Dear Participants:

Thank you for participating in the 2009 joint meeting of the Business History Conference and the European Business History Association at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, 11-13 June 2009.

The most recent versions of the program, registration form, hotels, and other information can be found by following the links to the left. Please review your listing on the program and email any corrections to BHC web editor Pat Denault, pdenault@fas.harvard.edu.

Everyone participating in or attending the conference must register. The registration fee covers costs associated with holding the conference. We have no other means to cover these costs, so I do hope you will help us out by registering early. We encourage non-members to join the BHC and/or EBHA in order to be eligible for lower registration fees.

We also encourage participants to book their hotel as soon as possible: Milan is a busy city and the hotels have guaranteed us a limited amount of rooms. Please check on the website for updates on room availability in individual hotels.

Conference Schedule and Highlights

We now have available a map of the Bocconi campus and layout of the meeting site, as well as a "Program-at-a-glance" that provides a quick reference guide to the sessions. There is also a page of practical information to explain the various venues and policies.

The conference registration desk will be open starting from Wednesday, 10 June, at 3:00 p.m. The sessions will begin on Thursday, 11 June, at 9:00 a.m., preceded by brief welcoming remarks at 8:45, and will continue through Saturday at 3:30 p.m., followed by the book auction, Mark Rose's BHC Presidential Address, the membership meetings of the BHC and EBHA, an awards ceremony, a cocktail reception, and a gala dinner.

Other plenary sessions and social events include the Grand Opening Plenary Address on Thursday, 11 June, at 7:00 p.m. with Professor Guido Tabellini, Rector of Bocconi University, formally welcoming us to Milan. A cocktail reception will follow this plenary. On Friday, 12 June, at 11:00 a.m., the Krooss Prize dissertation session will spotlight the work of recent Ph.D. recipients, who will present summaries of their theses. On Friday, 12 June, at 4:00 p.m., the EBHA plenary session, "Fashion and Fashions between Business and Creativity," will feature leading representatives from the Italian fashion and design scene, who will discuss their experience with the audience. On Friday evening, at 7:30 p.m., there will be the "Emerging Scholars Reception," which is open to all conference participants. We strongly urge everyone to attend this reception to give a warm welcome to new members of the profession.

Recommendations on the Sessions

Because our program is rich and busy, we have prepared recommendations for Presenters, Commentators, and Chairs that will foster the development of engaging and memorable sessions.

PRESENTERS: These recommendations will permit you to showcase your work to its greatest advantage.

1. TIME: Paper givers must have sufficient time to present their work, discussants must have time to offer their comments, and members of the audience to ask questions. In the 90-minute sessions with three papers, presenters must limit their time at the podium to a maximum of 17 minutes per paper (7-8 pages double-spaced). In 90-minute sessions with four papers, presenters must limit their time at the podium to a maximum of 14 minutes per paper (6-7 pages double-spaced). The latter applies also for the 75-minute sessions, which feature only three papers. The facilities are equipped to accommodate PowerPoint presentations. If you will be using Power Point please upload your file on a USB stick and bring the stick to the classroom.

2. LOGISTICS: Please send a copy of your paper to your discussants NO LATER THAN Sunday, 3 May 2009. Discussants make important contributions to the success of a session. If you send your paper in a timely manner, your discussant will have time to prepare remarks with the same care and thoughtfulness that you put into writing your paper. If your paper arrives late, your discussant may not have time to prepare ample comments. Please check with your discussant before assuming that sending your paper as an email attachment will be welcome. Some commentators might prefer a hard copy sent by snail mail.

3. ABSTRACTS and PAPERS ONLINE: We require that presenters send in an abstract of their paper for online posting in advance of the meeting. These should be sent to the Web editor, Pat Denault, as soon as possible, but no later than May 30. Please note that this abstract is not the same version as that submitted with your paper proposal: it must be shorter (200 words maximum) and should reflect the paper contents more concretely. Abstracts may be submitted in two ways:

A. In the body of an email to Pat Denault, at pdenault@fas.harvard.edu with the following information: your name, paper title, session number, and abstract.

B. By using the form at http://www.thebhc.org/annmeet/abstractsub.html

We are also willing to post copies of full papers online in advance of the meeting for those who wish to do this. Papers must be sent to Pat at the same address as a PDF file. Please note that even if you put your paper online, you should send a copy directly to your discussants.

4. PRESENTATION: Because your time at the podium is limited, you will have to plan in order to present your carefully researched and thoughtfully constructed paper to its greatest advantage. In the course of 14 or 17 minutes, you have time only to highlight one or at most two ideas, provide a few telling examples, and conclude by reminding listeners of your main themes. In general, it is not a good idea to send a lengthier paper to the commentator than you are presenting at the session. Discussants will not know which portions of that longer paper are germane to your presentation, and they can return unread any paper that is too long.

DISCUSSANTS:
1. TIME: To allow time for audience participation, please limit your remarks to a MAXIMUM of 15 minutes (7-8 pages, double-spaced).

2. PRESENTATION: Well-prepared comments make a strong session into a great one. Summarize each paper in two or three sentences. Sketch broad themes that the papers hold in common and where they diverge from one another. If you disagree with a presenter's sources, findings, or methods, say so briefly and in a helpful fashion. In a non-technical manner, indicate to panelists and the audience the state of knowledge in this sub-area of scholarship. Remind panelists and audience members what they know about this area of study that they did not know before hearing these papers. Above all, relate your comments to the papers and to ideas generally known to historians of business.

Please save detailed critiques for private conversations before and after the session, or by email. Your colleagues on the panel and in the audience will appreciate discretion that balances assessment with guidance.

CHAIRS:
Chairs also play an essential role in a well-run session. First, weeks and again days before the meeting, remind members of your panel about the amount of time available to them and the importance of timely delivery of their papers to the discussants. Second, well before the meeting ask each member of the panel to send you brief, biographical sketches (two or three sentences, no more). Third, prepare signs with numbers—5 minutes, 2 minutes, 0 minutes—that you can flash to presenters.

Once presenters and discussants have completed their presentations, invite queries and remarks from members of the audience. As moderator, you can call on members of the audience who have raised their hands, asking them to state their names and affiliations. Try to call on each person seeking the floor before returning to those with second and third queries. Use your best diplomatic skills to monitor the length, tone, and pertinence of questions and comments from the floor. A useful and entertaining guide to chairing conference sessions, "Thank You Very Much. That's All the Time You Have" by Timothy J. Madigan, can be found online in the AAUP magazine Academe (Nov.-Dec.2005). http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2005/ND/Feat/madi.htm

On behalf of the Program Committee, thanks for participating in the 2009 meeting. We look forward to seeing you in Milan!

Francesca Polese (Chair, 2009 Program Committee)
Regina Blaszczyk (Co-chair, 2009 Program Committee)
Franco Amatori
Per Boje (EBHA President)
Albert Carreras
Jeff Fear
Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor
Elisabetta Merlo
Mark Rose (BHC President)