We, the faculty of Alliance Manchester Business School and Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, along with the AIB UK and Ireland Chapter leadership team, are looking forward to welcoming you to the 2026 AIB Annual Meeting in Manchester, 29 June to 3 July.

AIB 2026 Manchester will feature a variety of unique offerings—by way of introduction, we would like to highlight three in particular.

First, the conference is being planned as a cooperative venture with one of AIB’s largest and longest-running regional chapters,  AIB UK and Ireland (AIB-UKI). This collaboration will be featured in both the Pre-Conference on 29 June and a specially AIB-UKI-focused day of programming on 30 June. These cooperative efforts will bring together regional experts in IB research, policy-making, and practice, united around the theme, “New Frontiers for Research – Policy Dialogue in a Diverging World”.

Second, AIB 2026 will have the support of not one, but two local host universities.  Specifically, the first two days, including the Presidential Reception, will be held at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, while the next three days of main conference programming, plus the Opening Plenary session, will be hosted at the University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School.  With double the institutional support and local expertise underlying our efforts, attendees can expect to experience our Host City at its very finest.

Third, we have tremendous support from the City of Manchester, which has designated the entire AIB 2026 conference period as “International Week”. We anticipate many exciting avenues of cooperation opening up as a result of this city-wide backing, which we look forward to sharing in future conference updates.

Manchester is a vibrant city that was core to the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century.  It has a world-renowned sports, entertainment, and cultural scene, all of which will be readily accessible to the adventurous AIB 2026 attendee.  The city contains many arts venues and museums, two of which—The Manchester Museum and The Whitworth Art Gallery—are conveniently located on the University of Manchester campus only a few minutes from our main AIB 2026 venues.

Additionally, the AIB Manchester Celebration will be held in a unique open-air food hall known as Freight Island, a converted industrial site harkening back to the city’s historical roots.  Attendees will be able to choose their own food and drinks from dozens of street vendors, play games, dance, and watch World Cup matches.  Its mix of modern global entertainment and local industrial history make it an ideal fit for AIB’s cosmopolitan constituency.

We all look forward to welcoming you to Manchester in 2026!

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Timothy Devinney, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Heinz Tuselmann, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School