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International Management Conference 2020: Go-ahead, Postpone or Cancel?

On May 20, 2020, six academicians of various reputed management as well as technology
institutions in India and abroad were in discussion regarding the feasibility of holding an
internationally reputed IT conference, known as IMC (International Management
Conference)1. This conference was planned to be held in the first week of January 2021 in
Hyderabad.

The participants of this discussion were members of the local arrangements committee (LAC)
of the IMS 2020. Preeta Srineevasan, Sumit Vardharajan, and Rohit Dhamija, three of the six
committee members, were faculty at various leading management institutions in India. Sam
Viduri was a faculty at a leading technology institution in India. Sudip Pandey and Joshy
D’Costa were faculty at universities in the USA and were also members of the Conference
Committee located in the USA. The city of Hyderabad in India was selected as the location to
hold this conference owing to the efforts of Preeta, Sudip and Joshy, who were early members
of the committee. All three of them were researchers of international repute. Sumit was not a
researcher but was well known for teaching in multiple executive education programmes in
India and abroad. He also had good industry connections, which could be used to garner
sponsorships.

More than 1500 participants from all over the world were expected to attend the conference.
However, the worldwide pandemic, called COVID-19, had created a roadblock. COVID-19
was spreading at a very fast pace in many countries and had resulted in the death of thousands
of people, many others were either hospitalised or quarantined. On March 22th 2020, as per the
announcement made by the Prime Minister of India a Junta Curfew (Public Curfew) was
observed, in which the entire population of India was asked to keep indoors. Subsequently
India was under a lockdown, for more than a month, wherein, except necessary services and
products such as utilities, groceries etc. all establishments were closed down. Many other
countries had followed a similar lock-down process and had stopped travel, both international
and domestic. Citizens were not allowed to venture out of their houses. By May 19, 2020, the
number of deaths had crossed 3000 and the number of people impacted by Corona neared
100,0002.

IMC was one of the most reputed international academic conferences in the field of
management and it attracted academics, researchers and practitioners alike. The conference
started in the 1970s and was conducted under the banner of the Association of International
Management Academicians (AIMA). Up to 2010, the conference was held only in the USA,
but from 2011, the conference moved to different regions and rotated between the Americas,
EMEA and the Asia Pacific. Hence, while the 2019 conference was held in Germany (Europe),
the one scheduled for 2020 was to be held in Hyderabad, India (Asia). Similarly, the 2021
conference was scheduled to be held in Texas (USA), the 2022 conference in Denmark
(Europe) and the 2023 conference would again be hosted by the Asia-Pacific region in
Thailand.

1
The actual name of the conference and the organizing body have been disguised. Similarity of name with any
other conference is incidental.
2
Source: https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-with-jump-of-4970-cases-covid-19-tally-
crosses-100000-in-india-deaths-near-3200/353067 accessed on July 25,2020.
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Significant preparations were required to host this conference. For IMS 2020, the preparations
had begun in 2016, this was when a proposal was submitted to the AIMA. The proposal was
accompanied by a guarantee from various academic institutions to provide for a minimum
sponsorship amount. The LAC 2020 had already received similar guarantees amounting to
USD 60,000. The total budget for the conference was USD 700,000. An important
consideration for this conference was accommodation for participants and the location of
conference meetings being in close vicinity. Considering this requirement, Hyderabad was
chosen as the final location out of various cities in contention such as Delhi, Mumbai,
Bangalore, Jaipur and Chennai. One very important reason, other than knowledge sharing and
network building, for participants to attend such a conference was tourism. Since none of the
LAC members worked in Hyderabad, they had planned to enlist an event management
company to manage the conference. As required, bookings were already made in Hyderabad
with advance payments to the tune of USD 150,000. Additionally, USD 50,000 had been
incurred as staffing cost. The registration fee was USD 700, The CC expected to get
sponsorship of USD 500,000 (including USD 60,000 from LAC) out of which USD 200,000
was already received and rest had been committed. The budget for the conference as decided
by CC is given in Exhibit 1.

The LAC members were yet undecided about the 2020 conference to be held in Hyderabad
One view was to convert IMC 2020 to an online conference. Else, they could decide to go
ahead with IMC 2020, with only participants from India joining the conference in person at
Hyderabad and others joining virtually. It was not possible to wait for more clarity on the
pandemic since suitable arrangements would be required.

Sudip was due to superannuate in 2021 and hence this was his only chance to lead the
conference. Joshy was still three years away from superannuation. However, both Sudip and
Joshy had worked very hard bring the conference to India. Other members of the committee
were still young and would have time to arrange such conferences in future.

What should the LAC decide?

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Exhibit 1: Budget for IMC 2020

Items Cost (in USD) Number of Services
Inaugural tea 15 per person First day for all participants, organizers
and guests
Lunch 30 per person All four days for participants, speakers
and organizers
tea 10 per person four days, twice a day
Breakfast 20 per person Four days
Conference Dinner 75 per person One time
Accommodation 300 per room Five days for organizers and speakers
Conference kit 30 per person One to all participants, speakers and
guests
airfare (International) 4,000 per One each of all international organizing
ticket team member and all speakers
airfare (Domestic) 400 per ticket One for each domestic organizing team
member
Meeting Halls (10 numbers) 40,000 for ten For four days
halls per day
Conference Hall 4,000 for one For days
hall per day
Conveyance (7 vehicles for four days) 100/- per
vehicle per
day
Miscellaneous 10000
Twelve speakers, ten international organizing team members, ten local organizing team members,
and thirty guests were expected. As per the original plan, 1500 participants were expected to attend
the conference.

USD 700 was the registration fee.