Allen Lee Discusses the Benefits of Participating in AMCIS 2013

Although AMCIS 2013 is still months away, the paper submission process is already open and the conference committee team is hard at work.  AIS recently caught up with AMCIS 2013 Conference Chair Allen Lee, professor of information systems at Virginia Commonwealth University, to discuss the upcoming conference, and to get his take on the importance of presenting a paper at and attending this exciting meeting. 

AIS: What is the advantage of submitting and presenting a paper at AMCIS?  

AL: The advantage of submitting a paper to AMCIS 2013--or any other conference--depends on the research topics that it covers and who its track chairs are.  Just as a researcher should find out who the editors of a journal are before submitting a paper to the journal, a researcher can find out who the AMCIS track chairs are by going to the conference website, and clicking on the research topics corresponding to the tracks.  

In addition to including broad and traditional IS research domains (which include, but are not limited to, Adoption and Diffusion of Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Knowledge Management, and Systems Analysis and Design), AMCIS 2013 also covers topics defined by application area (examples include Green IS and Sustainability, Business Intelligence, ICTs in Global Development, and IT Project Management).  A track rarely found in conferences, but available at AMCIS 2013, is Information Systems Philosophy.  

AIS: What do you believe is the significance of AMCIS 2013’s theme?  

AL: There once was a time when research on information systems used to be largely ruled by matters of technology: systems design, data management, networks, and implementation.  Those matters necessarily remain core, but truly remarkable advances in electronic information technologies have allowed the research focus to turn to and also include issues that the technological advances have opened up: namely, how technologies have interacted with people, organizations, and societies in their endeavors to improve all things, in all places, at all times, where the pace of advancement seems to be only accelerated by their growing connectivities with one another.  This is captured by the theme, "Hyperconnected World: Anything, Anywhere, Anytime.”  

AIS: Why is Chicago going to present an interesting or unique experience for attendees and presenters?

AL: People engaging in presentations of rigorous research and provocative intellectual discussions always need some additional activities to renew themselves.  Chicago, which is the third largest city and metropolitan area in the United States, offers a rich array of such activities: the Art Institute of Chicago (especially its impressionist collection), which is part of the city’s overall Museum Campus; shopping in its world-famed Magnificent Mile; walking tours to enjoy what some consider to be America’s most architecturally significant city; major league sports; restaurants of every imaginable cuisine; and Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline and its free beaches.