ISBE 2009: Viewed through new eyes

Keith Jackson

It’s off to Liverpool then. 

First stop the doctoral day, time to find out if my hopes and concerns are individual or match the collective of all the new researchers investigating the complicated world of the entrepreneur. 

I hope most of you attending the main conference can remember your days as the ‘newbie’ PhD student, no matter how you get there a PhD is a unique experience and the invisible support you receive from talking to fellow students is priceless.

The day held in the impressive Liverpool Medical Institute had a striking collection of practical support and interactive sessions by way of lively debate around the nature and structure of a doctorate. It is reassuring to see that there are other ‘newbies’ out there who take this research extremely seriously.

Evening drinks at a good hotel by the refurbished docks allowed time to continue conversations with fellow researchers, getting more reassured that I am not alone!

First day of conference proper starts, brisk walk to the Novas CUC building, large converted warehouse and even I can’t miss it. Ground theatre fills up quickly; I recognise many fellow students from yesterday mingling with the seasoned regulars. The conference has an air of professionalism and openness. Key note speaker a highly successful serial entrepreneur  and a star of the Channel 4 Secret Millionaire reminds us of the successful characters recognised by the public as mainstream entrepreneurs, witty lines and a poetic talent I will not try to copy.

Panel debate led by Denise Fletcher skilfully shows the other side of entrepreneurship, the gritty reality of facing the current economic downturn when you as the entrepreneur have to make the critical decisions that decide the survivability of your business. We as researchers have a responsibility to balance the two ends of the entrepreneurial spectrum: personal reward when things go well and ultimate responsibility when things go badly.

Conversations over lunch are open and everyone appears eager to meet new delegates and old associates.

The afternoon is split into the parallel tracks, I enjoyed the presentations, won’t go into details, ISBE covers a wide church and I hope your personal choices were as informative as mine.

Drinks led to a group of us heading off to a restaurant to carry on recently started conversations. Walk back to the hotel to go over that conference paper again. I am on one of the morning sessions so need to make sure I can focus on this piece of work. Like lots of other delegates working on more than one project at once has its costs, but these conferences and brief conversations really do give some direction to the balancing act required by working researchers.

Wake up early on Thursday…it’s strange we talk all the time but for some reason having to stand up in front of your peers and present your work for 15 minutes really does get the pulse racing. Presentation goes well, useful questions and comments at the end of it now wishing that I had presented work on my PhD, feed back would have been useful!!!

The morning workshop is packed; no surprise it’s meet the editors and reviewers time. As a new researcher congratulating myself on ‘achieving’ a conference paper I am introduced to the next mountain…getting the journal paper published. Considering this session afterwards I get over the initial shock and then grasp two positive statements made by the panel:

• The fear of presenting a conference paper focuses your thoughts on your work (it really does work; you only understand something when you can clearly articulate it to other people).
• Your work gets better the more you open it up to other people.

The afternoon is filled with more track sessions, I am sure all attending picked up new and creative ideas, it really is a joy to hear the current thoughts of academics whose work you had only previously read.

Gala dinner that night held in the impressive St Georges Hall, many new colleagues and friends are heading off early back to their day jobs across the globe, exchange details and business cards looking forward to future meetings.


Friday morning, the last day, I flit between track sessions to listen to the speakers that attracted my attention, I hope you all had the staying power to listen to the last sessions, there is always something new to hear and consider, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Apparently the last part of the conference entitled ‘Conference Highlights’ was a new addition this year. The room fills quickly and more chairs are hastily brought in for those left standing, obviously this will prove to be a popular idea. The key themes of the conference are summarised by the four course leaders and once again there is an open discussion with the floor. 

The challenge from Storey is repeated “There is no empirical evidence that entrepreneurs learn.” As a body of researchers within a relatively new field we all must prove our worth to the more established research fields, I pick up from the debate that we must learn from the past and work towards the answers of  the great ‘why’ questions.

As a newbie I’ve learned that you don’t waste your time at the conference, talk to as many people as you can, we are all looking for the answers in our field and we can all learn from each other whether we have been researching for years or just starting on our journey. But remember it’s not just about research, as an ex SME operator I understand the benefits of group support, don’t just study entrepreneurs, learn from them and creatively follow your research journey. 

Who knows we may all help find the answer, now what’s the question?

Keith Jackson, SME operator for 20 years

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