Questions

“Do you have any questions?”
I just came back from a conference last weekend. The Academy of Management is probably the biggest conference in my field, with over 10,000 participants. Going through the 500-page program and deciding which sessions to attend was almost as hard as writing a paper. However, one thing in common among most presentations was their last slide: “Questions?”. Sometimes it was disguised as “Q&A” or even as a more timid “Debate” or “Discussion”, but it was always meant to be an invitation that the presenter is opening up for questions. Isn’t it curious that questions should mark the end of an academic presentation? Aren’t we there to find answers in the first place? (more…)