Earlier this month, I embarked on a solo journey to Vancouver, Canada, for a short visiting stint at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. My incredible hosts, Associate Professor Dave Hardisty and Dr Kirstin Appelt, welcomed me warmly into their family—complete with cuddles from Evie, their fluffy and affectionate dog, and Cleo, and their (initially sceptical but) ultimately charming cat.
Before “Raincouver” lived up to its name, we made the most of the dry weather with an escape room adventure and a couple of hikes. One highlight was climbing Black Mountain in Cypress Provincial Park, where I had my first experience using micro-spikes. The trek included a moment of modest terror as we navigated an unintended route down a ski slope through foot-deep snow. It’s not every day you find yourself improvising a descent!
A bonus highlight of the trip was reconnecting with long-lost relatives, thanks to the genetic testing platform 23andMe—a reminder of how small the world can feel sometimes. Maybe I’ll see you in Sydney one day?
During my visit, I gave a couple of talks and enjoyed engaging with Sauder’s brilliant faculty and PhD students, including Kate White, Jiaying Zhao, Jen Park, Shin Oblander, and Deepak Sirwani. Dave is currently leading an exciting project on collaborative nudging, which dovetails with a self-nudging project I’m working on with Nathan Moore. With any luck, we’ll nudge ourselves into a collaboration soon!
After Vancouver, I headed to New York City for a mix of work and play. A reunion with a childhood pen pal was filled with quintessential NYC experiences, including seeing &Juliet on Broadway and revisiting Sleep No More, an immersive theatrical experience unlike anything else. Roaming through five stories of dimly lit, intricately designed sets, masked and silently trailing acrobatic actors, is surreal every time. Even after a second visit, I’m pretty sure I’ve only seen about 20% of the performance!
At this year’s SJDM conference, I presented a poster titled “Probability-Based Loyalty Programs Increase Engagement“, a project co-authored with Liyin Jin, Ying Zhang, and Linda D. Hollebeek. The research is currently in the review process at the Journal of Marketing. The reviewers appreciated the concept but are asking for more robust evidence and clearer actionable moderators—challenges I’m trying to tackle in a revision. To be honest, I did not get many visitors to my poster and was feeling a little disappointed. And then I noticed a few of the wait staff gathering around my poster. Before I knew it, I was having a great conversation about my research with them. They easily understood the main idea and one of them even made a valid prediction that I had not thought of before.
Originally, I planned to stay in the U.S. for Thanksgiving with my extended family. However, I will see them when I return in a couple of months—this time with my family—for an unforgettable trip to Disney World. Let the countdown to the magic begin!