BRITISH ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2024 AND 2025 - Invitation to Tender

The annual conference is central to the British Academy of Management, our membership and the delegates who attend. Following two years in online format, our most recent conference in 2022 took place in a hybrid format, and was hosted by Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, which attracted a wide range of scholars, practitioners, students and keynote speakers from the business and management community. Over 900 delegates attended in person, with 200 joining online from more than 50 different countries, to participate in a range of workshops, keynotes, panel sessions, and paper presentations arranged into 30 Tracks. The conference offers opportunities to share ideas, network, present current research and discuss policy initiatives. The conference is preceded by a one-day Doctoral Symposium with dinner, which is a core part of the overall event. It typically attracts 150 –200 doctoral students from 40 countries

The number of venues expressing an interest in hosting the BAM annual conference has increased with the continued success of the series. To ensure fairness and transparency BAM has a formal tendering process. This process is overseen by the Chair of BAM, the CEO and the Co-Vice Chairs for Academic Affairs of Conference and Capacity Building, who will provide academic oversight and support to the conference organising committee.

Any interested institutions or venues should submit an initial expression of interest by November 15^th followed by the detailed proposal by 19th of January 2023. The detailed proposal must include the following information. The detailed proposal must include the following information: 

• An outline of the venue for the Doctoral Symposium and Doctoral Symposium Dinner.
• An outline of the venue for the main conference including the Conference Gala Dinner
• Agreement that the dates of the Conference are ultimately set by BAM. The Doctoral Symposium is held on the day before the Conference.
• An indication of who would be the host institution’s Conference Chair (alongside the BAM Co-Vice Chairs for Academic Affairs of Conference and Capacity Building) and conference Committee members (typically consisting of a Chair for Sponsorships, Chair for Publicity, Chair for Local Arrangements, Chair in charge of local volunteer recruitment (typically 60-90 volunteers) including a dedicated conference or events officer from the host institution).
• An outline of costs both for holding the conference (including room hire, catering and equipment costs) and Doctoral Symposium (catering costs only). As part of the support of Doctoral Students the Host Institution is expected to provide rooms and AV for the Doctoral Symposium free of charge.
• An outline of the range of local accommodation (including student accommodation) that is available, and its price range.
• Describe accessibility within and around the venue (including any restrictions for wheelchair access, and public transport services).
• An indication of possible themes and their rationales for the conference.
• An outline of any possible ‘fringe’ sessions.
• An outline of any contributions to be made from the institution (financial or in kind).
• An outline of possible sponsorship.
• An outline of a risk management plan.
• Existing and likely future support of BAM from BAM members at the institution.
• BAM is committed to sustainability in all its activities and so we are interested in hearing how a host university can help us improve the sustainability of the conference

Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity and Respect (EDIR) are central to BAM’s current strategy and we are working to implement EDIR best practice across our portfolio of activities including the BAM Conference.

After an initial shortlisting process one or more institutions or venues will be visited and viewed by BAM’s Head of Events & Operations and its Conference Officer. Following the visit, BAM will then reach a final decision.

Please note that it is possible for the response to the tender process to be from either an academic institution or a venue (e.g. a large conference hotel or a conference centre). In the case of a venue, we would only expect limited information about the chair or possible themes. However, as the conference is academic in nature we would expect the venue to eventually run the event jointly with a suitable local university in order to ensure academic focus and content. It may be possible for BAM to assist in setting up this relationship if the venue is felt to be appropriate.

For more information about hosting a BAM Conference, please contact the BAM Office by emailing Lewis Johnson at [email protected] and Justina Senkus [email protected] would be very happy to have an initial, informal chat.

Further Information

Requirements of the Venue

The main Conference and Doctoral Symposium are held over four days, usually during the first full week in September.

The Doctoral Symposium is one-day event to be held on the Monday starting at 8.00 am and closing at 7:30 pm. The organising team would need to have access to the venue from 7:00 am until 8:00 pm.

For the Doctoral Symposium the required facilities are:

• Auditorium for up to 200 delegates (welcome address/plenary)
• 8-10 seminar rooms (capacity between 40 to 60 delegates per room)
• 25-30 meeting rooms (capacity for 4+ delegates per room)
• 4-5 additional classrooms for contingency
• Focal open plan area for poster presentations which usually is the common space for coffee breaks, lunch and delegate registration
• Doctoral Symposium dinner venue (to seat up to 200 approximately)

The Main Conference would open on Tuesday with Paper Presentations, Professional Development Workshops (PDWs), Grand Opening plenary session, Panel sessions, Track symposia and workshops, Awards Ceremony, SIG and Networks annual meetings, networking cafes plus various committee, and board meetings. The conference sessions may take place during all three days from Tuesday until Thursday. Previous conferences have attracted up to 1,000 delegates.

For the conference itself, the following facilities are required:

• Auditorium for 500 delegates
• 45- 50 lecture theatres/ seminar rooms for PDWs and paper presentation sessions (capacity between 25-50 delegates per room for paper sessions)
• Combined exhibition and catering area (20-25 table top stands)
• Conference dinner venue (to seat up 350.)
• Technical infrastructure including streaming to facilitate hybrid sessions

Whether these are all provided by the host institution needs to be determined.

All standards of accommodation need to be considered, including a variety of hotels and student accommodation as close to the conference venue as possible.

Hosting this major intellectual event provides a real opportunity for the host institution to engage with the local business and management community as well as the opportunity to showcase the School.

It should be noted that BAM works closely with the host institution in the planning and organisation of the event. However, BAM retains the right to make final decisions based on its overall direction, delegate expectations and the management function of the event.

Contracts

It is important that a contract is raised and signed between the host institution and BAM, which outlines responsibility, underwriting agreement and liabilities i.e. cancellation charges relating to minimum numbers for delegates and accommodation. This should be put in place and signed as early as possible once key parameters for the event are known.