A new inspirational forum

I hadn't known what to expect when I signed up to attend this year's Academy of Marketing at Liverpool's Aintree race course (4-6th July).

But I found it inspirational. Future city scoping from IBM consulting; brand championship from local hero Warburton; and a raft of research papers covering topics as diverse as women in marketing; brand renaming; entrepreneurship in SMES; user segmentation in social media.

I look forward to getting the IPA involved next year.