MCPC 2003 World Conference

DATE: October 6-8, 2003

LOCATION: Munich, Germany

CONFERENCE TITLE: The 2nd International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization

Proceedings from the 2003 Conference

When Stan Davis first coined the term Mass Customization in Future Perfect way back in 1987 it was a new oxymoron. When I wrote the book on it ten years ago in 1993 this business model was, as my sub-title attested, the new frontier. Today, it is the new imperative for businesses. As the competitive environment grows increasingly more turbulent and offerings everywhere become increasingly more commoditized, companies must seek out the desires of individual customers and then do only and exactly what each one needs.

It is a great honor to see what Stan Davis and I started become such a line of research amongst all the attendees of the 2003 Interdisciplinary World Congress on Mass Customization and Personalization. I unfortunately can't be there myself this year, but do wish everyone much success in their endeavors to figure out how companies can better mass customize their offerings. For it is only through efforts like yours that my oft-stated prediction will come true: that Mass Customization will be as important in the 21st century as Mass Production was in the 20th.

-Joe Pine, 2003