Just returning to my desk today after the 2023 Academy of Management conference in Boston, I thought I would share some reflections about my experience this year.
This was the first fully in person conference since the pandemic, following last year’s hybrid conference. It was great to be back in person again and experience the hustle and bustle of the conference. I was interested to see that quite a few sessions I attended included some form of hybrid attendance. I think it is great that AOM is facilitating this where possible. There will always be circumstances which mean people can sometimes not attend at the last minute and with the submission for this conference being 7 months in advance, a lot can happen in that time and an alternative form of participation is now possible. Of my own sessions, in one we had this pre-arranged and facilitated by the conference, and in one session we facilitated this ourselves via a laptop for a last minute change. In both cases, it did not seem to take much away from the discussion.
Our, now becoming regular, symposium and caucus on the strategy and change interface attracted a lot of pre and post session engagement despite being only lightly attended in real time. However, the discussion was engaging, inspiring, enjoyable and I hope fruitful for future work and directions. For me, these events are the reason to attend AOM. Although less formal than paper presentations, it is through these guided and facilitated discussions that real value is created in our scholarship. My thanks to Dr Angelina Zubac, Steven Cofrancesco, PhD Peter Bryant, especially for arranging these.
My paper presentation was scheduled for late on Tuesday afternoon. Whilst eating lunch in the Sheraton before this session, it was disheartening to see so many people already leaving with suitcases to begin their journey’s home. It is always a shame to be scheduled at the end of the programme and was evident in the poor attendance at my paper session. This was the first time in quite a few years that I have presented a paper at the conference and I was disappointed with the experience. I did however get some great feedback from the reviewers of the paper back in March, including one reviewer who introduced me to some new literature which has reshaped the way I frame the paper for the better. This makes me question the value of paper presentations at conferences… for sure, there is value in having feedback on your paper but when the value comes from the written submission rather than the presentation, it makes me wonder what this could mean for academic conferences in general. Is it worth it?
Dr Danielle A Tucker 