Driving Goal 1: Connecting our Community

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Goal One details: 80th Annual Meeting | Specialized Conferences

AOM is connecting members of the global management and organization community with one another and with external audiences through an unparalleled portfolio of engagement opportunities that transcend technological and geographic boundaries.

What does that mean for our worldwide membership?

Our Annual Meeting is the world's largest forum devoted to management scholarship and education. Annual Meeting innovation often has grass-roots beginnings. Each year, through conversations, feedback, and outreach, a host of new and innovative ideas from attendees, participants, volunteers, leaders, and staff are put forward.

Although a great deal of planning was already completed at the outset of the global pandemic early in the year, a monumental effort was undertaken by the Academy’s volunteers and staff to re-imagine the Annual Meeting footprint. Committed to protecting the health and safety of members, and constrained by worldwide travel limitations, the Board of Governors ultimately decided to cancel the 2020 physical meeting; instead, fully holding the Annual Meeting in a virtual setting.

The Teaching and Learning Conference was included with conference registration in 2020, and held special relevance this year as many members were preparing to conduct virtual learning, often for the first time, within their institutions. One conference highlight had professional stand-up comedian, Sammy Obeid, a business school graduate and former teacher, demonstrating ways to bring humor into the classroom.

The AOM Specialized Conference on Advancing Management Research in Latin America (AOM LATAM) was scheduled to take place at IPADE Business School in Mexico City, Mexico in April 2020. Due to the global pandemic and the resulting impact on travel and physical meetings worldwide, participants were unable to gather together in Mexico City. Instead, some online components and a virtual community group provided opportunities for engagement around the conference theme. 

Goal One details: 80th Annual Meeting | Specialized Conferences

80th Annual Meeting

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine that faced members around the world, the Annual Meeting was held virtually for the first time in 2020. Thanks to the creativity, collaboration, and tireless efforts of volunteers, the 80th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2020) took place 6-11 August with more than 7,200 participants registered, representing 88 countries worldwide. Attendees had 400+ synchronous (live) and 1200+ asynchronous (prerecorded) sessions to choose from over the five-day conference, with members attending an average of 20 sessions.

The Academy's 75th President, Jackie Coyle-Shapiro, addressed members virtually on 8 August 2020 and reflected on the ability of membership to create collective change. The 2020 Presidential Address is available for viewing here; it is also available at this alternate link.