This year's event, organised by Business School academics Anne ter Wal, Chengwei Liu, Ibrat Djabbarov, Luigi Mosca and Mark Kennedy, focused on research about how novelty is generated, framed and implemented in a technology-driven world.

Discussions explored several topics under the umbrella of how AI is affecting society, such as the future of work, generative AI and the creative process and what happens when human reasoning meets AI. 

The conference included two debates, with Professor of Technology & Innovation Management Anne ter Wal challenging Professor of Management and Head of the Management & Entrepreneurship department Kevin Corley on whether the theoretical paradigms in management have become an insurmountable obstacle to novelty in management research. 

The second, between Assistant Professor of Creativity & Innovation Ozum Demir-Caliskan and Professor of Strategy & Organisational Behaviour Mark Kennedy, explored whether increased adoption of AI will inevitably lead to the demise of human creativity. 

Other sessions looked at collaborative climate innovation in smart homes, how layered architectural framing shapes innovation pathways, and enabling outsider innovation in mature research areas.