The event was the latest conference in a series linking research into family businesses to the very people running them. This year had a little change in focus as even more research was presented into the packed day.

The keynote speech was given by a regular visitor to the Centre, Jess Chua, who arrived in Lancaster from Calgary and spoke about "Goal Systems for Family Business and Implications for Empirical Research on Performance".

Sandwiching his talk were presentations covering topics such as family branding, transgenerational discourses, engaged scholarship and community goals.  Speakers came from Germany, Spain and the US and UK, and were all given a gift of organic olives and olive oil from a family business in Italy.

After the discussions, at lunchtime, diners were surrounded by the 10 poster submissions from collaborations looking into the many challenges faced by family businesses in today’s economic and social environment.

The Panel Debate followed with the lecture theatre filled with many representatives from family businesses across the North West, the UK and America.  This lead to a lively debate focused on growth and entrepreneurial behaviour.

A central aim of the conference was to leave spaces through the day for people to meet and mingle and because of this the day ended with canapes, drinks and more unstructured discussion.

Professor Alfredo De Massis, organiser and Director of the School’s Centre for Family Business, said: “The panel debate gave us the opportunity to test the impact of our research activities with family business leaders and experts coming from different parts of UK and abroad. Bringing research-led discussions on the table of the entrepreneurial community and society at large is always challenging as well as rewarding.”

LUMS’s Director of Executive Education Ian Gordon, who attended the event, congratulated the organisers for raising the global profile of LUMS and praised the “fantastic array of academics and practitioners all working together. The very professionally organised event was a real showcase for what this department does very well.”

Other attendees also gave positive feedback to the event, with Rachel Woodward from More than Mediation saying, “It was a fascinating day; I met some wonderful people” and Michael Smoult from Gorvins saying, “I really enjoyed the day”.

The Centre for Family Business would like to thank all the attendees for coming and ensuring people left full of ideas and the connections to enact them.