Chicago didn’t know what was coming when Little Bird set out for the very first Quirk's Event in Chicago. If you were there, you know, but if missed this inaugural event, this blog will fill you in.
Quirk's Chicago 2019
"I love the energy. I love watching people walk around and network and especially with our new click badges, they could have the digital business cards, they're having a lot of fun with it."
Katie Kulp of The Quirk’s Event
For 30 years, Quirk's Marketing Research Review has been providing practical applications in marketing research. Their mission is to be the marketing research information source for those that conduct, coordinate and purchase research product and services. In 2015, Quirk’s launched its very first Quirk’s Event. These interactive conferences are an inclusive event created for the entire marketing research and insights community.
At this event, Ashley (my Content Marketing Manager) and I actually co-presented on sustainable lead generation systems. In our brief solution demonstration, we offered up the Little Bird Marketing Manifesto for Revolutionary Marketing and revealed a radical approach to organized content marketing focused on amplifying reach in an increasingly noisy marketplace and creating a predictable stream of sales leads. We even gave insider information about how to build a system totally based on your strategy and company goals to attract your most ideal client.
It was basically a crash course of sorts including immediately actionable tasks to get your message in front of the right audience and organize marketing actions into a system for firm and sustainable lead generation.
Be Prepared and Get Specific
Want my best piece of advice when attending a trade show? You have to come prepared to give energy - because you cannot go into one of these shows and suck the energy out of the room. Instead, you need to liven things up.
It’s a personal choice for me to come and arrive well-rested, not having a bunch of stress, not planning other meetings - popping out of the trade show and still trying to do work. I make it a point to maximize my time and stay present. I see some co-founders, founders, CEOs and CMOs at these shows, and they're divided. Their attention is divided and it inevitably hurts their success at the event.
In addition to energy level, we take a long, hard look at our personas before we head out to a trade show or industry event. We make it a point to get very clear with people about who/what we’re looking for.
“Sometimes you do get trapped talking with someone who really is not a good fit for your business and you're not a good fit for them and they're not a good fit for you, but you're there and you can be really clear about who you're going out after and you're really clear about your message - exactly what pain point and what problem you solve for your most ideal client, then trade shows can be incredibly, incredibly effective.”
- Priscilla
You Have to Give to Get
The traditional trade show mindset is typically about, “what can I get from this?” Contrary to that thought, when you start a relationship with giving, I think it's much more powerful and dynamic.
“The point is to just be energetic, to bring something great to the table, to really help raise the vibration. I don't want to be weird about it but it is about an energy vibration at a show, and to help people get excited about what's going on in their industry and their job. And so incorporating people and letting them talk on our podcast is one of those things that can bring that vibe up and get other people interested in what's going on.”
- Priscilla
We practice this two ways:
- Featuring attendees, presenters and staff in our podcast recap.
- Attending sessions, live tweeting and tagging the presenters.
Priscilla and Ashley’s Takeaways
While we definitely did our fair share of work, Ashley and I had a blast at Quirk’s Chicago. From the WIRe opening reception to The Research Club’s "After" Dark Networking Mixer, we found ourselves having a great time and in good company.
One of our favorite things to do after an event is highlight some of our favorite people and companies. Without further ado, here are our awards for the 2019 Quirk’s Event in Chicago:
Best Shoes - Bob Ferro of Trusted Talent
Best Giveaway - P2Sample
Quirk’s Spirit - Stewart Tippler
A Podcast Recap of the Event
In a recent episode of Ponderings from the Perch, Ashley and I discuss our favorite parts of the conference, including: networking events, the MR Jam Band and eating french fries in bed after a long day. In our podcast segment, Bird on the Street, you'll hear those recordings from Quirk's Event attendees, speakers, and staff.
Zoe Dowling of Focus Vision discusses the relationship between the marketing team and researchers, based off of personal experience.
“What we have found is that as I have got folded under her function, under marketing, and she'd never had a researcher on her team before, that we underwent a little bit of a journey to how we work together. It was certainly not a bad one, not so terrible, but of course there was twists and turns.”
Garrett Gil de Rubio of P2Sample explains the benefits (and struggles) of true automation.
“I think more than anything, the traditional market researcher is concerned that it takes a lot of work. That it's a lot of resources, a lot of development time, a lot of technology involved. And truly, automating, we found that it can actually be quite efficient and quite rapid to set up.”
Sanjay Vrudhula of Recon MR understands what it takes to be a thought leader in the insights industry.
“That rigor and discipline still matter when it comes to research. We profess our ability to be rigorous and disciplined in our approach to research and you really can't cut corners, and we don't. And I think that we demonstrate that day in and day out with our work, so it's important that you still stay on track with the profession... and delivering the work.”
In this episode, you’ll hear from so many more, including -
- Katie Kulp of The Quirk's Event
- Zoe Dowling of Focus Vision
- Sanjay Vrudhula of Recon MR
- Tina Gaffney of Realeyes
- Michael Kissen of Fuel Cycle
- Riley Maynard of Dapresy
- Kevin Mahler of Schmidt Market Research
- Justin Blomgren of 20|20 Research
- Jim Jacobs of Focus Insite
- Jill Bishop of Multilingual Connections
- Jignesh Shah of Rybbon
- Leann Donovan of KNow Research
- Garrett Gil de Rubio of P2Sample
- Cheryl Jordan-Aguilera of Pop Research
- Amit Choudhary of Jasper Colin Research
- Benjamin Rietti of E-Tabs
- Aaron Frey of Insight Strategy Group
Want to hear more about the event?
Learn more about Little Bird’s sustainable system for lead generation,
as presented at Quirk’s Chicago.
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