Academy of Management Conference in Anaheim
As expected, the Academy of Management Conference was an amazing experience. Over 8000 leading management thinkers and practitioners got together, and more than 1000 presentations were made in 5 days. I have expanded my professional network significantly and obtained a large amount of new leading edge research material in business and management (especially leadership) from the top USA and European business schools. I also acquired various on-line educational tools including a virtual reality simulator for developing leadership skills and emotional intelligence. Last but not least, I have connected with several leading academics researching complexity leadership and we plan to establish research collaboration.
Our workshop on “How to Manage Employees When We Cannot Use Authority: Turning Management Paradigms into Practice” was received very well. The room was full and some members of the audience were sitting on the floor or standing during our 2-hour presentation. We were later interviewed and filmed by managers from one of the Dutch hospitals as they wanted to see if they could also apply emerging leadership paradigms we were advocating. We are now in the process of writing up the material presented in this workshop.
In short, the Academy of Management Conferences are not to be missed in our profession, so I have already started making plans for the next one in Chicago!
