The call for PDW submissions for the 2018 AOM Conference in Chicago is now available. Submission deadline is Tuesday, January 9, 2018. Details are below and at https://aom.org/annualmeeting/submission/call/ent/pdw/.

Entrepreneurship (ENT) PDW Call for Submissions

PDW Chair: Peter G. Klein, Baylor University; entdiv@baylor.edu

 Deadline: Tuesday, January 9, 2018, 5:00 PM ET (NY Time)

Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) are among the most rewarding, stimulating, and enjoyable sessions of the Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting. The Entrepreneurship Division invites creative and innovative proposals for interactive PDW sessions to be held at the 2018 AOM Conference in Chicago, IL, USA. 

Given its mission, "We Grow Entrepreneurial Scholars," the ENT Division favors proposals that give participants at all career stages the opportunity to learn new skills, share ideas, help other scholars, have new experiences, and build connections. PDWs are meant as complements, not substitutes, for the regular AOM program. They should not cover conventional themes and topics or be structured as traditional paper or panel sessions. Rather, PDWs should be innovative in content and structure, exploring issues and encouraging interactions not usually featured in the main program.

PDW sessions are typically structured as workshops, breakout sessions, tutorials, discussion panels, research incubators, or a similar format. They provide a forum for exchanging ideas and building relationships in a manner that does not typically fit the constraints of paper and symposium sessions. Knowledge sharing and participation are key, and PDWs present the opportunity to experiment with new models of interaction and engagement. We welcome submissions featuring innovative topics or themes, new forms of exchange, and experimental formats-for example, sessions that use technology in novel ways, create interactions among participants before or after the session, and engage participants in new ways.

Proposals should interest members of the Entrepreneurship Division, or fit its domain, which includes not only the phenomena of self-employment, small-business management, new-venture formation, innovation, and firm growth but also more general ideas about the recognition, analysis, and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities; the nature of novelty, creativity, and innovativeness; and how individuals and groups exercise judgment under uncertainty.

However, the most effective PDWs encourage interaction among individuals and groups which do not typically participate in the same sessions, workshops, and activities: not only within the Entrepreneurship Division (e.g., between junior and senior scholars, between academics and practitioners, among scholars from different countries, among academics following different career paths, and so on), but also across the divisional lines of the Academy. Hence you are encouraged to work with colleagues within and outside the Division and submit appropriate PDW proposals which have broad appeal to the Academy membership at-large. While not required, submitters are encouraged to consider the conference theme "Improving Lives," when developing their proposals.

Proposals will be evaluated based on (a) the expected substantive and networking benefit for participants, (b) plans for creating an interactive and engaging session, (c) the breadth of interest of the session for individuals and groups within the Division and the broader Academy, (d) the novelty of the topic or the forum for the exchanges, (e) the effective use of program time, and (f) the fit with the conference theme. We encourage proposals which explicitly address these six criteria.

The submission system opens Tuesday, November 28, 2017. All submissions must be submitted through the AOM conference website; submissions emailed directly to the PDW Chair will not be accepted. Proposals that do not match the general PDW guidelines in the AOM call for submissions will not be reviewed. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 5:00pm ET (NY Time). 

All proposals require a statement indicating that all PDW participants have consented to participate in the PDW. The AOM's "Rule of Three" for the PDW program is that "no one may submit or be associated with more than 3 PDW submissions; or appear in more than 3 PDW sessions during the preconference from Friday to Saturday, regardless of whether the sessions are held on-site or off-site." Proposals that violate these rules may be rejected. Because space and time allotted for PDW sessions is limited, we cannot guarantee acceptance of all proposals.

If you have questions or would like to discuss a potential workshop idea, please contact the Entrepreneurship Division's PDW Chair, Peter G. Klein at entdiv@baylor.edu. To ensure sufficient time to develop your proposal, please forward your general inquiries before December 20, 2017. PDWs will be scheduled from 8:00AM to 8:00PM on both Friday and Saturday (August 10-11, 2018).

 See you in Chicago!