For four days at the start of July, one of the sharpest gatherings of marketing minds in the country was not in Delhi, Mumbai or Ahmedabad — it was in Jammu. From July 1 to 4, 2026, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu hosted the 13th AIM–AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium and International Marketing Conference (DC–IMC 2026), pulling in around 200 scholars, journal editors, industry experts and doctoral students from across India and abroad.
If you are a student in Jammu wondering whether "big things" only happen elsewhere, this is your answer: they are increasingly happening here, on a campus a bus ride from your neighbourhood.
What actually took place
The programme ran as two connected events. The AIM–AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium (July 1–3) is a mentoring platform where PhD scholars present early-stage research and get feedback from some of the most cited names in the field. The International Marketing Conference (July 3–4) then opened the floor to full research papers, keynotes and panel debates.
The running theme this year was blunt and timely: the future of marketing in the age of Artificial Intelligence. Sessions dug into AI-enabled consumer experiences, digital transformation, sustainability, responsible marketing and where global marketing scholarship goes next. As IIM Jammu Director Prof B S Sahay put it, "Artificial Intelligence is revolutionising every facet of marketing — from innovation and consumer engagement to digital commerce."
The names in the room
The consortium carries the name of Prof Jagdish N. Sheth — a Padma Bhushan awardee, the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Business at Emory University's Goizueta Business School in the United States, and founder of the Academy of Indian Marketing. Advisory-board scholars including Prof Denish Shah (Georgia State University) and Prof David W. Stewart (Loyola Marymount University) delivered keynote perspectives, while conference convenor Dr Rashmi Ranjan Parida framed the meet as "a vibrant global platform for intellectual exchange, collaborative research and advancing excellence in marketing scholarship."
For context: these are people whose papers sit on the reading lists of MBA programmes worldwide. Having them fly to Jammu — not the other way round — is a small but real shift in the map of Indian academia.
Why a young Jammuite should care
It is easy to file "marketing conference" under things-that-don't-affect-me. Here is why it does.
Research is a career, and it starts nearby. A doctoral consortium exists to show early-career researchers how to publish, defend ideas and build an academic path. That pathway now has a visible home in Jammu, not just a metro.
AI-plus-marketing is where the jobs are heading. The topics debated here — AI-driven consumer insight, digital commerce, responsible use of data — map almost exactly onto the skills that hiring managers will look for over the next five years.
Prestige compounds. Every time IIM Jammu lands a flagship national event, the city's colleges, startups and students gain proximity to networks, mentors and internships that were previously a plane ticket away.
The conference also rewarded serious work: Overall Best Paper Awards worth a combined Rs 50,000, plus track-wise honours, with selected papers lined up for publication in ABDC-, ABS- and Scopus-indexed journals — the currency of a research CV.
The bigger picture
IIM Jammu is a young institute, but it has been steadily positioning itself as a management-and-research anchor for the whole region, including a dual-degree link with IIT Jammu that lets students combine a BTech with an MBA. Hosting DC–IMC 2026 is part of that story: it tells prospective students, faculty and recruiters that Jammu can convene world-class conversations.
You don't have to be an MBA aspirant to take something from that. The quiet message of the week is that ambition no longer requires an exit ticket. Whether your thing is design, code, commerce or the arts, the ecosystem you need is slowly assembling in your own city — and events like this one are the scaffolding.
Sources: Daily Excelsior — International Marketing Conference 2026 begins at IIM Jammu; The Statesman — IIM-Jammu to host major international marketing conference; JK Monitor — IIM Jammu concludes International Marketing Conference 2026.
