An ideas exchange

The small alpine republic of Slovenia is bracing itself for what will surely prove to be its toughest task yet in terms of the organisation of management education conferences.

Next week (May 14-17) the country is expecting to welcome some 700 management researchers, scholars and practitioners at the annual European Academy of Management (Euram) conference, which this year will feature some 520 papers from 44 countries around the theme “Managing Diversity: European Destiny and Hope”.

The conference, to be hosted by the Central and East European Management Development Association (Ceeman), the University of Ljubljana faculty of economics and the IEDC-Bled school of management, also marks a new direction for Euram.

“Since its inception in 2001, Euram has been occupied with establishing itself strongly in traditional academic strongholds in the west. But to be a truly European academy, it had to spread its wings in the east,” says Peter McKiernan, professor at Scotland’s University of St Andrews School of Management and Euram president (pictured right).

Prof McKiernan is hopeful of increased co-operation between Ceeman and Euram, including joint research projects, staff exchanges and doctoral student networks, all enabling “more meaningful and practical implications” for their respective members.

For Ceeman, closer ties with Euram will allow its members to share their research results from central and eastern Europe with a far wider audience, as well as benefit from a vast pool of knowledge in western Europe.

“We are very glad to see that tracks proposed by Ceeman have attracted papers from the west, and expect some inspiring exchanges of views and experiences. Faculty development, new management research and entrepreneurship development, for instance, are on the agenda, and these are issues that business schools worldwide find [as] areas of challenge and opportunity,” says Milenko Gudic, Ceeman director and Euram 2008 conference chairman.

Among the “fringe” events, researchers will also be able to attend a “meet the editors session” featuring editors from several international academic publishers for tips on how best to prepare research results for worldwide exposure.