It is our pleasure, on behalf of the ANZMAC
2008 Organizing Committee, to invite you to join us from December 1 to 3 at
Sydney’s Olympic Park, the site of the “greatest Olympic Games ever”.
Hence our challenge – to provide you with a
great and intellectually stimulating ANZMAC Conference and one which will set a
benchmark for future ANZMAC Conferences. This process we have begun with an
intriguing Conference theme – “Marketing – shifting the focus from mainstream to
offbeat”. This theme is particularly relevant as theories of mainstream
marketing developed in ‘western’ business environments, are becoming
increasingly questioned as the centre of world economic power is shifting
eastward from cities in North America and Europe such as New York and London, to
cities in Asia such as Shanghai and Mumbai.
Our two keynote speakers have been selected
to reflect this theme. The first keynote speaker is that post modernist and self
termed academic maverick from Ireland, Stephen Brown – author of heretical
treatises such as Agents and Dealers, The Marketing Code and Wizard: Harry
Potter’s Brand Magic. The second keynote speaker, Philip Adams, is expert in
applied marketing having founded Australia’s second largest advertising agency.
He is now a well known journalist who writes daily columns in the Australian
press and hosts radio and TV programs. His comments on marketing issues are
always refreshingly direct.
The theme will be picked up in the papers
presented at the Conference. The chairs of the 19 general tracks will be on the
lookout for ‘unorthodox’ treatments of topics related to their tracks and all
authors are encouraged to keep the ‘offbeat’ in mind when writing their papers.
To date the special tracks include one specifically on the Conference theme
chaired by Jim Bell whose ‘alter ego’ Smithee is hard at work soliciting papers
for this track. There is also a special track on macro marketing chaired by
Roger Layton which aims to put the marketing management paradigm out to pasture.
He has already recruited several well known overseas academics in this domain to
present papers in his track.
No successful ANZMAC Conference has been
based on ‘all work and no play’ and ANZMAC 2008 will be no exception as an
exciting social program is in the course of being organized to accompany the
academic element of what we aim to be a great Conference. The Conference will
begin at 11am on Monday December 1st and conclude with the Conference
dinner on Wednesday December 3rd.
We look forward to welcoming you at ANZMAC
2008 this coming December.
Richard Fletcher and David Low
Co- Chairs
ANZMAC 2008 Organizing Committee.