“Turns Into Leads: Lead-Aware Preference Optimization for LLM Customer Service Automation”

Over three weeks in May and June 2026, I presented my research project across three major European marketing conferences: the Marketing Dynamics Conference in Paris (26–28 May), TPM26 in Barcelona (6–8 June), and the 2026 ISMS Marketing Science Conference in Lisbon (11–13 June). Presenting the same paper to three distinct audiences in quick succession was an unusually efficient way to stress-test the work.

The paper, “Turns Into Leads: Lead-Aware Preference Optimization for LLM Customer Service Automation,” is coauthored with my advisor, Prof. Yuting Zhu, and Prof. Keyan Li of the University of Notre Dame.

Presenting three times over three weeks also meant I could incorporate feedback from the first session into the second, and from the second into the third — by Lisbon, the framing of the paper’s contribution was noticeably sharper than when I left Singapore. The trip was as much about refining the paper in real time as it was about visibility.