In 2001, I researched and funded a new online community centred customer loyalty solution for the hotel, airline and online travel industry. After meeting with leading hotel, airlines and online travel companies, it was clear that there was an interest in new customer loyalty solutions, but that there was limited knowledge and experience in this area. In order to understand more about strategic marketing and how these new solutions may fit in, I enrolled on a Masters in Strategic Marketing at Kingston Business School with the primary goal to research and write my disseration “online communities: why do consumers participate? why should marketers care?”