Program
Schedule of Events | Suggested Attire
A Message from Dean Douglas T. Breeden
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little more about our Duke MBA International Retreat. Now in the sixth year of this remarkable event, we head to Vancouver to set our retreat in one of North America's most beautiful cities. I am particularly excited that the Chairman and CEO of London Drugs, Brandt Louie, will be welcoming us to his city, and that Professor Gavan Fitzsimons, a dynamic educator and researcher in our marketing area, will lead the academic program. As usual, we will focus on global business issues facing organizations, providing a forum for participants to learn from world-class faculty and business leaders while exchanging ideas and perspectives from their own organizations. A panel addressing the ‘hot topic’ of energy will involve industry researchers and business leaders in robust discussion of current issues in these sectors.
I hope you can join Josie and me in Vancouver for this once-a-year opportunity to reconnect with the school, foster relationships and explore a new city.
Best wishes,
Douglas T. Breeden
Dean, Duke's Fuqua School of Business
Schedule of Events
Friday, July 7, 2006 |
|
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
Registration and Welcome Reception |
4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. |
Welcome Address |
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. |
Faculty Seminar: What's in a Brand Name? |
6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. |
Sunset yacht cruise and dinner on English Bay |
Saturday, July 8, 2006 |
|
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. |
Breakfast |
9:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. |
|
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. |
Break |
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. |
Seminar: Consumer Behavior as a Leading Indicator |
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. |
Lunch and Dean's Forum |
1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. |
Free time: Visit the Duke hospitality desk to plan your activities |
6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. |
Capilano Canyon Rainforest Dinner (Bring the whole family!) |
Sunday, July 9, 2006 |
|
8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. |
Continental Breakfast |
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. |
Faculty Seminar: The Psychology of Investing |
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. |
Dim Sum Farewell Brunch |
Faculty Seminar: What's in a Brand Name?
Every business has a brand name, whether they are in consumer focused businesses or B2B. In this session Professor Fitzsimons will lead us in a discussion of what exactly a brand name means to customers and how we as firms can leverage this brand understanding to both better serve our customers and maximize our profitability. We’ll review a wide range of examples of successful and not so successful branding efforts, and draw some broad lessons from them that can be applied to our own businesses. We’ll also talk about some of the latest research on brands coming out of Fuqua’s innovative marketing department, and how this new understanding of what’s in a brand might impact our own efforts in terms of using our brand to strengthen our business.
See slides from Professor Fitzsimons' presentation.
Faculty Seminar: The Psychology of Investing
Many of us have received training in the traditional tenets of economic theory that suggested that investors were rational, reasoned, and sensible when it comes to their investment behavior. Does this description describe your own investment behavior? For most investors, emotion and other psychological factors often enter the investment decision and strategy they employ and typically lead to fairly substantial departures from “rational” investment behavior. In this session Professor Fitzsimons will share research from cognitive and social psychology as well as the emerging field of behavioral finance, and what these results suggest about the psychology of investment behavior. For participants in financial services, this discussion should help fine tune your efforts at understanding and meeting the investment needs of your personal and institutional clients. For participants who don’t work in financial services, this session should help provide a reality check about one's own personal investment behavior.
See slides from Professor Fitzsimons' presentation.
Panel Discussion: Energy
Ehud I. Ronn, McCombs School of Business,
The University of Texas at Austin
Tim O'Neill G '79, O'Neill Strategic Economics
See Ehud Ronn's slides from the Energy Panel.
Capilano Canyon Rainforest Dinner
On Saturday evening, we'll travel by British-style double-decker bus to a special West Coast BBQ dinner in the cedar-scented rainforest of Capilano Canyon Regional Park. Only minutes away from downtown Vancouver, the park features Capilano Suspension Bridge, originally built in 1889 and stretching 450 feet (137m) across and 230 feet (70m) above Capilano River. The original bridge was constructed of hemp rope and cedar planks - today's bridge is made of reinforced steel safely anchored in 13 tons of concrete on either side of the canyon. Read more about the Capilano Suspension Bridge.
Suggested Attire
Conference Sessions – Business casual
Friday Dinner Cruise – Cocktail attire
Saturday Dinner – “West Coast” casual (i.e., anything goes!)
Sunday Brunch – Smart casual
