As I write this Spring is definitely in the air – even in the damp Midlands of the United Kingdom. Looking out of my study window at home I can see buds opening on the trees, daffodils and snowdrops in the hedge, a pond full of frogspawn, and grass that definitely needs cutting!

In a similar way EMAC is moving forward to a new season, some might even say new era. There are a number of significant changes taking place, and many of them aimed at improving the service that we offer to the future of our academy – the doctoral students who will form the next generation of marketing scholars, researchers and teachers. I’d like to draw attention to just a few of these.

Under the dynamic leadership of Luk Warlop the EMAC doctoral colloquium has been re-designed to help develop the publishing skills of our students. We all know that publishing in the top Marketing journals is becoming increasingly competitive (I have the scars from many anonymous reviews to prove it!) and that it is not simply a matter of doing good research these days. That research has to be crafted and presented in a manner that will maximise its impact, and the new DC is designed to help with that.

There is, however, a potential downside of focusing the DC on publishing in top tier journals. There is a concern that this focus may be at the expense of the more traditional role of helping students in the middle stages of their thesis, in refining their research approach and/or analysis. To ensure we are catering for all of our research students, not just those aspiring to the top journals, a review of provision for students is being carried out by the EMAC Fellows. Berend Wierenga, past president of EMAC and recently elected Dean of the Fellows, is chairing a review group looking at the impact of the new colloquium arrangements.

There are a number of other measures we are taking to support our students:

· To encourage research students to attend our conference and network with each other and more established marketing academics, all students attending the DC are eligible for a 50% reduction in the conference fee
· In addition, the Milan conference organisers have generously offered a 10% price reduction to doctoral students who were not able to attend the DC because of space limitations to attend and present posters of their work for discussion.
· In the last edition of the Chronicle I reported that a new Alumni Association was being set up for past students of the doctoral colloquium. The first meeting will take place in Milan at the conference in May.

Finally, it is very pleasing to see that the current round of elections for the Executive Committee has produced far more nominations for all posts than in the recent past. This is a good sign of a healthy, dynamic academy. The results will be announced at the AGM.

See you in Milan!