This year’s Brand and Brand Relationships Accelerator was a first rate event. It felt like summit of what is happening in brand research. Hearing from both young, up and coming scholars and well as world famous researchers was exciting, insightful and gave us a glimpse of the future of branding and brand research.

This was a great event! Everything was top-notch: great conversations, great ideas, great food! It was truly a privilege to be able to be able to contribute in shaping the next generation of branding scholarship. The mentees were bright and energetic and the mentors were thoughtful and kind: a wonderful collaboration. It is odd to be thankful for being included in a conference, but I am thankful for taking part in this one.

For anyone interested in research on brands and brand relationships, the BBR conference is the must-attend event of the year. BBR offers the kind of interaction between leading and emerging scholars that other conferences aspire to, but rarely deliver. I am thankful for being invited. What Susan, Mike, and Jill are creating is simply amazing.

The BBR Accelerator is a truly innovative concept that flips the traditional conference model. At BBR Accelerator, emerging scholars are the focus, and top academics are the audience–instead of the other way around. What a great opportunity for PhD students and junior faculty to get a sounding board for their research!

The BBR 2015 workshop provided an opportunity for a select group of senior and junior colleagues to collectively explore a range of dimensions of interest to those studying the complex phenomenon labeled the brand. The size of the group fostered dialogue across varying perspectives while enabling those with common interests to find one another. For senior scholars it opened a window onto emerging topics of interest to more junior scholars and provided challenging opportunities to comment on those emergent research streams. For junior colleagues it provided an opportunity to receive robust but constructive commentary from knowledgeable researchers with eclectic orientations to whom they would not necessarily have regular access. The two day time frame provided enough time to get things done, without any wasted moments. It was also very gratifying to work with the leadership team in a frank and open way on ways to broaden the scope of the center. All in all an excellent experience of academic/practitioner crowdsourcing.

I’ve just come back from the BBR workshop in Boston. I spent a few days hearing about branding research from a mixture of industry folks and academics, junior and seasoned. I’ve come away completely invigorated. What a great way to learn about new innovations and where the field is going, and to meet some of the field’s emerging young scholars. It’s been a pleasure to be involved with this organization and I look forward to the next round of idea-sharing and collaboration.

BBR was a great experience that truly enriched my growth as a doctoral student and a researcher. It was rewarding to discuss my ideas in a welcoming, yet intellectually-engaging, challenging environment. I was able to gain very useful feedback regarding my own work and gain valuable insight into the future direction of branding research from the expertise of others. The mentoring sessions were extremely helpful, while the workshops provided useful perspective on personal branding and development.

Brands and Brand Relationships Accelerator conference did exactly what it said – it enhanced the focus of the project I presented and inspired new directions for my research on multicultural branding. It is a true accelerator of research development for junior academics. The set-up of the IBBR mentors and fellows board comprising both esteemed branding academics and leading practitioners provides a unique opportunity to hear views on theoretical and managerial implications of brands and branding research. My individual mentoring session was stimulating, intensive and incredibly valuable, and interaction with and exposure to research of others – both mentors and mentees – has helped to identify and establish new research contacts and networks. The additional sessions on teaching branding and developing the personal brand provided fantastic developmental exercises and I will be definitely using the teaching and other resources generously developed and shared by the IBBR fellows.

BBR Accelerator is a unique conference that brings like-minded researchers together to share ideas about branding phenomena, cutting across method and discipline boundaries. The intimate nature of the conference meant that I was able to interact with people much more so than at any other conference. The developmental goals ensured that I also got to hear about really cutting edge work on brand relationships. The highlight of the conference was of course the mentor-mentee immersion sessions. These were a great learning experience for me as a mentor, listening to the other mentors in the room, getting to know how they think and would approach a problem. I can’t even imagine how amazing it was for the mentees to have their work encouraged, poked and prodded that way. I wish I could have benefited from something like this when I was a doctoral student or junior faculty. I hope that we can keep this workshop going in the coming years.

I am truly thankful for this workshop that brings together an amazing group of creative and fun people–from all ranks and methods and paradigms–who are genuinely curious about brands and consumer-brand relationships. The organizers have truly developed an innovative format that facilitates stimulating and interesting discussion that advances early and later stage research ideas.

The BBR Accelerator is as good as it gets for young researchers. The opportunity to present your own work in front of such a star-studded audience on the first day allowed us to obtain unique feedback, which was then intensively discussed during the in-depth 3-on-1 mentoring sessions on the second day. The fact that all the “masters of the universe” devoted 30 minutes of their time to our research was incredible and the engagement they offered in focused sessions was incredibly inspiring. I truly feel indebted to my mentors for actually reading my working and devoting hours to give me feedback. The event provided incredible insights and equipped all mentees with the knowledge to lift our research to the next level. It was also a great opportunity to connect with fellow researchers and learn more about the pressing issues in brand management. As a researcher focused on community, the opportunities to connect not just with this esteemed line-up of who’s who in branding research but also future budding colleagues was amazing. The mixture of very talented PhD students with an incredible publication list and a few rising assistant professor stars from smaller institutions really helps to shape the research of the next generation. Bring talented people together and generate knowledge –that is what science is all about!

The 2015 BBR Accelerator Workshop was one of the most helpful and informative academic events I have ever attended. The workshop brought together 16 field-leading academic mentors, several industry practitioners, and a set of 12 competitively-selected doctoral students and junior faculty. Day 1 was devoted to each of the mentees presenting their research to the entire group and receiving helpful critique. Day 2 was devoted to 75 minute breakout sessions during which a mentee and 4 mentors delved further into each project.