PHILADELPHIA — The Academy of Management announced it will move its 2027 annual meeting from Seattle to Vienna and hold all annual meetings outside the United States through 2030. The decision follows reports of sharply declining international attendance, with early registration for the 2026 meeting in Philadelphia indicating about half the usual turnout compared to its typical 14,000 participants.
The organization plans to host its 2028 annual meeting in Toronto, its 2029 meeting in Frankfurt, and its 2030 meeting in London.
André Reichel, a professor at the International School of Management in Germany, said he had attended the Academy of Management meeting every year since 2009 but decided not to attend in 2026. “The AOM is, or was, my home.” Reichel said. “Foreign-born scholars in the U.S. have been detained or deported (or threatened with deportation), visiting scholars are scanned for their social media activities, and the attitude towards any scientific endeavor connected to fields I care about (mostly sustainability, climate, energy transformation) can only be described as hostile.” He added, “I don’t feel welcome in the U.S., and I cannot imagine how it must feel for colleagues from the Middle East or Africa.”
Timo Lorenz, a professor in work and organizational psychology at the MSB Medical School Berlin, said he and his team, who focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion research, do not believe they would be welcome under current U.S. politics. “We don’t want to give our social media data, personal data, phone contacts and emails to the current regime to enter the country,” Lorenz said. He cited concerns about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions, the Trump administration's science policy, and U.S.-Europe tensions over trade, Ukraine, and Greenland as reasons for not attending.