The Past Speaks

The Business History Conference is my favourite conference of the year. I always come away from this conference feeling energized and inspired. One of the great strengths of the BHC is its interdisciplinarity: economists, historians, management academics, and many other contribute to making the conference very rich. Many of the people who work in management schools who attend BHC will tell you that the research presented here is of greater relevance than the papers that are presented at many management conferences.  The conversations one has at BHC are fascinating: where else can you speak to range of people that include NASA employees, practicing corporate lawyers, and the odd Hollywood actor.

This year’s conference was, in many ways, a typical BHC conference. However, it was exceptional in the sense that there were frequent references to the life and work of the late Chris Kobrak. At last year’s BHC, Chris Kobrak held a reception to announce the launch of the Canadian Business History Association. This year, there was a reception to honour the memory of Professor Kobrak.