In recent years, and indeed at previous ABH conferences, business historians have successfully demonstrated the value of historical perspectives within business schools and the broader academic community, with our work appearing in top journals across management, strategy, and entrepreneurship studies to name a few. Having established our relevance as a discipline ‘sui generis’, this conference turns to a fundamental question: How is business history communicated, understood, and used by those outside our discipline?

The conference will explore the ways in which the business past is imagined, constructed, and deployed. We aim to examine the entire ecosystem of historical communication, from the corporate archivist preserving organisational memory to the CEO who sees history as a strategic asset, and from the public historian creating exhibitions to the novelist representing business in popular culture. We hope to prompt questions such as: Who gets to do the remembering? What channels are being used to communicate business history, and what are the effects? What is our role, as academic business historians, in an increasingly crowded market for the consumption of history beyond academia.

ABH Preliminary Programme

Conference Venue
The conference will be hosted at the Henley Business School at our Whiteknights Campus. Delegates should note the venue is located in Reading, and NOT in Henley-upon-Thames. The conference venue is located 2 kilometres from the Reading town centre. It is easily accessible by car and public transport.

Address
Henley Business School,
University of Reading,
Whiteknights Campus
Reading Berkshire RG6 6UD
Click here to download the Whiteknights Campus map.

The conference venue is located within a 2 kilometres walk from the Reading railway station and the hotels situated in the heart of the town centre. The venue is easily accessible by car and public transport.

London Heathrow

If flying to London Heathrow (the nearest airport to Reading), the most economical way to travel between Reading and Heathrow is to catch the RailAir bus or get on the Elizabeth Line. A return ticket by the RailAir bus is £30. The bus arrives and departs from Reading train station. For details please see:https://www.firstbus.co.uk/railair. The Elizabeth line leaves from Terminals 2 & 3. Take the line to Hayes & Harlington, then connect to the next Elizabeth Line train to Reading. This should take around 50 minutes. Please note, there is free transfer available. Use the Journey Planner for the Elizabeth Line here: https://www.heathrow.com/transport-and-directions/by-rail-or-train/elizabeth-line.

Delegates preferring to travel by taxi are advised to pre-book it. We recommend London Cars: +44 (0) 118 932 1321 or Yellow Cars: +44 (0) 118 966 6555. Travelling by taxi is more expensive than using the RailAir bus. The cost of a taxi booked in advance is approximately £60-70, while a black cab from the taxi rank at Heathrow will be closer to £120.

Gatwick Airport

From the airport you can transfer for free to the train station. Trains to Reading are direct and take approximately one hour.

Travel from Stansted or Luton to Reading

For travel from Stansted Airport to Reading, take the train from the airport to London Liverpool Street. From there, you can connect to the Elizabeth line to Reading. To find the Elizabeth line entrance, go through the arches at the side of the main concourse near Platform 1. An alternative entrance is located in the plaza between Blomfield Street and Old Broad Street.

We strongly discourage you from travelling to Reading via Luton. The journey time is approximately 3 hours and requires multiple changes.

By train

Reading is a mainline train station and is easily accessible from most other places in the UK. There are direct rail links from many major cities, including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol, and Exeter, as well as a number of routes through London.

If you are travelling from or via London, the quickest route to take is from London Paddington station. Trains from London Paddington to Reading run approximately every 15-20 minutes throughout the day and the average journey time is around 30 minutes. Trains from Waterloo Station take about an hour. A return ticket during rush hour (peak times) costs about £50. After 09:30 am, a return ticket costs less than £25 (off-peak tickets). Peak times from Reading are 06:00-9:30 am. Peak times from London are 06:00-09:30, and 16:00-18:00.

If you travel by Eurostar, you will arrive at St Pancras International, which is across town. We recommend you take a taxi to Paddington station, but the two are also connected by the Tube (you will need to buy a ticket or oyster card).

Find out more on the National Rail website.

By car
The Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading is approximately 1.5 miles from the M4 motorway. Sat Nav users are recommended to use the postcode: RG6 6UR

If you are driving to the Conference Venue, please be aware that parking campus on campus is limited. Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm a Pay & Display car park is available to use by visitors (Car Park 1A). The cost will be £1.50 per hour, or £10 for all day parking. The machines accept credit/debit cards for payment. A visitor's parking permit can be pre-arranged by contacting the admin team

Parking
All visitors to our campuses on Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm should be aware that parking needs to be pre-arranged and that a parking permit must be displayed. Please contact the Conference Administrator - Jana Oslejova to arrange your car park permit.

Travel by taxi within Reading

There is a taxi rank outside the Reading railway station. A taxi will cost approximately £9.

There is no taxi rank on the campus. Taxis must be pre-booked by phone. The University of Reading recommends the following taxi services:

Loddon Cars +44 (0) 118 932 1321

Yellow Cars +44 (0) 118 966 0660

How to get to the University by bus from Reading town?

Bus numbers 20 and 21 start from the station (right next to the Railair buses) and travel to the Whiteknights campus every 10-15 minutes till 7pm (less frequently afterwards). Journey time is 15 minutes, £2.00 (return £4.50). You will need exact change, if paying cash, or you may pay with a contactless card. The station is the starting and ending point of the buses, so you cannot go in the wrong direction!

Reading buses website: https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/fares-and-tickets

ABOUT READING TOWN

Welcome to Reading, a place of business and innovation, a spot with cultural attractions and a town with potential.

Located in the South-East of England, Reading is a dynamic town, known for its University, over 800 listed buildings and monuments, two national trails and the rivers of Kennet and Thames. Thanks to its pivotal location in the Thames Valley, one of the fastest growing economic regions, Reading is a home to some of the world’s most famous businesses including information technology and financial services such as Microsoft, Prudential, Ericsson and others.

Reading can offer its visitors a diverse and welcoming atmosphere, a great time to unwind, appealing attractions including high-quality shopping experience, tourist places of interest, great nightlife spots and an array of choices of both fine dining as well as less formal restaurants. In Reading one can enjoy a variety of cuisines for avid foodies. And all of it at a walking distance. Visit your Reading guide to find out your night out choices, a list of restaurants of different eating styles from around the world and other attractions the town can proffer.

Reading town is served by regular rail services from locations throughout the UK. London Paddington is only 30 min by train. The railway station underwent a major transformation and redevelopment which opened a new way of investments. Reading is one of the best-connected towns in the UK. By 2019, thanks to the extension of the cross rail line, it will have a direct line into London employment and business centres such as the West End, The City and Canary Wharf in under an hour. It is an ambitious town, striving to be a smart and sustainable city by 2050. For more information on the Reading UK 2050 project please visit the website.

For a useful pocket map of Reading town, please click here.