvas. The artist balances between abstract form and mimetic reproduction of a real situation. She often gives her works three-dimensional forms through sculptural gestures shaping the canvas. The work gains an object-like character or expands into para-scenographic installations. The artist's exhibition can currently be viewed in Milan. The artist's work created specifically for the spring edition of Impact will be presented in a prepared space, where our guests will be able to see it. We will also visit the artist with a camera in her Krakow studio, thereby lifting a fragment of the curtain that hides the secrets of her craft for viewers.