Director's Message

Dear Members, Partners and Friends,

Happy New Year! Looking back on 2005, I share a deep sense of accomplishment with our wonderful student and alumni volunteers. The respected authorities whose names grace our home page attest to the consistently high quality of our programs. Last year WMF Publications produced its first DVD - "Marketing Financial Services in a New Japan / Facing the Future"- and the second DVD, "That’s Entertainment: Amusement Marketing in the 21st Century", is due for release early in 2006. Both are now available for purchase on the substantially improved and expanded "Publications & Brochures" page of our web site.

Heartfelt thanks to our growing list of sponsors, and especially to those who helped us produce our International Conference in 2005: Shinsei Bank, The Financial Times, Warner Entertainment Japan, Fleishman Hillard, and Occidental Corporation. We will continue to cover developments in entertainment marketing at a high intellectual level, and our next International Conference, to be held on Wednesday, September 27, 2006, will also focus on this industry. With the title "What’s Up Doc? Revolutions in the Entertainment Industry" it is bound to attract an enthusiastic audience.

Working with The Bridge Group, last year we published and distributed the popular and useful 2005 WMF Resumé Book, in what has become our benchmark for future corporate partnership endeavors. The Bridge Group sponsored the printing and mailing of the book to our joint mailing lists of clients and friends, and we managed the editing and publishing in-house. This successful joint venture will be repeated when we publish the 2006 WMF Resumé Book this year. Also in the works are a sponsored original case study series and additional multimedia projects related to our various programs.

It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome two new members to our Advisory Board. William Ireton, Chairman of Warner Entertainment Japan Inc. and Jim Frederick, Tokyo Bureau Chief at TIME Inc. have thrown their hat in the ring, and have already made substantial contributions to the Forum through their participation in the 2005 International Conference.

All in all, we expect 2006 to be another great year of learning and working and networking together. See you at the Forum!

Kenneth Alan Grossberg
Professor & Director
Waseda Marketing Forum

Last Updated Tuesday, December 13 2005 @ 01:51 PM EST; 3,050 Hits