When I packed for the 2025 AFAANZ Conference in Brisbane, I expected the usual ingredients of an academic conference: presentations, research papers, questions, discussions — and probably more PowerPoint slides than anyone could reasonably remember. 😅
What I did not expect was to come home thinking about massages, ferry rides, photo booths, and some of the best learning that happens when nobody is presenting a paper.
But of course, the papers were why I was there in the first place. 😄
The conference gave me the chance to share my research and spend a few days with scholars working on topics close to my own interests — climate-related disclosure, ESG, market behaviour, and climate finance.
Presenting your own research is always an interesting experience. You spend months thinking deeply about one question and end up with a manuscript that can be over 100 pages long — only to have about fifteen minutes to convince a room full of people that they should care about it too.
And then come the questions.
One scholar asked me about the time frequency of one of my variables. It did not change the paper, but it made me understand my own research a little better.
AFAANZ itself leaned more towards accounting, particularly in the climate-disclosure space, while my research looks at climate-disclosure regulation from a slightly different angle — its effects on financial markets. Most of the scholars I met there came from accounting backgrounds.
Interestingly, though, the Vietnamese scholars I happened to meet were all finance researchers. 😄 We did not really stay in touch after the conference, and I thought that was probably the end of it.
Apparently not.
A few months later, one of them, a researcher based in Australia, contacted me and invited me to join a project on the Vietnamese stock market. I had gone to Brisbane to present one paper; somehow, months later, the trip quietly opened the door to another.
But some of my favourite moments at AFAANZ happened between the serious academic ones.
After discussing research, there were nail treatments and massages. There was a photo booth. There was a gala dinner with live music. I could talk, laugh, take silly photos, and temporarily forget that regressions existed. 😌
I loved the contrast.
One moment, you are discussing climate-related disclosure and market responses.
The next, you are trying to decide which photo-booth pose looks the least embarrassing. 🤭
Apparently, both belong to academic life. 😉
Brisbane itself became part of the experience. I explored the city, visited the University of Queensland, and discovered that ferries are part of everyday public transport.
Sitting at the front of a CityCat on a beautiful sunny day gave me a completely different view of Brisbane — looking up at the city from the river, with a gentle breeze and the cool, fresh air rising from the water against the warmth of the sun. It felt wonderfully fresh and peaceful, and completely different from exploring the city on foot, crossing bridge after bridge on my way from the city centre to UQ.
I also found the CityCats themselves surprisingly cute. And no, despite the name, they have nothing to do with cats. 😄 “Cat” comes from catamaran, the twin-hulled type of vessel they are. Brisbane’s modern CityCat service began in 1996 with just four high-speed catamarans; today, the fleet has grown to 28 CityCats travelling along the Brisbane River.
While walking around South Bank near the Brisbane River, I also came across the Nepalese Peace Pagoda. I later learned that it had originally been built for World Expo ’88 and was hand-carved in the Kathmandu Valley over two years by 160 Nepalese woodcarvers. Even more surprisingly, it is one of only three such pagodas outside Nepal.
Nearby, I wandered through the Collective Markets, a weekend market filled with art, crafts, jewellery, and handmade goods from local makers. But what caught my attention most was something completely unexpected: I found not one, but three fortune-teller stalls. 🔮
Who knew Brisbane had so much to tell me about my future? 😉
None of this was technically part of my research.
I think that's a pretty good conference outcome.
