Achieving transformation for greater good: Societal, organisational and personal barriers and enablers.
The question of how to elicit transformation has assumed a new urgency against a backdrop of intense global competition, the digitisation of work, hybrid working and the promise of the metaverse as well as skill challenges and wider political developments, such as war in Europe. Underlying these political, technological, economic and moral imperatives is growing awareness of ecological precarity given limited and diminishing natural resources. How do organisations, the people they employ and the environments to which they belong, flex, adjust and transform themselves to overcome the manifest challenges they face in these turbulent times?
Professor Jan Bebbington, BAM's Vice-Chair for Sustainability, has prepared this brief note to help our community think and talk about sustainability in the context of academic conferences.
The desire to be less unsustainable is prompted by the concern that combined human activities are creating environmental problems that are systemic in nature and that these problems will threaten human wellbeing. At the same time, sustainability concerns also relate to social equity with an ethically-based desire to ensure that all people have the chance to have their needs met. These concerns infuse conference organisation and also the choices made by academics over which conferences to attend.
The following material lays out some of the issues at stake in terms of environmental sustainability at conferences and it should become apparent that it is impossible to easily be categorical about what ‘best’ practice is. Rather this short guide provides ‘points to ponder’ in thinking about conference attendance and organisation.
Attending a conference creates impacts from two sets of activities, namely: getting to the conference and impacts that arise during the conference itself.
Continue reading: Sustainability at Conferences
BAM2023 Conference Highlights
Dr Loyin Olotu-Umoren, Head of School Operations, Nottingham Business School (Chair of the Local Arrangements)
John Moore, Nottingham Business School
Nicola Simpkins, Nottingham Business School
Sam Gore, NTU Events and Conferencing
Vicky Rivett, Business Development Manager, Nottingham Trent University
Rachel Bradley, Events, Hospitality & Catering Officer, Nottingham Trent University
Anna Wilcox, Nottingham Trent University
Stephen Hillier, Senior Marketing Manager, Nottingham Business School (Publicity Chair)