E-Magazine
An International Perspective of the ISBE 09 Conference
Miao Qing
"This Summer I attended a conference in Beijing, China and had the chance to talk to Dr Wing Lam of University of Central Lancashire. She passed on one of the ISBE conference brochures and introduced to me the function and events of ISBE. For someone who has been actively researching in the area of entrepreneurship for years, I found this piece of information very interesting, I know this could be an excellent opportunity for me to engage in the international research communities.
Our conversation triggered my desire to attend this conference, though I knew it was too late to submit a paper. I contacted the conference organiser and with their very helpful support and advice, I was able to make my trip to the UK for the first time. Soon after I arrived, I realised that I was the only one who came all the way from Mainland China! I’ve been studying and working in China all my life, this was the very first time I set foot on a foreign land. To me, this is a truly wonderful experience and I can summarised it as “eventful and fascinating”.
Miao Qing and Wing Lam
On the first day of the conference, I sat in the doctoral sessions. I was amazed to find so many high quality young speakers and doctoral researchers in one place. I particularly liked the interactive approach the speakers adopted. I was also amazed by how participative the audiences were, there were quite a lot of discussions and debate which made the sessions truly engaging and interesting. I guess one of the reasons it was so successful was that the speakers were willing to share their good as well as not so good experiences, which helps to connect to the audience. In addition to this, there was truly practical advice which I wish I was given when I was a Ph.D student.
I really enjoyed the many networking events, including the receptions, tea breaks, lunch breaks and gala dinner. They provided ample opportunities for me to meet established scholars in the field, many whose work I've been reading for years and I was really amazed to have the opportunity to talk to them about their research. Furthermore, I noticed that this is a truly international conference, after counting my 'conference takings', I realised that I have a total of 86 business cards of scholars, partitioners and policy makers from all over the world!
Delegates swapping business cards
After the doctoral day, then came the main conference, now that’s what I call an eye opener. To start with, there were several plenary sessions, each covered different topics, including the current economic climate, publications, policy implications etc. There were so many interesting debates between panel members and audiences, which is quite a new experience for me. Then there’s the main body of the conference, the parallel sessions. There were ten parallel sessions, which was a difficult decision for me because I needed to choose between different sessions, and sometimes I found myself moving around from one room to the other in order to listen to some of the presentations. I liked the fact that the discussions were participative and engaging. Some of the topics covered in the presentations were very interesting and inspiring.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at ISBE, I would like to thank Wing Lam for introducing me to ISBE. I’ve made so many new friends and potential collaborators. My ISBE experience was such a rewarding one that I would recommend it to anyone in the field of entrepreneurship and small business.
Dr. Miao Qing, Zhejiang University, China
