ILA’s 28th Global Conference seeks to generate actionable insights, innovative frameworks, and cross-sector collaborations that will equip leaders and followers worldwide alongside leadership researchers, educators, and development professionals to navigate complex challenges ethically and regeneratively. Participants will leave revitalized — with new questions, evidence-based strategies, and tools to elevate their impact as they examine and influence positive change at individual, organizational, societal, and global levels.

Conference Overview

This international conference aims to bring together leaders and leadership scholars, educators, and practitioners to explore the evolving landscape of leadership in the 21st century. As global challenges intensify—from rapid technological adoption and disruptions to societal polarization to environmental crises—leaders are being called to develop innovative, ethical, and resilient approaches to navigate uncertainty and foster systemic change. The conference will focus on four interrelated themes, promoting dialogue and collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and geographies.

Key Themes

1. Inclusive and Ethical Global Leadership
   Addressing the imperative for leaders to foster inclusion in a context of increasing polarization and incivility. This theme emphasizes ethical and humane leadership that promotes social cohesion necessary for effective international leadership in our interconnected world. Under this theme, explorations of leadership and followership that incorporate Indigenous frameworks such as, but not limited to, Minobimaadiziwin, Ubuntu, and Ukama are particularly welcomed. 
2. Innovative and Resilient Digital Leadership
   Exploring how leaders approach, integrate, adopt, and resist emerging digital and AI technologies while cultivating mental resilience. Focus areas include, among others, integrating digital literacy into leadership curricula, developing simulations and experiential learning for AI-human collaboration, researching how technology reshapes leadership competency models, creating assessment frameworks for digital leadership skills, and designing professional development programs for technology-enabled leadership. 
3. Sustainable and Transformational Leadership in a Complex World
   Emphasizing the importance of inspiring change, fostering innovation, and embedding sustainability and regeneration in organizational strategy to thrive in a polycrisis environment replete with planetary-wide climate challenges, technological disruptions, and shifting social expectations. Leaders are called to catalyze constructive transformation and promote environmental stewardship. Key questions include, but are not limited to: What approaches best cultivate systems thinking for planetary challenges and regeneration? How do we foster moral courage for environmental decision-making, explore cross-cultural approaches to regenerative leadership, and assess the effectiveness of experiential learning in developing ecological consciousness? 
4. Leadership and Followership for Systemic Change and Social Cohesion
   Researching and developing ethical leadership and followership practices that drive societal resilience, build trust, and support collective wellbeing, particularly in the context of climate change, social justice, and mental health. Transformational change requires both skilled leaders and followers. Effective followership can drive innovation, provide essential accountability, and grow collective action. Focus areas include, among others, frameworks for shared leadership models, training programs for active followership skills including constructive dissent, leader-follower dynamics in crisis situations and social movements.