April 30, 2008 Welcome to the 2008 Industry Studies Conference! On behalf of the Program Committee, we extend to you our best wishes for a productive and enjoyable meeting. We have designed this year’s conference to highlight some of the best current research from the Industry Studies community, and at the same time, to provide ample opportunities for lively intellectual exchange among the participants. We will begin this year’s program on Thursday morning with a p lenary session on “Building Capacity for High Wage Employment,” followed by a series of break-out panels by industry studies scholars on related topics – public policy, shareholder and public welfare, innovation systems, and regional employment strategies. The program on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning will feature a series of presentations in parallel sessions and organized symposia, selected on a competitive basis. This year’s process was particularly competitive as we had twice as many submissions as last year. To accommodate more presentations, we added ten sessions to the program. In addition, we will hold an early evening session on Thursday again this year, designed to promote informal interactions between conference participants and the authors of important articles and books drawn from the Industry Studies community itself. The simultaneous presence of cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will no doubt make these sessions even livelier and, we think, a not-to-be-missed event. Thursday evening’s dinner will provide an opportunity to recognize excellence in research in a tangible way. There will be presentations of fellowships, prizes, and awards acknowledging this year's outstanding achievements. In every case, the winners emerged from thoughtful reviews, by committees of dedicated scholars, of many outstanding research contributions. Along the way, these reviewers have helped shape and refine our ideas about excellence in industry studies research. Our overall goal for the 2008 Conference, as it has been in the past, is to support the continued intellectual and organizational development of the Industry Studies research and education community. We are grateful to everyone who has helped to make the conference possible. The generosity and continued support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have been critically important, and no less so the commitments of time, energy, and talent by hundreds of dedicated scholars. Thank you all for your participation! Rosemary Batt and Eileen Appelbaum (Program Committee co-chairs)
|