We continue to work on an ongoing survey and database management project in partnership with the Criterion Partnership at dstl (the Defence Science Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in the UK  www.dstl.gov.uk/about_us/index.php). We are currently advising a North-East England NHS Primary Health Trust and an engineering company on the measurement of services performance, and we are working with Siemens (the electronics, electrical engineering and health care group) on the training of their lead account managers to level 5 awards of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management.

In June Gary Akehurst joined an audit panel of the Netherlands Quality Agency, auditing the bachelors programme in international business and management at Rotterdam University. Later in the year he has been invited to scrutinise business and management research at the University of Beira Interior in Portugal.

In early June Gary Akehurst joined other ISI rated journal editors and authors at the inaugural conference of The International Network of Business and Management Journals (INBAM) in Valencia, Spain. The objective is to provide leading Thomson Reuters ISI journals with a forum for scholarly exchanges and communications. This first conference is devoted to "creativity and innovation. The journals participating in INBAM during the first year are International Small Business Journal (published by Sage), Small Business Economics (Springer), Human Resource Management (Wiley), Journal of Organizational Change Management (Emerald), Service Industries Journal (Taylor & Francis), International Journal of Manpower (Emerald), Canadian Journal of Administrative Science (Wiley-Blackwell) and Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (Sage).

Gary Akehurst was a speaker at:

The Sales Training Association, meeting in Oxford, 18 March 2010. Download pdf of the STA talk. Read comments on Gary's STA talk on the modernselling.com site

A Services Management seminar at the University of Valencia, Spain, 16-20 March 2009;

The IV Jornadas y Salidas Profesionales en Economia y Empresa symposium at the University of Leon, Spain, 21 April, 2009.

Gary Akehurst was the keynote speaker at The 4th International Conference on Services Management "Managing Services Across Continents", 7-9 May, 2009, Oxford; his talk was entitled "Services research at a crossroads". Download pdf of the Oxford talk.

Gary Akehurst was the keynote speaker at The Council for Hospitality Management Education (CHME) International Research Conference, 13-15 May 2009, University of Brighton; his talk was entitled "Services research (and hospitality) at a crossroads".

Gary gave a lecture on writing scientific papers and getting published at a doctoral and masters student symposium, Department of Business and Economics, University of Beira Interior, Covilha, Portugal, 22 May 2009 and at Roehampton University, School of Business and Social Sciences, 28 May 2009.

Gary recently chaired the structural change and globalisation session at the XVIII International Conference of The European Association for Research in Services (RESER) "New Horizons for the Role and Production of Services" at Stuttgart, Germany, 25 and 26 September 2008.

Gary attended the "Non-Technical Innovations - Definitions, Measurement and Policy Implications" workshop at The Fraunhofer Institute of Systems and Innovation ResearchKent Business School, in Karlsruhe, Germany, 16-17 October 2008.

Gary attended a Hospitality Management Symposium, at Kent Business School, University of Kent, 2 June 2008.

In November 2007 Gary Akehurst joined a panel of experts in London at the Apex City of London Hotel organised by the Institute of Hospitality to discuss the latest news and updates on issues that affect and influence trade and profit in the hospitality and tourism industry. The panel, chaired by Melvin Gold of Melvin Gold Consulting, included Bernard Donoghue, Head of Government and Public Affairs at VisitBritain, Robert Milburn, Partner and UK Leader of Hospitality and Leisure at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Peter Lederer CBE, Chairman of The Gleneagles Hotel, Chairman of VisitScotland and President of the Institute of Hospitality and Steve Waller, Relationship Director for Barclays Commercial Bank Hospitality and Leisure Team plus Gary Akehurst.

contact us at ga@akehurstonline.co.uk