ACR Conference 2020
Jennifer Argo
Alberta School of Business,
University of Alberta, Canada
Tina M. Lowrey
HEC Paris, France
Hope Jensen Schau
Eller College of Management,
University of Arizona, USA
1st-Ever Virtual ACR Conference October 1-3, 2020
The taped elements will include the Presidential Address, Fellows’ Addresses, Special Sessions, Competitive Papers, Working Papers, and Film Festival. In order for attendees to experience these elements, we are doing two things. First, in terms of the Fellows’ Addresses, we will place a link to their presentations on the conference platform (WHOVA). Attendees will be able to watch the addresses at a time that is convenient for them during the conference.
Second, for the papers, posters, sessions, and films we have decided to embrace the virtual world in which we are having the conference this year by creating a personalized conference experience for attendees. Unlike traditional formats that often leave attendees deciding between which session to attend, this year attendees will be able to view presentations without such conflicts. Upon entering the conference system, attendees will be invited to search the system based on topics that are relevant to them. The system will then generate a list of ALL of the competitive papers, special sessions, working papers, and films, with corresponding links to pre-recorded presentations, posters, and films, that coincide with the attendee’s indicated area(s) of interest. The hope is this will create a more complete perspective of the work that is featured at this year’s conference on the attendees’ topic(s) of interest irrespective of its format. Multiple searches can be done, as desired. We will provide a mechanism to provide presenters with feedback and/or engage in Q&A -- we also encourage individual members to create their own chat groups for meetings at times convenient for participants, but ask that you schedule these around the live elements of the conference (in order to maximize attendance at live elements).
The live elements will include a Newcomers’ Meet and Greet, Awards Ceremony and Business Meeting, the Knowledge Forums, the Doctoral Symposium, two sets of Early-Career Workshop Panels, and Happy-Hour Receptions, all of which will be viewed with Zoom.
Specific dates and times for the live and pre-recorded sessions
RENDEZ-VOUS IN THE CITY OF LIGHT
Our original theme for ACR 2020 in Paris was “Rendez-Vous in the City of Light”. Paris, the City of Light, is known as a place embracing the values of the Enlightenment, the age of reason, deep thinking, and rational thought. Together with the term “rendez-vous” which translates to “appointment” in English, our hope is still that ACR 2020 will be an opportunity for scholars with different methodological approaches, paradigm perspectives, and research interests to come together to focus on consumer research related questions. In accordance with this theme, we strongly encourage knowledge forums and special sessions that embody the spirit of integrating multiple perspectives. Thus, we welcome multi-method/multi-paradigmatic approaches to submissions that speak specifically to a particular topic. As examples, topics could include:
A forum discussion including gift-giving scholars from economics, psychology, and sociology to debate unanswered questions;
A special session exploring how identity is defined and examined using different theoretical lenses;
A workshop bringing together psycholinguists and sociolinguists to examine theoretical overlaps;
A tutorial with scholars who have successfully published multi-method articles encouraging participants to embrace methodological triangulation;
A topical forum allowing for discussion of how different methodological approaches from experimental, to qualitative, to quantitative can be combined to understand the obesity epidemic.
A panel, special session, or forum that considers the impact of technology on consumption (markets and shopping), domestic life (IoT in the home and on the bodies of consumers), and civil participation (political debate, governmental participation, social movements, and voting).
These are just a few suggestions designed to spark our members’ own creative ideas for designing collaborative and novel knowledge forums and special sessions for coming together in the City of Light. Of course, traditional competitive and working papers as well as the Film Festival will be part of ACR 2020.
We look forward to welcoming you to our 1st-ever ACR Conference!