The Academy of Management will hold its first conference outside of North America on January 7-10, 2013, in Johannesburg, South Africa. This exciting event will feature a unique set of activities designed to facilitate conversations about management scholarship and the impact of research in developing nations.

At this time, the Academy is calling for program submissions based on the four conference track themes. As a member of the OMT Division, your participation in the development of this program is greatly valued. The deadline for all program submissions is May 15, 2012 at 5:00PM EDT.

If you have any questions about the development of this program or about the AOM Africa Conference in general, please follow up with the conference organizers at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Click here to download the call for papers.

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OMT will again be the place to be in Boston! Due to the collective effort of 1,258 reviewers (a new record!), we were able to provide 2,554 reviews to 695 submitters (another new OMT record!), and have a great foundation of input to select 311 papers and 43 symposia for presentation at the 2012 Academy meeting. Needless to say, the selection process was very difficult and highly competitive. In the end, we will offer a record 89 OMT paper and symposia sessions. In addition, 47 accepted papers will be presented in cross-divisional and discussion paper sessions (with some of our best facilitators) – and another 20 OMT-sponsored symposia that have been scheduled by other divisions. Be sure to look for those in the OMT program when it comes out!

The OMT program will provide a veritable candy store, with a panoply of treats to sample. As has been the trend in recent years, institutional theory submissions dominated—especially those on the rapidly growing topic of institutional logics—and comprise the greatest number of sessions. But we will also have many sessions on networks, corporate governance, identity and categorization, behavioral theory and decision-making, learning, innovation and entrepreneurship, just to highlight a few theoretical areas of great importance to our community. A preliminary schedule is below.

The Academy meeting overall will be dispersed across 5 main venues, but the OMT program will be mainly housed in the Sheraton along with the ENT and MOC division programs. I look forward to seeing you all at the OMT Welcome Breakfast, where we shall hear from this year’s OMT Distinguished Scholar, Linda Argote. Please also make sure to attend the OMT Business Meeting and Social Hour on Monday night. Awards will be announced, the artifact will be revealed, and much more (stay tuned)!

Organizing the program is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and requires a communal effort. I want to especially thank my University of Alberta team—Michelle MacLean and our exceptional students—Lianne Lefsrud, Evelyn Micelotta, Mia Raynard, Pooya Tavakoly and Eric Zhao—who generously dedicated their time to keep me sane and assist in program management and design. And it was a great help that most everyone responded to my “personal favor” pleas to sign up as a reviewer and volunteer to act as chairs and facilitators at the meeting. I am indebted to you all. Having good reviews and reviewers is key to being able to adjudicate submissions adequately and design a great program, not to mention provide our scholarly community with helpful feedback to guide the development of their work. THANK YOU for the opportunity to serve OMT as Program Chair, and for being part of this collective mobilization. See you in Beantown!

Michael Lounsbury, University of Alberta, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Monday, August 6th, Sheraton Boston Hotel  (S: Symposia)

Tuesday, August 7th, Sheraton Boston Hotel (S: Symposia)

Call for Nominations: 10th Annual OMT Dissertation Proposal Workshop

The Dissertation Proposal Workshop aims to improve the focus and framing of research questions, identify and address methodological issues, and/or constructively critique conceptual foundations. Discussions may also address process issues like managing your dissertation committee, and completing the dissertation. The workshop consists of roundtable discussions between faculty and doctoral students working on dissertation proposals in the scholar’s area of expertise.

The dissertation proposal workshop is for students who have completed preliminaries and have selected a dissertation topic but have not yet defended their dissertation proposal. If you have a 50-page proposal with data, well-defined hypotheses, and a committee, you are probably too late.  If you have not moved past “I am interested in institutional theory,” you are most likely too early.

Deadline for Nominations: May 31, 2012. Attendance is limited to 24 students so early application is advised.

For complete details, visit the Dissertation Proposal Workshop page.

Tags: call for applications | dissertation proposal workshop | OMT events

International Theme Committee (ITC)

2012 Best International Dissertation Award

The International Theme Committee (ITC) is now accepting submissions for the inaugural Best International Dissertation Award, sponsored by the International Theme Committee of the Academy of Management. The deadline for nominations is 15 May 2012, midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Eligibility Criteria

The ITC Award for the best International dissertation or thesis is open to all PhD and DBA students who successfully defended their theses/dissertations between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011.

Dissertations/theses submitted to other competitions are eligible.

All applicants must be members of the Academy of Management.

Award Criteria

The dissertation must contribute to basic or applied knowledge on topics within the charge of the International Theme Committee

(a) The theme and content of the dissertation/thesis should reflect an awareness of business and management outside domestic boundaries

(b) The dissertation/thesis should be rich in the appropriate literature, offer new insights, and employ/suggest creative methodologies or models

(c) We value both mainstream and non-mainstream topics and methods

(d) The sample used in the dissertation/thesis should improve the understanding and internationalization of business trade and other forms of organizational transactions. 

Submission Guidelines

Submit electronically a 15-page, double-spaced summary set up with margins of one inch (2.5 cm) on every side and no smaller than 12-point font.  This summary should include the dissertation/thesis title, a description of the dissertation/thesis objective, theoretical foundations, relation to prior research, methodology, findings, limitations, and contributions to the field of international business.  Listings of references are not included within the 15-page limit, but all other text, figures, tables or illustrations are included. Submit the summary in PDF format so that there is no author identification information.  In a separate title page include your current affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, the name of the institution where the Ph.D. or D.B.A. was obtained, the name of your thesis advisor, and six keywords describing the topic of your dissertation/thesis.

Submit via E-mail to ITC Dissertation Award Co- Chair, Claire Simmers  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submission deadline for summaries is 15 May 2012, midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Evaluation Process

The 2012 selection committee consists of:

Claire Simmers (co-chair), Saint Joseph’s University; Eric Zhao (co-chair), University of Alberta School of Business; Adela McMurray, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University; Benson Honig, McMaster University; Adrian T H Kuah, James Cook University; and Rosa Nelly Trevinyo-Rodríguez, EQUUS Parque Corporativo.

The committee will select three to five finalists based on how they meet the ITC criteria.

Finalists are required to present their dissertation/thesis in poster format at the Carolyn Dexter Award Reception.

Please submit your summary ONLY if you agree to this requirement, and agree to be present at the Carolyn Dexter Award Reception at the 2012 Academy of Management Meeting in Boston where the winner is announced.  Being selected as a finalist is an honor with international recognition.

Recognition for first place is a plaque commemorating the winner's outstanding dissertation/thesis.

Contact either co-chair for additional information

Tags: Dissertation Award | International Theme Committee

Henrich Greve has a blog!!  We're happy to welcome Henrich, an ASQ editor and prolific organizational scholar, to the blogosphere. Henrich's posts discuss the practical implications of papers recently published in organization theory journals. In this post he discusses an ASQ paper by Matthew Bidwell about the performance and pay of external hires versus internal hires. Here he draws on a paper by Elizabeth Boyle and Zur Shapira to assess how organizations manage risks through incentives and monitoring. And in this post he talks about the implications of his own research on corporate deviance and legitimacy loss to assess how Carnival's CEO handled the recent shipwreck of the Costa Concordia.

This is a must-read blog.

Interview with Joel Baum, OMT Distinguished Scholar 

Conducted by Chris Yenkey

Among the pleasures of winning the Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award is that you are asked to interview the winner of the Distinguished Scholar Award.  This year’s winner, Joel Baum (University of Toronto Rotman School of Management), agreed to sit down with me (via Skype) to discuss his career path and share his thoughts on trends in the discipline.  The following are excerpts from our conversation:

Chris: Let’s warm up with some easy background questions: What did you do for your bachelor's, and what was your path to grad school?

Joel: I did my undergrad in psych, economics, fine arts, and math, which basically means I had no idea what I wanted to do! But at the time, my mother was dating an OB professor at the Univ. of Toronto who studied leadership, Bob House. He knew I was interested in psych and was thinking about a PhD, and he said, “Whatever you do, do it in a business school, then, when you’re done, there will be a job that pays you well.” And that’s how I ended up in management. Shortly after I came to U of T to start my PhD, Bob left on sabbatical…

2012 OMT/MOC Doctoral Student Consortium

Academy of Management Annual Meeting

Boston, August 3-7, 2012

Call for Applications

(Deadline:  May 15, 2012)

The Organization and Management Theory (OMT) and the Management and Organizational Cognition (MOC) divisions are pleased to announce that their joint Doctoral Student Consortium will once again be part of the pre-conference activities at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting. The goal of this consortium is to help doctoral students who are broadly interested in organizations, management, and cognition to organize their thoughts about the final phase of their doctoral programs, advance their research, publish their dissertation or parts thereof, find a job in the academic or professional world, and, perhaps most importantly, establish professional networks with colleagues who share similar research interests.

The consortium will include a variety of presentations, interactive discussion sessions, and workshops aimed at these goals. It has been designed to allow for high levels of interaction between faculty and students. Faculty participating in this year’s Consortium are:

In order to maintain a high faculty/student ratio, space for this consortium is strictly limited. Interested students must be nominated by their schools. Due to space constraints, doctoral programs should nominate one applicant (maximum two candidates per school can attend). Universities with multiple departments seeking to send students need to coordinate their nominations. Preference will be given to those students who have progressed to the dissertation stage and are either on the job market or considering being on the job market in the coming year. The deadline for nominations is May 15, 2012.

Applications should be e-mailed by the department representative who nominates the student to the two consortium organizers listed below. It should include the following in the body of the e-mail:

• the nominee’s name, address, e-mail address, phone and fax numbers,
• name of affiliated school and university,
• the division (OMT or MOC) that the student considers to be his/her primary affiliation, and
• a statement from the department certifying the nominee's completion of doctoral coursework and comprehensive exams (or equivalent) by August 1, 2012.

Three supporting items should be attached to the e-mail:

1. a brief letter from a faculty member providing a general appraisal of the nominee, including an assessment of his/her progress toward a dissertation defense, expected defense date, and subject of dissertation;
2. a 1 page bio summarizing the nominee’s contact information, research and teaching interests, and publications; and
3. a 3-5 page summary of the student’s research project.

Students selected to attend the Consortium will be sent a registration code that will allow them to register online.

Additional information about the OMT/MOC Doctoral Consortium is available on the OMT and MOC websites and on the 2012 OMT/MOC Doctoral Consortium website.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact Eva Boxenbaum (OMT Rep-at-Large) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Frances Fabian (MOC Rep-at-Large) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

N.B. Please note that the Consortium begins with an opening dinner on the evening of August 2^nd and ends at 5:30 pm on August 3^rd. Participants will be expected to attend the entirety of the Consortium.

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This interview was conducted by Chris Steele, a PhD student at Northwestern University.

In 2011 Renate Meyer was named Chair of the European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS).  She kindly agreed to talk with us over email about the connections and differences she sees between EGOS and AoM, the reasons to get involved in both, and her plans for the future of EGOS:

Could you tell us a little about the general similarities and differences that you see between EGOS and AoM?

Perhaps I start with some similarities: Both associations are a community of very committed and inspiring researchers, devoted to high quality research, have an international orientation, are the key professional associations on their continent, strongly engage in developing scholarship further, push new and challenging questions, encourage the involvement of PhD students and early career researchers, provide platforms for collaborations, and many things more.

A first difference that comes to my mind is size and all its consequences for the administration of the associations and their annual conferences. EGOS is still a much closer knit network with a more personal touch than AoM. In addition, as EGOS was founded to provide a platform for expression and advancement of a great variety of different European traditions, perspectives and viewpoints of organizational research, it is strongly devoted to mirror this plurality in its colloquia programs and governance structures.

At the annual conferences there are major differences in terms of format: EGOS colloquia are essentially based on the idea of subthemes where participants stay together over three days and seven sessions. This allows for a dialogue (apart from feedback to the papers) to unfold over the colloquium. Especially for young scholars this format makes it a lot easier to connect and become part of a debate. Another difference is that EGOS is hosted by a university (or several universities in close distance) with local EGOSians as organizers who have considerable influence on the overall theme, selection of subthemes etc. This means that each conference has a distinct local flavor. I personally find that at AoM I need to be much more organized: which sessions to go, who to meet etc. – everything has to be arranged in advance. At EGOS, I run into people (although this has been changing with the increasing size every year).

If you were to point to one key difference between the two, what would it be? And do you see this difference as cultural, substantive, theoretical, or philosophical (or otherwise)?

I suppose one could start looking for (and find) differences along the lines of European versus North American research traditions, but I don’t think that this would do justice to either of the associations. For me, the key difference is the more open and pluralistic dialogue that the EGOS format allows and that is what makes the “EGOS spirit”.

Could you tell us what advantages you see, for individual scholars, in being involved in both EGOS and AoM?

In my opinion it is like reading two high quality newspapers that provide different perspectives on issues: To read one is good; to read both gives you a far more comprehensive picture.

Scholars on both sides of the Atlantic need to move out of our comfort zones, see different systems at work, present their ideas and work in different discussion arenas, benefit from the different formats, learn the implicit “rules of the game” on both sides of the Atlantic, and, ideally, engage in collaborations. I don’t mean to say that we all should do the same type of research, follow the same paper templates etc. Nonetheless, for us Europeans it is important to get exposed to the North American style of doing research and publishing. For North Americans it is equally important to learn from European scholarship, contextualizing their work and getting exposure to other ways of pursuing relevant questions and doing excellent research.

Being involved in both associations allows for a much richer view of the field of organizational and management studies, and permits to identify and realize opportunities for collaboration at the intersections. Our Colloquium in Montréal in 2013 can be a formidable opportunity for North American researchers to experience EGOS!

More generally, how closely connected have EGOS and AoM been historically?

EGOS and AoM have had overlapping memberships for quite some time. This means that with regard to intellectual inspirations, the travel of thoughts and ideas, the connection has been there for a long time, in both directions, and steadily growing. However, this was predominantly on an individual level, through personal initiatives and collaborations; there were very few institutional links. It is in this sense that I see a lot of potential for the future.

How do you see this changing? And what role do you see EGOS playing in the growing internationalization of the AoM?

On a more institutional level, there are currently several initiatives to cooperate and strengthen the connection. With OMT we have established mutual invitations of a representative to attend each other’s Executive Board Meetings. A first joint initiative is the Organization Studies (the EGOS journal) paper development workshop on power and institutions that is sponsored by EGOS, OMT, and Sage Publications and will take place at Judge Business School in April 2012. We are currently also exploring possibilities for connecting with other AoM divisions, something which until now has happened on a more informal basis, through members of these divisions who have been/are involved in shaping the agendas of several permanent or temporary EGOS communities. A good example for this is the Career Division at AoM and the Standing Working Group on Career at EGOS.

Another excellent example in this context is the Strategizing Activities and Practices community that was formed and consolidated at EGOS and has now become recognized as an interest group at AoM.

The fact that Eero Vaara, the former chair of EGOS, is currently a member of the Board of Governors of AoM is of course an excellent opportunity to further intensify our ties. I would equally like to encourage North American scholars to stand as candidates in the EGOS Board elections.

What is the role of EGOS in the internationalization of AoM? I guess the same as the other way around: Both associations are the key players on their continents; both are becoming more and more international in terms of membership. Europeans are a considerable and growing part of the AoM members; and North Americans of EGOS. This mirrors the global relevance of the research questions we have to address today and also the professional world in which academics live: job markets, publications, grants, collaborations are increasingly international and demand that we understand and listen to each other’s perspectives and viewpoints. To cooperate in any way that serves and benefits our members is the natural thing to do. And especially with OMT we share our ambition and aims: To push research on organizations and the societies they exist in further into unknown territories.

Could you tell us a little about your other plans for the future of EGOS?

One first point here is internationalization: In addition to AoM, we are also seeking to intensify our collaborations with other associations. We have a very lively collaboration with LAEMOS (the Latin American and European Meeting on Organization Studies). Their bi-annual conference (http://laemos2012.org) is co-sponsored by EGOS which means that we assist in the organization and contribute to program content encouraging EGOSians to offer tracks together with Latin American scholars, and are very active in bringing researchers from the different regions together. We are planning similar joint events in the future with APROS, our Asian-Pacific “sister” association. A particular interest we have is broadening the involvement of Eastern European scholars. EGOS colloquia have been hosted by institutions in Eastern Europe before (e.g. Ljubljana 2004), but we are now strengthening and expanding these connections.

Another focus that is related to internationalization is our aim to include scholars from areas where the financial opportunities to attend international conferences are very limited. For each colloquium, we offer several scholarships that cover the travel expenses and fees. Although this is small in terms of numbers, the feedback we receive from our “guest researchers” is just overwhelming.  We will certainly continue this in the future.

For the annual colloquium, we are constantly probing new formats and flexible ways to provide a platform for the various initiatives and needs of the EGOSians. Exploring the opportunities of new technologies to offer more flexible formats for scholars to collaborate is – especially in times when travel budgets are being reduced – equally on our agenda as are new pre-conference formats.

And finally: EGOS is today one the few leading communities of organizational researchers worldwide. EGOS has been constantly growing over the last decade. This is a very good sign as it shows how very vivid EGOS is. At the same time, this implies for example that we are reaching a point where it gets increasingly difficult to find universities that are large enough to be able to host our conference. A very important challenge therefore is to encourage the growth and internationalization but retain the personal touch, the interdisciplinary scope and the distinct EGOS spirit. This also implies that we have the responsibility to make sure we are not only doing research on organizations and power but are aware of our own activities and their implications in the respect. EGOS has to remain the place where the unpopular questions are posed, deviant ideas debated, and minority perspectives equally represented.

Thank you so much for the interview!

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Hello OMTers,

   As we all know, co-author relationships are an important part of academic life. While they can be both enriching and fun, they can also be incredibly frustrating and challenging. We decided to probe this topic a bit further by asking a longtime academic duo - Bob Hinings and Royston Greenwood - about their experiences working together. 

Bob Hinings is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta and received an honorary degree from the Université de Montréal. Royston Greenwood is the Telus Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Alberta & Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford.

1.       What do you consider to be the advantages of co-authoring (versus working on a solo-authored paper)?

BOB: There are a number of things.  First, one’s ideas are tested against someone else so the outcome is usually a much better product.  My experience, in particular, has been that the give and take of discussion and argument can be heated and strong but if there is an acknowledgement that the purpose is to get to a better outcome then the heat is well worth it in bringing more light. Second, I find a personal joy or satisfaction in working with Royston. I think it is part of my personality that other people are interesting and usually have better ideas than I do so I can build on their contributions and get great satisfaction from the process, even though at times it can be challenging. Royston is always full of ideas and it is a challenge to keep up with him.

ROYSTON: The biggest advantage is that it’s more fun. Bob supports a rubbishy soccer team in England (Notts Forrest), and I enjoyed telling him so. It’s been a bit harder in recent years because my team has not exactly covered itself in glory – but still…Similarly, he has this interest in toy trains (I think he calls them ‘model’ trains) – I ask you?! 

In my case, Bob Hinings was an established scholar when we first met (that’s my way of saying that he is an old man) and thus had considerable experience of how to conduct interesting work, craft papers, and so on. In other words, he guided my development. That is really important when you are first starting out.

Another advantage is that we tended to infect each other with enthusiasm. We did tons of field work together and would get excited about stuff that would come out of interviews etc. We spent much time on British Rail and I can remember how ideas for papers would flow – most of which never saw the light of day, but there was an excitement…(Maybe it was a reaction to the lousy BR coffee)

I like to think that we brought – and still bring - slightly different and yet complementary skills to the table. Bob was a sociologist, whereas I was trained as a political scientist. And Bob is actually quite skilled at quant stuff whereas for me the only interesting numbers are usually at the bottom of the page. Having said that, I’m not sure how important it is to have complementary skills – working together is simply more fun.

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NSF has issued a revised solicitation on Virtual Organizations as Sociotechnical Systems. Proposals are due 9 January.

A virtual organization is a group of individuals whose members and resources may be dispersed geographically, but who function as a coherent unit through the use of cyberinfrastructure. Virtual organizations are increasingly central to the science and engineering projects funded by the National Science Foundation. Focused investments in sociotechnical analyses of virtual organizations are necessary to harness their full potential and the promise they offer for discovery and learning.

Tags: Call for Proposals | NSF

Hello OMTers,

     Here's the final installment of the 'Tips for the Job Market' series. We hope that this series has been informative and valuable in helping you navigate the many hurdles of the job market. We would like to thank our four interviewees for taking the time to share their experiences and insights with us.

Best of luck to those of you on the job market and those who will be entering the market in the near future.

1.       Once you receive an offer, what do you do (after celebrating)? What are the key elements of the offer? Is there any room for negotiation?

SIMONA: Ask people you trust if the offer is fair. If it is, do not negotiate too much – these people will be your colleagues and you do not want to come across as demanding

ADAM: Obviously, the key elements of the offer are pay (including summer support), departmental resources (e.g. your research budget, teaching support, etc.), and teaching load.  There are other things to be sure, but my guess is for most people, those are three biggest.  There is room for negotiation.  Some places are more flexible than others.  But overall, if you have an interest in something, just ask.  I found no one begrudged me for making some demands beyond the initial offer. 

SHON: Key elements for negotiation: teaching load, courses to teach, salary, research budget, and office supplies (computer, software).

While some of these elements may not be open for negotiation, many others are. Be sure to hit on every item and have a justifiable reason why that is important for you. I asked for tips from micro-OB colleagues who taught negotiation at Cornell—they were very helpful. Remember, if you never ask, they’ll never offer it to you. You have very little leverage after signing the contract.

ALEXSIOS: Usually, there is some room for negotiation. How much room that is depends on the school and the constraints it might have, on how badly they want you, and on what other offers you have. Even if you aren’t able to increase your salary, you can negotiate your teaching load, research money, summer support, or getting a nicer office. Don’t push it too hard though. Those guys will be your colleagues and you want to be in good terms with them.

2.       How do you manage multiple job offers? What are some important considerations for deciding between multiple job offers?

SIMONA: Again, go where the best research is.

ADAM: For better or worse, I cannot answer that question!

SHON: I relied on advice from my advisors who had experience with multiple job offers. Important considerations include tenure clock (short or long), colleagues of the institution, research resources, geography, teaching load and whether you can stack your courses in one semester, etc.

ALEXSIOS: Different people have different priorities. You might decide based on salary, location, prestige of the school, family constraints. One important thing to consider is to compare how good the vibe is in the schools you got offers from, and how many and how good people there are to collaborate with or learn from. You might choose the school where the big-name, star professor you’ve always admired and cited is based, but remember that he/she might be too big or too busy to mentor you.

Managing multiple offers, remember that this is a small world. Be careful not to offend the school whose offer you reject. A rejection is never pleasant, but managed correctly will allow you not to burn any bridges. If they really liked you, they may invite you for presentations or short stays. And they probably liked you because there is overlap in research interests, which might materialize in collaborations and co-authorships even if you don’t accept their offer.

Hello OMTers!

 This is the third instalment of the “Tips for Navigating the Job Market” series. Here is what our four successful candidates from last year had to say about Tackling the Interview:

1.       How did you prepare for the interviews?

SIMONA: I read the main papers/books written by the interviewer.

ADAM: I practiced my job talk several times in front of members of my Department.  It is also a good idea to invite other faculty and students from other departments (strategy, sociology, psychology …).  Those individuals will likely ask you different kinds of questions, which is great practice. 

A wonderful suggestion from my advisor was to create a “stumpers file”, which is basically a list of questions that others ask of you that you struggle answering and things you think are problematic with your own work.  Over time the idea is that you work on coming up with really solid answers to those questions.  I literally wrote out detailed answers to some of my “stumpers”, which not only helped me feel more prepared to field questions but also aided me in the writing of my dissertation. 

Try to find someone at the school with whom you can get some “insider information” prior to interview.  At the job I wound up getting, I was very fortunate to have three different individuals give me some great tips on who I was meeting with and what their interests and concerns are.  That really helped me think about the types of questions I’d be asked in the one-on-one’s as well as during the job talk.

SHON: I do not consider myself particularly talented at public speaking, so I rehearsed my job talk 30 times before my first interview in front of a mirror in the basement of our house, and then 2-3 times in the hotel bathroom the morning before every presentation.  This gave me confidence to focus on the questions the audience asked during the presentation.

 ALEXSIOS: Mock presentations can be useful for practice. Try getting a good night’s sleep (not always easy, especially if you are interviewing in a different continent and are jet-lagged). Dress up. California style might be OK in CA, but it’s not OK in most other places. It’s safer to overdress than to under-dress, despite the fact that most people in the audience are likely to be in jeans.