Dr. Neil Hair

Over the past few months I have been working away as a special edition editor for one of my favourite journals – the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising. Edited by Dr Eldon Li the publication has had a commendable impact on the state of our understanding in the field. When I was asked to edit a special edition I therefore accepted. Accordingly you can expect the special edition on Social Media Marketing and Advertising in the forthcoming year. Several highlights – a number of papers that help segment the social collective – vital in targeting the right consumer, social CRM in a business to business context, and papers that help extend the methodology for exploring social media spaces.

I finally find myself some time to reflect on the comings and goings of a busy marketing professor. The last few months have been something of a whirlwind of happenings. One highlight (of my academic life thus far in fact) was hosting the 19th International Colloquium in Relationship Marketing. This global conference is my absolute favourite – largely because of the supportive culture that it has engendered over the years, and especially as it was the first venue where I presented my doctoral work (Kaiserslautern, Germany, back in 2002). It was the only conference over my doctoral career where I felt truly energized by those around me and the advice that I was given (who would not relish the opportunity to get feedback on an early research idea from the likes of Gummesson, Gronroos and my all time academic favourite friend Ballantyne for instance?). Two years ago whilst attending the Swansea conference the latter academic asked if I would host the 19th. I jumped at the task. Organizing an international conference is no easy task, and I can assure you this tested just about every inch of these skills in order to make it a success. And thankfully armed with people from Saunders like Dana Pierce (the true organizing force of the event) – Vic Perotti (who kept me sane throughout) and my marketing colleagues including Raj Murthy (AKA @theraj), Joe Miller and Adriana Boveda-Lambie all attended or presented their papers of leading edge research. The topic of the conference was 'The Future of Relationship Marketing A Technologically Connected Global Social Network' – the site is still live *here*. All of the papers dealt with relationship marketing, an area clearly dear to my heart. The key to the conference's success was its intimacy, 30 international academics representing over ten different countries from New Zealand to Finland. Specifically limited under my direction as host to engender what became a number of single track sessions where all delegates got to muse over, and debate the content of each others papers in depth. We also played hard as academics, visiting the Rohrbachs brewery in Ogden, the Lower Mills Gallery, and a gala event for the final evening at the award winning Casa Larga Winery. We showcased some of the best spots the area has to offer including the obligatory tour of Niagara Falls during Fridays final event. It was a real pleasure hosting the event and seeing so many colleagues and friends descend on Rochester. My thanks too the out going Dean of the Saunders College who supported the event whole heartedly.  Just another reason to believe in the quality of education youre getting at Saunders, an environment that truly supports a quality research environment that ultimately benefits all our students and faculty alike. I should know, Ive already included many of the findings of key papers in my internet marketing and strategy classes on social media. Some of the little Neil'isms inflicted on the conference include: a live twitter stream were papers were debated realtime throughout the event, pictures were shared, and speakers were teased (especially the one that broke the presentation controller!), a collection of youtube videos of speakers in action, plenty of pictures to capture the vibe, and goodie bags of local produce to welcome delegates with. Who says conferences cant be unique and fun at the same time?