Conferences in Auckland

I had been away in Auckland for eight days to attend and present papers at two back-to-back conferences: Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management and International Conference on Studying Leadership. It was great to hear and converse with well-known management scholars such as Anne Tsui, Amanda Sinclair, Neal Ashkanasy, Keith Grint, etc. who flocked these conferences as keynote speakers and presenters. Attended by hundreds of researchers from more than 50 countries, there is a myriad of presentations on various management topics. I presented a paper on leadership complexity (co-authored with my wife and a Phd student) and another one on strategy and culture (co-authored with a Phd student).

The highlight of the conference is the second conference dinner. The conference dinner was held at the Mudbrick Winery in the Waiheke Island, which takes a combination of forty-minute ferry and five-minute bus ride to get there from the Auckland Harbour. It's all worth it however. As the photos below show, the venue is set in a perfect surrounding. Nice meal, inspiring guest speaker, and interesting conversations around the table made the evening quite a memorable one. The conference convenors have done a superb job organizing the whole conference.

On the way to the vineyard, I sat on the bus next to Professor Keith Grint. We talked briefly on various things then I asked him out of curiosity the following question: "What's the secret of writing a best-selling book like yours?" He responded: "I don't know. I never write a book to be a best-selling one. I don't really care. I just write what I believe is important to be shared." What a great advice!

This blog has been left quite unattended for the duration of my trip, but I have had many things to reflect on during that same period that I thought I would be posting in the next few days. Do you have any interesting experience in the last 8-10 days? Please leave a comment if you do.

Below will you find a few shots I took from Auckland, Rotorua, and the Waiheke Island using my old 3.2 megapixel camera. No wonder the Lord of the Ring trilogy were taken in New Zealand!

Auckland city from the SkyTower














The view from Mudbrick Winery in Waiheke Island














Rotorua from above

NWA08 and T4G08

The above tags are shorthands for two recent conferences in the US that I can only follow from afar (thank God for the internet). Presented in both conferences are huge Gospel-centered and Christ-focused banquets that are rarely served in today's churches. If you browsed through them, or better yet listened to and pondered upon them, trust me, there is no way you won't be moved, convicted, transformed by the Holy Spirit.

1. New Word Alive Conference 2008
Speakers: D.A. Carson, John Piper, Terry Virgo

Adrian Warnock did a full coverage of the event including summary notes of all the sessions, audio and video interviews, and all in his blog.

2. Together for the Gospel Conference 2008
Speakers: Ligon Duncan, Thabiti Anyabwile, John MacArthur, Mark Dever, RC Sproul, Albert Mohler, John Piper, CJ Mahaney

Tim Challies is the man who did a terrific coverage on this conference; all audio, summary notes, and youtube clips on the sessions can be downloaded in and from his blog.