1.GSSI 2008 in Athens

The 2nd GSSI Conference was held in Athens (Greece) in June 25-27, 2008. The Conference was co-organized by the Department of Marketing & Communication at the Athens University of Economics & Business and the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales at the William Paterson University (USA). The Conference was co-chaired by George Avlonitis, Nick Panagopoulos, Robert Peterson, and David Reid.

The conference theme was “Scholarship and Practice in Sales & Sales Management: Reconciling the Two Worlds”. The theme of the conference directly reflects one of the main objectives of the GSSI: bridging the gap between the academia and practice by bringing together individuals with a common interest in sales. The objective was largely achieved considering that more than 110 sales academics and practitioners from all 5 continents (USA, Latin America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa) participated in this three-day event.

The Conference program comprised 10 different plenary sessions, in which 43 papers were presented, whereas Howard and Sally Stevens (HR Chally Group) delivered two outstanding keynote presentations regarding the “hot” issues in modern sales.

2. GSSI 2009 in Clermont-Ferrand

Who’s here?

A total of 117 people have attended the conference. 45% are scholars, 29% managers, 26% students.

30% come from the USA, others from EU (Italy, France, UK, Germany, Austria, Poland, Finland, Greece, Netherlands), but also 2 from Australia!

Last, we have received 2 special participations: one from a group of students from OklahomaUniversity, and a group of managers from China, from Limagrain Group, the agrofood company, who were in a training session in ESC executive programs.

The conference was made of 6 sessions, 18 communications kept after evaluation, 2 panels and 2 keynote speeches with a very high level.

Special welcome cocktail: on Wednesday evening, we have announced the creation of our CHAIRE in Sales Development, made to enforce our activities in research & development, education and consulting. Two projects has been launched for this special event: the GSSI conference, and an industrial programme, Mercure, made for 30 small firms from industry.

Last but not least, special acknowledgements:

• my colleague and co-chair, Dan, for his support in particular for the scientific part, and financial help,

• Ellen Bolman Pullins, our Chair, and the Steering committee, for their useful support,

• Our local team, my colleagues David, Marc, Helga, Pierre, Jean-Baptiste, Alain, and the others, and the IBD Students team, who where in charge of everything here (some are still here with us, due to internships constraints)

• And big thank you to our partners: CMO council, SMEI network, CRCGM, the ESC, DCF, and of course NIU, sponsor of the dinner.

Pascal Brassier, ESC-Clermont