[ABC is the Association for Business Communication.]
From 4 to 6 June 2025, I had the privilege of attending the ABC Regional Conference at NHH in Bergen (Norway), themed “Building Bridges Between Business Communication and Management.”
Bergen was beautiful, even in the rain, cold, and wind. Against this dramatic backdrop, the NHH campus offered a warm and stimulating environment for exchange. The conference brought together scholars and practitioners to explore business communication in all its contemporary complexity.
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| Bergen, view from the fish market 📷 Greet Angèle De Baets |
Throughout the three days, I attended sessions on crisis communication, CEO letters, visual communication, teaching confidence, corporate social advocacy, the normalisation and (self-)orientalisation of intercultural communication, self-awareness, and many more. The diversity of topics reflected not only the scope of the field, but also the growing need to address complexity, empathy, and ethics in professional life.
These sessions offered fresh insights and challenges. The discussions were lively and generous, and several conversations are still echoing in my mind.
My contribution: Cognitive empathy in intercultural post-conflict interactions
I was also grateful for the opportunity to present my own work on teaching empathy through aikido. My focus was on embodiment and the link between cognitive and physical empathy, using aikido as a method to explore presence, interaction, and relational awareness.
Cognitive empathy — empathy stripped of its affective component — already goes a long way in high-stakes or post-conflict interactions. The ability to understand another person’s perspective, without necessarily sharing their emotional state, can create the necessary space for dialogue, reflection, and constructive decision-making. Especially for tense or charged situations, embodied training can help leaders regulate tension, maintain focus, and engage others.
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| About cognitive empathy through aikido 📷 Jeanette Heidewald |
Bridges and questions
The keynote speakers offered valuable reflections on academic publishing and on how to make research matter. They also addressed the importance of building bridges between disciplines, institutions, and the world outside academia.
As I reflect on the many conversations and personal discoveries, some questions remain:
- Is it about building bridges between Business Communication and Management?
- Is it about bridging academic domains?
- Or is it, ultimately, about bridging these domains with more users: communicative and managerial, top and bottom, east and west, north and south?
This conference was a reminder that building bridges — true to ABC’s mission — requires more than theory or method. It also depends on sustained dialogue, practical engagement, and a commitment to connecting research, teaching, and professional practice across disciplines and communities. I am already looking forward to continuing these conversations at the next ABC Annual Conference in Long Beach in October 2025.
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| The Bergen Bag and Badges, not a Bergen/Bergan backpack 📷 Greet Angèle De Baets |
Greet Angèle DE BAETS
Director at Large, Association for Business Communication
Researcher, Engage UCLouvain Saint-Louis, Brussels
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