A Day (or two) in the Life at the MRA Chapters 2010 Vegas Conference
Posted by Vaughn Mordecai on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 02:29 PM
I recently attended the MRA combined chapters (Southwest, NorthWest, and Southern California) 24th annual Vegas conference...yes the conference has been running for 24 years...since 1986. This is one of those "best kept secret" conferences that too many people are unaware of, but continues to plug along year after year with good attendance, strong content, and an excellent location. In fact, the past couple of years have included about 100 attendees. Prior to the current economy, the attendance had built up to about 175 attendees with regularity. Historically speaking, the attendee demographic of the conference has consisted mostly of market research business owners and executives, market research managers, end-users, and a mix of market research service suppliers from all over the US.
I've been attending this conference for about five or six years and find it refreshing. The conference is held at a Vegas strip hotel in March (this year it was at the MGM Grand). It's a perfect time to get out of Salt Lake City to warmer temperatures, and connect with long-time friends, new and "mature" business associates, and take in some excellent educational content. The conference also runs a raffle for charity...best odds on the strip. This year, $1,300 will be donated to the American Cancer Society.
Every time you exit the plane in Vegas you are bombarded by images of the stars, the shows, and the alternative forms of entertai.jpg)
nment available to you in Vegas. Little did I realize when I arrived that we'd see newly emerging superstars. The first is Elisa Galloway, President of Galloway Research Service and the upcoming president of the MRA National board. WHO KNEW SHE WAS SUPERGIRL ON THE SIDE?
The opening remarks of the conference were given by Steve Larson, the President of the Southwest Chapter and VP of Sales for Information Alliance. In his remarks, he pointed out the striking resemblance between one of our members - Scott Feldman - from Opinion Access Corp, his wife Jo
dy, and the couple on the Toyota Sienna video. WHO KNEW THAT BOTH SCOTT AND JODY WERE ACTORS...talk about a doppelganger...no really look at the video?
The conference keynote speaker was Peter Summersgill from Playstation. He provided a surprisingly analytical driven session on the wealth of information available to Playstation and how the company measures themselves in the gaming industry. He provided categorical breakdowns of game types and trending over time. In the course of the presentation, he mentioned that software piracy is a huge issue for the industry and that Playstation is really attempting to close the loop...lock up the "back door" that allows piracy in. He mentioned that development leaks from market research practices are a significant risk. Respondents sign non-disclosure documents, however focus groups cause disclosure risks as information revealed in the focus group can find its way to the gaming blogs. Interesting dilemma.
Chris Robson and Scott Laing from Parametric Marketing presented some very interesting information on using Excel to chart market research data. The session provided some excellent tips on providing clients easy access to their data in the "language that they speak." Parametric seems to have found a very interesting approach to using outside software, that is often very inexpensive, free, or unknown by much of the research community, to get to the bottom of data. The session provided some very unexpected take-aways.
The Vegas conference has started conducting an "open-forum" lunch session that should be considered by other conferences. A short presentation is provided by a subject moderator, a discussion outline is provided to each table, and the diners encouraged to interact with each other about the presented industry related subject. The lunch session focused on the benefits and disadvantages of market research industry associations, what should or could be done to increase their effectiveness, what the associations are bringing to the table and what could be improved. A number of MRA leaders were in attendance, it will be interesting to see how this information is used for future reference...will they listen?
One of the best "one-liners" of the conference was provided during the presentation by Meredith Lind and Aaron Lee of Definitive Insights. They stated that, "Humans are better at judging items as they relate to each other than they are at discriminating items on a scale." It's an interesting concept that could impact the methodological approach you take to your research.
One of the highlights of the conference was a presentation by Frank Stagliano of Nielsen Entertainment Television Group. Nielsen operates a location out of the MGM Grand called "TV City." He discussed what is accomplished in the facility, talked about how Nielsen goes about conducting their screen testing, focus groups, and brain and eye scan research that goes on at the facility. Nielsen operates the location on behalf of CBS. As an incentive for participation, respondents are given a discount at the CBS store that is located at the exit of the research facility. Stagliano also provided a tour of the facility and the cool 3D technology that's coming soon. Ever thought about research as entertainment? Nielsen has...and it sells product.
If you ever get a chance to speak with Sean Campbell or Scott Swigart from Cascade Insights, take the opportunity. These guys seem to have the inside track on using free (or mostly free) online tools to gain competitive intelligence and insight into whatever company or subject you can imagine that operates in the IT industry. The tools and practices they taught in this session were useful and are applicable to any business or subject (IT or not)...they taught, discussed, and showed how you can use things like Linked In, Google tools, Slideshare, Wordle, Twitter, etc. to gain competitive insight. Fascinating session.
As a close to the conference, research end-users from Disney/ABC, NBC-Universal, and a former research manager at Microsoft (names withheld to protect the innocent - actually to avoid the 700 Mil. sales calls that would result from posting this information on a website) presented information on how the research industry seemed to be evolving FOR THEM. It was interesting to hear about how they filter through the "new and innovative" vs. the "typical" sales call and how they, like many research vendors, continue to look for ways to do their research better, faster, more innovatively.
All in all, this was a great conference. I've even heard that it may be one of the best Vegas conferences the combined chapters have EVER held...that's saying a lot given that there have been 24 of them.