Mr Lafferty is the only New Zealander to speak at the "Strategic Positioning for Executive Education Providers" conference on September 14 and 15.
He said his address would focus on the role of a traditional university in the modern education market.
"It will be how we create a niche in a crowded market - red brick versus steel and glass.
"A lot of other speakers who provide executive education separate it from traditional universities. They think companies want an organisation that is much more modern."
Otago would argue that company executives wanted the depth of research and traditional university academic rigour as part of their education programmes.
That sort of rigour was not available from the "average" short-term management education programmes.
"Rather than management people being put in front of clients, we put up professors.
Our academics are well versed in the business world as well as the world of academia."
Otago had been running leadership courses for the New Zealand Police, he said.
Recent independent research conducted on behalf of the university showed that the 350 police officers who had been through the programmes in the past three or four years were still using parts of their education up to two years later.
They were also recommending their colleagues apply for entry to the course.
"Every single officer who was interviewed is still using something from the course.
We are going to take that research further and look at the wider implications for the police of using our programmes.
"You can't do that in a purely commercial environment. You need the traditional academic environment to tap into that."
The "enhancing leadership" course was a residential five-day course.
The police officers stayed at the executive accommodation for a week.
Otago also offered strategic leadership courses for senior police officers.
Mr Lafferty would present the police training programmes as a case study at the conference and use part of his time to explore international markets for that type of training.
Working with another business school, such as the one in Singapore with which Otago had a sister school relationship, was a possibility.
Otago University was the only university invited to present at the conference.
