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The International Council of Small Business (ICSB) World Conference was in Buenos Aires for 2017. The conference was held at the Catholic University of Argentina, which is situated on the Puerto Madero harbour side, which is only a short walk from the old historic town and the Plaza del Mayo. The conference itself ran over three days and had many tracks related to entrepreneurship and small business. All of the competitive paper sessions were run in tracks, during one period each day. On the first day I attended the entrepreneurship education track, which provided some interesting teaching ideas. On the second day I attended the international entrepreneurship track to hear what other researchers were doing in this area. On the final day I was presenting in the new and innovative methodologies track. The nature of the track I was presenting in meant the session contained a fairly diverse range of topics including university spin offs and the role and impact of stress in entrepreneurship. The nature of the paper I was presenting, which utilized a non-stream methodology, meant that the discussion and feedback which followed the presentation was mainly focused on the methodology itself rather than the paper. It was a shame the competitive paper and workshop sessions were not more spread out over the three days, as the schedule meant that the number of sessions which could be attended was limited.

Catholic University of Argentina

Puerto Madero Harbor Side

The scheduling of the conference and flights meant that I had the afternoon free on the Saturday after the conference drew to a close and most of Sunday free as my flight left at 8:55pm for Houston. I decided to join a walking tour of the old city on the Saturday afternoon and a tour of the Retiro and Recoleta areas on Sunday. The two tours provided the opportunity to learn more about the historical development of Argentina and Buenos Aires and the current economic and political situation. Plus, the opportunity to see some of Buenos Aires major landmarks including Plaza de la Republica and the Recoleta Cemetery. The conference and the trip were very informative, the city and the architecture was not as I expected and the legacy and footprint of Spanish colonialization smaller than I expected. Despite, the current economic difficulties the skyline of the city centre looked like many European capital cities and was very developed.

Plaza de la Republica

Recoleta Cemetery

After several weeks of searching I have found a really nice Russian beer. Generally, I have found Russian beers to be very rich and heavy similar to Czech beer. I am not a fan of such beers, I don’t find them easy to drink. But finally, after picking a random beer on sale in the supermarket I have found…….

Сибирская корона: Полярный белый эль, roughly translated as Siberian Crown: Polar white ale. Even the name sounds good, and it has a wolf on the label. It tastes of dark wheat and molasses with a hint/kick of citrus.

Yesterday was an exciting day, as it brought the opening of Sling Prints. The retail business, which was funded, developed and supported through the Our Space Your Place (OSYP) project. Sling Prints is a bespoke artistic printing company, which offers custom designs and printing. They aim not to simply sell products, but let people experience the art.

Sling Prints Window

KODAK Digital Still Camera

As winners of the OSYP Competition, Sling Prints received a free six-week lease at Crown Gate Shopping Centre, the busiest shopping centre in Worcester and £2000 startup funding supported by Barclays. In addition, the students received business mentoring from myself, Barclays Business Advisers, and retail experts provided by the Crown Estate.

The launch event was attended by some of the OSYP judging panel, those our supported Sling Prints and friends. It offered an excellent opportunity to see what had been achieved using the funding and as part of the project. It was great to see an empty unit in vibrant use, plus speak to the students to hear of their experiences and learning. I look forward to catching up with the students during the project and at the end to hear how the experience went, plus how it has developed their enterprise skills.

This morning I headed to Bournemouth for the Academy of Marketing Conference. It offered a good opportunity to hear some contemporary research directions. I had a poster on display at the conference outlining the research I had undertaken, using my Teaching Research and Development Grant. However, the conference had come too soon to showcase my final research, as the paper submission date came before my final data collection phase. However, I was very grateful that my conference attendance was part funded by my Academy of Marketing grant. I was very interested in attending the Marketing Education stream and the Marketing of Higher Education stream, to see what other research and learning and teaching projects people were undertaking. Some of the research was very interesting, plus the gala dinner was in a wonderful venue. It was held in the Bournemouth Pavilion on the seafront.