Business School Professor chairs International Leadership conference

More than 700 leadership academics, practitioners, and educators from almost fifty countries are gathering to present their finest research, compelling ideas, best practice, newest teaching techniques, and unique stories from the field.  Leadership in all its multifaceted and multicultural complexity will be examined through an exciting combination of preconference workshops, concurrent sessions, and keynote speakers.

The keynote speakers are acclaimed leadership scholar, Keith Grint, Professor of Public Leadership at Warwick University Business School; Polly Higgins, a barrister, author and international environmental lawyer and Stef Kranendijk, CEO of Desso, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of carpets for home and commercial use, and artificial grass for sports. Desso is the first carpet manufacturer in the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency to adopt a cradle-to-cradle approach to its products.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of this year’s conference is a unique evening reception hosted by the Business School on the evening of 27th October – the Keynote Listeners event. There are links between this event and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012 - an historic opportunity to define pathways to a safer, more equitable, cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all.

The energy and conversations around the core theme of this years’ conference will be supported by social media to engage with not only the people in the room, but also a wide community outside. In the run up to the conference, in the pre-conference events and during the first two days, ideas will be 'crowd-sourced' from the 700+ participants. During the reception, these ideas will be presented to several influential 'Keynote Listeners' , drawn from business, government and the NGO sector. The Keynote Listeners will then continue to work with the event team to take forward the ideas and suggestions to the Rio+20 UN Summit in June 2012.

Professor Gosling explains: ‘We know what kinds of trouble the world faces; we know pretty much what we should be doing about it. What we don't know yet is how to convince our leaders to do the right things. This activity represents not only a practical way of answering the “Leadership for what?” question, it also models the innovative inclusivity so many call for in meeting the challenges of this agenda.  The crowd sourcing of ideas is voluntary and enables all views to be expressed. The event aims to be a dynamic, participative possibility for the ILA community to contribute to an important contemporary agenda.’

More information can be found on the ILA website