GAMBI Members in Singapore

Three of our GAMBI members are currently in the tiny city state of Singapore for the prestigious annual GMC (Global Marketing Conference). Professor Len Tiu Wright, Dr Sabrina Thornton, and Dr Qing Ding are attending, networking, and presenting at the 4 day event. This is a great opportunity for them to represent Huddersfield and share their research. Hopefully opportunity also to see some crazy architecture. God knows what the triple skyscraper below is, but it looks fascinating.



It will be good to hear from them later regards their experiences and the inputs gained from attending. Conferences are an invaluable part of the academic research process; building a profile, developing contacts with fellow researchers and journal editors, and obtaining useful critiques of work. Hence any experiences of this would be much appreciated. I myself have attended few, so am currently nervous of what to expect.

New Professor

Today it was announced our head of department is to become a Professor. Many congratulations to Dr John Anchor (as still is until 1st August).

I couldn't find any good professor jokes or cartoons online. Disappointed internet. All those cat memes and not one relating to academic achievement. So I shall leave you to make up your own.

How many professors does it take to screw in a lightbulb... ?

Carnival Ethnography

A few of us went to the Huddersfield Carnival today. This was a parade through the town centre, and then up to Greenhead Park where their was music, dancing, stalls and the like. Having never been to one I didn't know what to expect. It was great fun. Thousands of people, good food, really good atmosphere, and a celebration of cultural melange Huddersfield is fortunate to have.
Whilst there, enjoying people watching, we realised what a great ethnography opportunity was before us. Naturally qualitative researchers clearly. Next year we propose having an informal ethnography fieldtrip to the carnival (assuming it continues to run - there are currently questions over its future funding - the quantitative souls amongst us might try to calculate the financial impact of the event which appears massive). Just to let you know, participant observation will involve bright clothes, drinking coconuts, and jerk chicken. If you have an innate sense of rhythm would be great too. Sadly we didn't, so non-participant it was.

Business School Staff Day

Today we held a staff day for the Business School. This was especially interesting for new starters such as myself; always a good chance to meet colleagues not yet caught up with.
To open, Dean of the school; Professor Chris Cowton, ran us through the year's financial news. Which was all good. We are rich! And free of borrowing. Anyone who like me has got carried away with a credit card in the past will appreciate the strength of this position the university is in. We then had a big debate over the upcoming school mission statement. Getting a room full of academics to agree on anything is nearly impossible. Trained in arguing to a pathological degree (or post-graduate degree huhhuhhuh) a full Rogers thesaurus of synonyms for each and every word were considered carefully. I agree with the ban on using obvious buzzwords, except for 'sustainability' which as the crux of my research I believe ought to be crow-barred into every sentence ever.

Pie and mushy peas for lunch. Then talks on teaching and learning; keeping us up to date with ongoing strategy plan. And enterprise and research. After this we broke into departmental groups to work out ideas for future enterprise activity that might bring in funding and raise the school' profile. Our marketing group was interested in developing a range of short courses for businesses, third sector and other organisations, in for example; cultural studies, sustainability management, or destination branding. These would harness the strengths and passions of our members. A lot of talented, knowledgeable and willing people. Perhaps time to develop and market a plan in this respect would be advantageous. As always, comment and feedback welcomed here, through mine or colleagues email, or just stopping me at the water cooler as I wait for it to dribble out half a plastic cup of liquid before I collapse of dehydration.

Business School Meeting

Discussing Mission Statement

Group brainstorm on enterprise

 

Is research like riding the Tour de France?

The Tour de France came through Huddersfield yesterday. It ran beautifully and was dead exciting. Initial estimates are that 2.5 million people came to Yorkshire over the weekend to be part of the tour, and over £100 million was spent locally. A major boost for the local economy, and tribute to the people involved.
Watching them streak past gave me the sudden urge to go become a professional cyclist. But it's probably too late for this. So I wondered instead about the nearest I could get; a ropy analogy. Is researching like riding in the Tour?

• One has to slog away long hours repeating time worn tasks.
• Work is sweat (In the Huddersfield Business School offices anyway). 
• It's a lot of build up for a quick rush. 
• It takes a team to guide and push along, but it is down to the individual to make their break.
• Overseas field trips are a possibility, but you'll probably be too busy to see any of the local scenery. 
• If you become a big name, teams fight to poach you. But most likely only the keenest observers will notice your output. 
• Support staff often go overlooked but keep everything running smoothly.
• Throw some Haribos at a crowd and they will cheer. 

• The other does this but on steroids. 

So no it isn't then.

Department Meeting

Today was the Marketing, Strategy, and Economics department meeting. Amongst various talks we learnt new teaching techniques focusing on bringing assessment methods into the classroom; polls, peer reviews, and such activities. Essentially methods to make sessions more stimulating and focus students on learning outcomes. Had some good group ideas for debates, voting cards, and videos to create. Followed by Allison Sharman, our Business School librarian, running us through the impressive tools the library has on offer to staff and students. Dr Kelly Smith gave an overview of her research looking at enterprise in teaching. Her definition of enterprise as; having an idea and doing it, is a good one to try and follow. Lastly, Lisa Du-Lieu ran us through the latest recruitment patterns for the Business School. And then we ate cake. And stole leftover cake wrapped in napkins. Academics are ingenious when it comes to free food I have noticed. And now I am one I have jumped on that bandwagon. The second slice of chocolate cake was a bad idea mind.  

Introductions

Beginning next week I aim to begin a regular series of interviews with GAMBI members using our stock questionnaire. This is just a quick way to get to know the lovely individuals who make up our group a bit better. Will start off with me to get the ball rolling. Can treat it as a mini autoethnography assignment. Hopefully my supervisor will count this towards the ton of reading on this he has dropped on me for this weekend...

Research Updates

Just a quick post to keep everyone updated about latest research. (Again, please feel free to post and keep us informed of any research progress underway).

Today Dr Claire McCamley and I have had meetings to try and flesh out some research ideas. Firstly with colleagues from Events Management and Logistics. The idea is to conduct research with stakeholders in the upcoming Tour De France stage being held in the West Yorkshire area (Comes through Huddersfield on Sunday 6th). Their impressions after the event might hold some interesting perspectives and insights into management of these events, place marketing linked to, and their legacy.
Afterward we had a meeting with Dr Steve Swindells and Dr Anna Powell who are organising a bid for an arts esxhibition/events led campaign aiming to put Huddersfield town more firmly on the cultural map. It was good to be invited to contribute, if we can, to this currently quite open ended funding bid. A marketing perspective might be of use in terms of sustainable place branding.

So these are just some examples of the things GAMBI members get up to during the week. If anyone has any ideas/interests/contacts that might contribute to these areas, it would be good to hear from you. Both projects are early stage and open to contributors/collaborators. If nothing else, enjoy some good food, perhaps some wine, and pay hommage to the sweating cyclists passing by this weekend.

 

GAMBI Members

Last update for today - it is beautifully sunny outside and I have a combination of a pond to clean out and an ethnography paper to write up. Sadly I can't see a way to avoid or combine the two.

Again from our website, a list of GAMBI members. In the coming months we will be running an introductory series getting to know in more depth the specific research interests and idiosyncrasies of each.

All of us are based here at the University of Huddersfield Business School. The list does need updating as there are a number of new starters joining over the summer, myself included. Sadly this means you cannot yet be treated to my photo, but don't worry, it has been taken and I have had a preview of the two dozen photos it took to capture me not blinking, grimacing, or just looking hideous. (In fairness, everyone I think somewhat dislikes their profile photograph) Instagram filters are the way to go....

Professor Len Tiu Wright

Director of Global Advances in Marketing Branding and Innovation Research Group

Dr Huifen Cai

GAMBI Research Assistant

Dr Olu Aluko

Dr Fiona Cheetham

Carol Cloughton

David Cockayne

John Day

Janine Day

Dr Qing Ding

Lisa Du-Lieu

Giles Forbes

David Harvey

Glynis Jones

Mohammed Mirza

Dr Walter Mswaka

Chair of Social Enterprise (Special Interest Group) in GAMBI

Dr Paul Reynolds

Sabrina Thornton

Contact Details

Still early days getting the blog up and running.
My contact details, as communications director; the grandiose title I think I appointed myself during our junior GAMBI meeting on Monday, are: B.Canavan@hud.ac.uk
If you have any questions, ideas, or information you wish to share relating to GAMBI, please feel free to get in touch. Comments via our blog are also very welcome.

Again from our website, the contact details for more formal enquiries, to our GAMBI director, Professor Len-Tiu Wright, and our research assistant, Dr Huifen Cai....

Contact Us

If you would like to know more about our areas of expertise or wish to discuss research opportunities with the Global Advances in Marketing Branding and Innovation Research Group then please contact our Research Administration team:

For Marketing enquiries please contact:

Prof. Len-Tiu Wright     Professor of Marketing Director of Gambi                    The Business School University of Huddersfield Queensgate                  Huddersfield HD1 3DH    +44 (0) 1484 473304    l.t.wright@hud.ac.uk

For China Research enquiries please contact:

Dr Huifen Cai     Research Assistant for GAMBI The Business School University of Huddersfield Queensgate                  Huddersfield HD1 3DH    +44 (0) 1484 472582    h.cai@hud.ac.uk