Publications |
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Report From The International Bureau |
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The next morning sessions started with the male quartet called Inner Soul who are very much the Back Street Boys or NSYNC of the Philippines. The morning’s speakers included John Gaisano, CEO and President of a large grocery and department store chain in southern Philippines, the ASEAN President for Johnson and Johnson, Diosdado Salvador and Alex Shum, the country manager for Cathay Pacific in the Philippines. On the return trip in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Institute of Marketing held its 17th Annual Anniversary Dinner at the Excelsior Hotel over-looking Victoria Harbour. It took on the theme of a wedding, calling for the marriage of the principle of marketing and the consumer. The evening’s events were highlighted by a Hong Kong version of Richard Dawson’s Survey Says.... The function was also attended by several prominent business and academic people, most notably Peter Barrett, Michael Chan Yue Kwong, and Peter Lau, the founder and CEO of Giordano International Ltd. Several members from the Hong Kong Institute, including Cyril Chow (Chairman) and David Bottomley (Managing Director Asia Marketing Research), had just returned from a conference and seminar held in Shanghai. It was coordinated by the Hong Kong Trade Development Board. Each of the sessions were over-subscribed with people trying to crash the door; the lineups were over 400 people and each session was able to handle only 200. These are positive signs of the eagerness of the Shanghai business people to learn more about marketing. The next APMF meeting will be in Taipei, Taiwan, in late October. My newly appointed position in the APMF will ensure Canada¹s views are heard both here and in the WMA as an independent body from the AMA. In closing, although the World Marketing Association¹s (WMA) conference in London, planned and coordinated by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) in England, was cancelled due to poor response, the WMA council will still be meeting to discuss its business. This council is comprised of three representatives from each of the four regional bodies: European Marketing Council (EMC), American Marketing Association (AMA), APMF, and finally the Latin American Marketing Association. The Canadian Institute’s window on the world is through the APMF and I will have further news on the results of that June 10 meeting in the next report. |
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