Dear Colleagues,

The days ahead of us in this calendar year are fast diminishing. Here is the time to think back and to take into account what has been accomplished. After the transitional year of 2006, 2007 was a stable one. First of all the membership: after the low membership in 2006, the numbers picked up again as in the previous years and EMAC achieved an all- time record of 927 members. Thanks to all of those who recently joined the EMAC community, and a special thanks to the loyal members who have maintained their good relationships with EMAC.

The conference participation in Reykjavik achieved a historical record, assuring that the next year’s membership of EMAC might be over one thousand. This number is now comparable with the 3000 academic members of the American Marketing Association. We started to work on a strategy of how we can double this figure in the coming decade. But this kind of growth is not to break records. Rather, it is our reaction to the European challenge, to the famous Lisbon Declaration about how Europe could catch up with the global competition in the knowledge economy.
The interest in the 37th EMAC Conference in Brighton is increasing. Based on the most recent information, so far the organizers have received more than 700 papers.

In the last weeks we mailed to our present and past members the second issue of the new wave of the Chronicle, the magazine of EMAC. Beyond the regular topics (conferences, external relations, membership, new loyal members, country tales, etc.) you can read a new section, called “Thought Leaders”. We are going to share with you the thoughts of our distinguished members in short essays. “Quo vadis” marketing; “quo vadis” EMAC could be another title of this section.

The Executive Committee held its regular annual meeting in Brussels on 27 October. All Steering Committee members reported on their portfolios, the national representatives finishing their 3 year period, gave us an overview about the influence of marketing and the EMAC in their respective countries. (Read the country tales and other reports in the Chronicle.) The committee approved that the EMAC 2010 Conference will be organized by the Copenhagen Business School. After England (2008), France (2009) we will return to Denmark for the third time in our history and celebrate the 35th anniversary of EMAC. Among others, the Executive Committee decided on some new initiatives: new thematic conferences, establishing standing committees (beyond ad hoc ones) under the auspices of Steering Committee members, surveying the EMAC members, collecting data about marketing departments, establishing new ad hoc committees on exploring the opportunity of a second EMAC journal, working on a new strategy and business plan for EMAC.

“It is just the beginning not the end” as the song goes on.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a successful Happy New Year.

József Berács
EMAC President

Dear Colleagues,

Most of us started the new academic year and probably have identified the 'must attend' conferences. Hopefully the 37th EMAC Conference in Brighton is among your favorite target in 2008. The title of the conference is: “Marketing Landscapes: A Pause for Thought”. Keith Perks and his organizing team is busy preparing an exciting event. The message of the title is that now is the time to evaluate the European marketing landscapes and think about the future.

During the summer, many national marketing academic organizations had their annual conferences (AMA, AM, etc.). These are important events, where the participants are potential EMAC members and our active, loyal members can be informed about the recent trends in the different regions. In the last month I had the opportunity to attend the Hungarian Marketing Educators’ (MOK) Conference and two more new conferences of the South-East European region. Both of them were supported by EMAC. Marketing researchers from the republics of former Yugoslavia organized the “1st International Scientific Conference on Marketing Theory Challenges in Transitional Societies” in Maribor (Slovenia). Romanian marketing researchers started an academic conference series in Iasi (Romania), entitled “European Society and Marketing Strategy”. These events gathered almost 200 participants together, signaling that there is room for regional conferences, where the transitional, emerging economies could be represented.

The EMAC officers declared last year that we are going to keep pace with the growing conferences and offer good services to our members. The Executive Committee will discuss a lot of initiatives in their next meeting in Brussels. Among others, the general publication policy, the smaller thematic and regional conferences, the institutional membership, and the external relationships will be analyzed. The No2 /2007 issue of The EMAC Chronicle will be published and circulated to you soon. The Steering Committee will discuss the National Representatives’ involvement in committees and their activities in general.

At the last election in spring 2007, 11 new national representatives were elected. They are: John Rossiter (Australia), Paulina Papastathopoulou (Greece), Halldor Engilbertsson (Iceland), John Fahy (Ireland), Elisa Montaguti (Italy), Kyung Hoon Kim (Korea), Sven Haugland (Norway), Claudia Simoes (Portugal), Steven Michael Burgess (South Africa), Sabine Einwiller (Switzerland), Zeynep Gurhan-Canlí (Turkey). I wish all of you enthusiasm and stamina for the next years. Your enhanced dynamism and volunteering job can give a new impetus for the next 3 years.


József Berács
EMAC President

Dear Colleagues,

An academic year is over again, and the vacation time is nearly there. In Europe, the weather is almost the same as it used to be in Africa. Those who are suffering from these hot days might remember nicely Reykjavik. The EMAC 36th Conference was a great success. We had 840 participants, again a record number which will be difficult to outperform. The conference theme “Flexible Marketing in an unpredictable World” was proved by the organizers. The weather was predictably hectic, mostly over 4 Celsius, but plus. The conference venue, the new Reykjavik University has impressive facilities, offering perfect environment for the sessions. You can read more on the figures - acceptance rate, number of sessions, special sessions, exhibitors, etc – in the report.

Thanks to the organizers, Halldór Örn Engilbertsson and his team, especially Kristín Hulda Sverrisdóttir who did fantastic job. The whole country was taking care of us. His excellency Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland welcomed the EMAC members at the reception. Between the welcome reception and the conference dinner at Restaurant Perlan (“The Pearl”) a lot happened in conference rooms. We had many newcomers and old friends. The atmosphere of the classrooms were exciting; we had more time for presentation and discussion (30 minutes instead of 20 before). We had special sessions like “Meet the editors”, new ventures like the Job Market, and the first ever EMAC – KAMS session. The Korean Academy of Marketing Sciences is going to be more involved in the EMAC activities. Thanks to Udo Wagner for the preparation of this event. The Doctoral Colloquium chaired by Karen Gedenk was a great opportunity for 39 PhD students again.

During the conference we had many meetings. An ad hoc Steering Committee meeting discussed the publication policy of EMAC. The Executive Committee members discussed all activities of EMAC and decided to move into the direction where smaller committees will work on specific projects, new ideas, and will support the EMAC officers. During the General Assembly the President and other officers reported about the past year. We were pleased to report on the increasing number of members this year. A lively discussion about the European “flavor” of EMAC was

The conference is the place where the newly elected officers take over their responsibility. 14 National Representatives were elected or reelected. Congratulations to them; a special for those who are representing the 4 new countries: Iceland, Korea, Turkey and South Africa. Congratulations to George Avlonitis as new President Elect and thanks to Graham Hooley as Past President. I am sure that we will work together as closely with George as we did with Graham. Sönke Albers became Treasurer for another 3 years, serving the EMAC with the same rigor as he did in the past.

The last event of the conference was passing over the EMAC flag to the new conference organizers. On behalf of the Brighton University, Keith Perks, the chair of the 2008 EMAC 37th Conference Organizing Committee, invited all of us to visit them next year in Brighton. The theme of the 2008 conference is “Marketing Landscapes – A Pause for Thoughts”.  You will get soon the conference leaflet, or you can browse the home page for details.

The conference participants got the newly published EMAC Chronicle. After 5 years interruption we decided to publish tangible material about EMAC. All of our members in the last 3 years will get soon a copy by mail. We hope that most of them will enjoy this new forum and will join EMAC again, if they are not a member yet.

I wish you a pleasant holiday.

József Berács
EMAC President

Dear Colleagues,

Saint Benedictine the founding father of one of the greatest teaching orders of the Roman Catholic Church in the 6th Century had an advice to his monks: “Ora et Labora!” (In English: “Pray and Work!”) The last 3 Months of EMAC organization was represented by the last word: working. Using a more up to date marketing term, the “back office” activities dominated our tasks. Nothing happened that could be front page news of the Newsletter but a lot has been accomplished. I am going to share with you some of these activities in a “reported speech” style.

First, we have again a record number of EMAC membership with 875 members and the 2007 year is still ahead of us. Elections for EMAC offices and positions are in the process with never experienced activities of our members. Please continue your active participation in the second phase of the ballots too.

Second, the team of the 36th EMAC Annual Conference in Reykjavik, chaired by Halldor Orn Engilbertson is working hard on the conference program. Based on the 900 received papers we expect a similar size conference in Iceland as we had last year in Greece. If you have not registered yet, please do so ASAP. For those members who could not join this year, all papers accepted will be available on the EMAC Teaching Portal later.

Third, the 20th Doctoral Colloquium chaired by Karen Gedenk from Cologne, and organized together with EIASM, is advanced. There will be 4 sessions supervised by 12 world class faculties from Europe, USA and New Zeeland. The fortunate participants selected from 88 submissions are working hard on their presentations.

Fourth, the Steering Committee of the EMAC had a full day meeting on the 9th of March in Brussels. The strategic and operational “think tank” of EMAC discussed a lot of issues. One of the most favored topics was the EMAC publications. Analyzing the current situation from different standpoints (journals, brochures, online, tangible, etc.) and benchmarking our activities to such organizations like AMA, AIB, etc. we came to the conclusion that we should continue these discussions with more experts in Reykjavik.

Fifth, the Steering Committee discussed the first draft version of the new Chronicle, the annual report type publication of EMAC. Nina Payen, our executive secretary will do a tremendous job in the next month to design and prepare the final version of it for printing. Nina, please do not loose your enthusiasm!

The winter seems to be over, and the spring is coming. I hope that all of you, like the nature, is full with energy. I wish you a Happy Easter and hope to see many of you in Reykjavik soon.

József Berács
EMAC President