The Hungarian Economic Association (HEA) has had a busy, exciting, and eventful year: in 2025, in addition to the two plenary sessions and 18 section meetings of the annual congress, we served our members and those interested in economic affairs with roughly 90 professional events. Moreover, this professional activity is well documented: the majority of our events can be rewatched or listened to on our YouTube channel and in our podcast.
Exactly one year ago, in December 2024, the HEA moved to its new headquarters at the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). The new venue has become popular among our sections: this year we held 17 professional events in our new community space, naturally accompanied by a live YouTube broadcast in addition to the on-site audience and the invaluable networking opportunities. As for highlighted events: we had a very successful annual congress in Veszprém, with 100 speakers, 700 on-site participants, and significant media coverage – and every minute of the conference is available on our YouTube channel. As usual, we recently sent the package of economic policy proposals compiled from the presentations of the congress to the Prime Minister, the Governor of the Central Bank, and the relevant ministers of the government. We also had a very exciting and interesting FIKOT in Eger, at the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, where the theme was innovation and artificial intelligence. In addition, our joint conference with the Fiscal Council was also a great success, where—alongside the Romanian, Czech, and Hungarian FC presidents—the Slovak FC president also joined the panel this year, with the intention of establishing a tradition.
In 2025, we signed cooperation agreements with two higher education institutions: the University of Nyíregyháza and Corvinus University of Budapest, in the hope that our joint work will contribute to strengthening the HEA and to establishing a youth organization at each of the respective universities.
Our online presence is growing stronger as well: this year we published 92 live broadcasts and 20 uploaded videos on YouTube, with more than 35,000 views. As a result, more than half a thousand conference videos are now available. We uploaded 82 new podcast episodes to Spotify and Apple Podcasts this year, with 3,000 plays. In the HEA’s Facebook group of 1,800 members, 430 posts were made, and in our LinkedIn group of 656 members we published around 300 posts – the latter generating 108,000 views according to the platform’s statistics. Our activity is also reflected in our membership numbers: this year we welcomed 214 new members into the ranks of the HEA. All in all, we have had a hardworking, event-rich year, and we owe thanks to our active sections, county organizations, members, and last but not least our sponsors.
It is also important to say a few words about the year ahead! There will be no shortage of events next year either: we already have professional programs announced for the beginning of the year. We will also hold our 64th annual congress on 10–11 September in Eger. In May, the association will hold its leadership elections and choose a new president, and until then the boards of many of our sections and county organizations will be renewed.
Once again, we thank everyone who devoted their time and energy this year to organizing HEA programs or enriched our events with their knowledge and ideas. We are counting heavily on the continued engagement of our speakers, supporters, members, and everyone interested in our activities in 2026 as well!