This year the University of Győr in collaboration with the International Association on Public and Nonprofit Marketing (IAPNM/AIMPN), and in cooperation with Society of Marketing Education and Research (EMOK) organised the 18th International Congress on Public and Nonprofit Marketing. This conference is held annually and the Department of Marketing and Management of the University of Győr is proud to host this event in 2019. The conference was held from 3 to 5 July 2019 in the building of the Management Campus. Eszter Lukács PhD Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs at the University welcomed the participants of the conference.

Concerning the present economic, social and technological context, the conference motto was “Challenges in Public, Non-Profit and Social Marketing”. The keynote speakers brought a wide range of expertise and knowledge from public and nonprofit organizations, and academic institution. From the academic sphere, Árpád Ferenc Papp-Váry PhD Dean of Faculty of Tourism, Business and Communication in Budapest Metropolitan University, gave a plenary presentation on “The Limits of Country Branding – 25 Challenges in the Special Field of Public, Non-Profit and Social Marketing”. Balint Vasvári Senior technology manager, who came from the non-profit sector and represented the Centre of Innovation and Technology, delivered an interesting presentation on”Lessons and Challenges of Non-Profit Marketing in a B2B Environment”.

The papers were discussed during the event in six sessions: (1) Green Marketing, Sustainability, Transformative   Services; (2) Education, Social Marketing; (3) Value co-creation, Branding; (4) Sustainable Tourism, Destination Marketing; (5) Health, Quality of Life; and (6) Culture. The participants arrived from Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Lithuania, Romania, Ireland, Croatia, and Hungary, too.

The members of the marketing research team of the Department of Marketing and Management presented its research results in five studies on the topic of transformative services, quality of life, and health research. Péter Huszka and Petra Platz focused on the “Long-term correlation between income level and food consumption habits in Hungary”. Veronika Keller and Adrienn Dernóczy-Polyák explored the segments based on eating behaviour and healthy eating in the Hungarian market. Ida Ercsey has reviewed two mainstream research topics namely “Co-creation value in the health related services”, and “Examination of quality of life in the context of transformative services. Besides, the University of Győr was represented with three more research topics: Perception of a regional festival, Accessible tourism, and Social judgement and media portrayal of homosexual men.

The scientific committee awarded the best paper prize to our colleague Peter Tóth, which contributed to the success of the conference. His presentation highlighted the “Perception of a regional festival and the difficulties of information gathering”.                            

Ida Ercsey PhD head of Department of Marketing and Management, chairwoman of the 18th IAPNM Congress first participated at the International Congress on Public and Nonprofit Marketing supported by the IAPNM in 2005. She has achieved remarkable scientific results over the past 14 years in connection with conference attendance: best paper award (2011), plenary lecture (2012), and four international journal articles were published two of them are indexed by SCOPUS. Three years ago she has involved the members of marketing research team into the non-profit research field on the examination of specific issues of health behaviour.  In 2018, the editor of the International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing selected and published the paper of “Eating styles of young females in Azerbaijan” by Veronika Keller and Adrienn Dernóczy-Polyák in the SCOPUS indexed journal.

The chairwoman involved the editors of three international journals and four Hungarian journals in order to invite the best studies of the 18th International Congress on Public and Nonprofit Marketing for publication in journals.

This conference provided an excellent opportunity for researchers and teachers to share experiences and discuss their research results. The social programs organized after the scientific programs gave the opportunity to present the sights of the city Győr and Pannonhalma.