European scholars skip US management conference over Trump‑era

European scholars are largely boycotting this year’s Academy of Management (AOM) conference in Philadelphia, saying fears over data privacy, travel bans and a hostile political climate under President Trump outweigh the benefits of attending [2]. The move mirrors a wider European trend of distancing from U.S. technology and services for security reasons [1].

Key takeaways

• The AOM meeting, normally drawing up to 14,000 participants, is expected to host roughly half that number this year [2].
• Academics cite concerns about U.S. immigration enforcement, social‑media screening proposals, and the overall “adversarial” atmosphere under Trump [2].
• European governments are shifting away from U.S. tech platforms such as Zoom, Teams, and Microsoft services to protect data sovereignty [1].
• The AOM has announced future conferences will be held outside the United States, with Vienna slated for 2025 and other locations in Canada and Europe thereafter [2].
• Officials in France, Germany, Austria and Denmark are adopting open‑source or domestic alternatives to reduce reliance on U.S. vendors [1].

Academic boycott of the Philadelphia AOM meeting

The Academy of Management, a leading global association for business scholars, scheduled its annual gathering for 31 July in Philadelphia. Early registration data released to the Financial Times indicated attendance would be about 7,000, roughly half the usual turnout [2]. Researchers explained the drop by pointing to a series of Trump‑era policies: heightened scrutiny of foreign‑born scholars, detentions and deportations, and a proposed requirement to submit five‑year social‑media histories for visitors from dozens of countries [2]. One British‑Iranian academic, speaking anonymously, said the travel restrictions made the trip “untenable” and expressed solidarity with colleagues barred by U.S. bans [2]. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) scholar Timo Lorenz added that providing personal data to a regime he described as hostile would be unacceptable [2].

In response, the AOM announced that its 2025 meeting will move from Seattle to Vienna, and subsequent conferences will rotate to Toronto (2028), Frankfurt (2029) and London (2030), signaling a shift away from U.S. venues [2].

Parallel shift away from U.S. tech services

Across Europe, governments and public institutions are reducing dependence on American technology for similar security and sovereignty reasons. France plans to transition 2.5 million civil servants from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoTo Meeting to a home‑grown video platform called Visio by 2027 [1]. German states such as Schleswig‑Holstein have already migrated tens of thousands of email accounts to open‑source solutions and are considering Linux replacements for Windows [1]. Austria’s military now uses LibreOffice instead of Microsoft 365, citing concerns over vendor lock‑in and cloud storage [1]. Denmark’s cities and French municipalities are also trialing open‑source software to avoid reliance on a few foreign suppliers [1].