The Society for Consumer Psychology is soliciting proposals from individuals or institutions interested in organizing and hosting an in-person or online Boutique Conference in 2025.
As in recent years, SCP plans to host a maximum of two Boutique Conferences annually. Our goal is to make these small, premium quality conferences with a limited number of participants. Ideally, about half of the SCP Boutique Conferences will take place outside the U.S., but there will not be a strict rotation.
Proposals should revolve around a theme or a research area. Past and upcoming Boutique Conferences include:
- Creative Destruction (Vienna, 2015)
- Identity and Consumption (Chicago, 2016)
- Emotion and Motivation (New York, 2018)
- Vice and Virtue (Sydney, 2018)
- The Psychology of Addiction (Seattle, 2019)
- Consumers and Technology (Montreal, 2019)
- Numerical Markers (Tucson, 2021)
- Consumption Experiences (Gainesville, 2022)
- Resource Scarcity & Inequality (Honolulu, 2022)
- The Global Consumer (Singapore, 2022)
- The Climate Change Challenge (Puerto Rico, 2023)
- Consumer Psychology of Brands (Leeds, 2024)
- Marketing for Social Impact (Auckland, 2024)
There is no prescribed format and no requirement to publish proceedings. However, it is expected that Boutique Conferences feature faculty (vs. student) presenters, in order to ensure a high-quality event with committed participants. An optional poster session for student research presentations may be included. Past conferences have included individual research presentations (typically 1-2 concurrent tracks), roundtable discussions, poster sessions for doctoral students, as well as conference receptions and dinners.
SCP will provide up to a maximum of $5000 to cover conference expenses. Conference chairs are responsible for securing additional funding via registration fees, donations, etc. SCP expects each Boutique Conference to be run as a break-even endeavor; revenue in excess of expenses should be reimbursed to SCP to recoup our conference support, and to enable us to sponsor additional Boutique Conferences in the future.
While there is no page limit, proposals are typically be approximately 3-pages and specify the following:
- Goals of the conference and intended contributions to consumer psychology
- Expected audience size, profile, and selection mechanism
- Format of the conference
- Location and date/time of year
- Plans to assure the quality of the conference
- Available resources for hosting the conference and a detailed budget outlining expenses and secured resources
Proposals should be submitted electronically to SCP at (scp@myscp.org) by September 30, 2024, as an attached Word or PDF file. Decisions will be communicated by October 31, 2024.