The Australian and New Zealand academy of management (ANZAM) conference: Rydges Capricorn Resort, Queensland, Australia, 6-9 December 2006.

Hosted by Central Queensland University, the 20th annual ANZAM was held in the balmy climes of the Rydges Capricorn Resort. The beautiful pools and range of outdoor activities (e.g. camel rides) at the resort certainly proved a distraction for some! In typical ANZAM style, the conference was a good mix of intellectual stimulation and social activities. Word of this must be getting out as the number of international participants continues to increase each year.

More than 380 papers were submitted to the 22 streams that cover a wide range of management topics, including technology and innovation management. Most papers are refereed in a blind review process with a 75 per cent acceptance rate for this conference. The quality of the papers has improved markedly in recent years, which is also reflected in ANZAM's publication, the Journal of Management & Organization (JMO: http://jmo.e-contentmanagement.com/). The papers were presented in four parallel streams, alongside a range of workshops on research and teaching subjects, which gave enough choice without too many clashes of topic.

Keynote speakers were Jerald Greenberg, Abramowitz Professor of Business Ethics Art Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, who is renowned as one of the pioneers of research on organizational justice, and Bruce Avolio, who holds the Clifton Chair in Leadership and is Director of the Gallup Leadership Institute at the University of Nebraska. Bruce gave a very spirited talk on 'authentic' or 'genuine' leadership (and follower-ship).

The next ANZAM conference, to be held in Sydney, 4-7 December 2007, will be of particular interest to IMPP readers because the two keynote speakers are well known to us. Conference chair Ross Chapman (UWS) has secured Professor Dorothy Leonard of Harvard Business School, who is probably best known for her book Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation, and John Bessant, Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, who has published numerous books on innovation, including Managing Innovation, which is in its 3rd edition, as well as High Involvement Innovation. The conference has already had a record number of submissions so it promises to be another excellent event. Further information about the conference can be found at: http://www.promaco.com.au/2007/anzam/