The International conference on Information Systems (or ICIS) is a premier conference of the Information Systems discipline, and held by the Association for Information Systems (AIS). ICIS 2020 was held virtually this year owing to the pandemic situation. Yet, the virtual mode offered great opportunities to connect with scholars and fellow PhD students in the information systems area. I feel honoured to have presented my paper titled “A ‘Linking Pin’ or Beyond? A Decision Rights Perspective of the Guardian Vendor Role in IT Multisourcing”. The review process was very stringent with one round of revision, leading to a final accept decision, offering an experience similar to a journal submission. The reviews received from the anonymous reviewers and the Associate editor were of extremely high quality, and helped me get deeper into explaining the findings of my research (link to my paper – https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/is_development/is_development/11/) . Since the paper is based on my dissertation research, these reviews have helped me in shaping up my dissertation as well. I am delighted to share that the paper has received the ‘Best short paper in track’ award.

Further, the paper-a-thon event that began online much before the main conference, was a unique experience for me. It was amazing to meet new scholars through this event, as well as gain a first-hand experience of developing a research proposal under a mentor. This was a very enriching experience. Practitioner talks, the special events for Doctoral students, Women researchers, and on research ethics, all offered me tremendous exposure and learning. The virtual mode presented more outreach and interaction opportunities with senior scholars, who were highly encouraging and very considerate of the challenges faced by Doctoral students amid a pandemic, and in general. ICIS 2020 offered me fresh hope and energy to continue with my research. I will be ever grateful to ACM-W for all their grant support and help, and for being a very kind, active and inspiring community. Thank you!