Conferences can feel like a whirlwind. You blow in (sometimes at 11pm to find out the airport lost your luggage), you power on for 2-3 days and you roll out, just as quickly as you came in. You're inundated with information from the start and your brain is trying to process key takeaways, legitimate leads and meaningful conversations. We're back from the Insights Association's 2019 Corporate Researcher's Conference and wrapped up our experience into this neat little blog and podcast - packed full of the insights you don't want to forget.
Did you catch our early reference to lost luggage?
That actually happened. If you're a road warrior, you're accustomed to the like.
With the quick pace of CRC and similar industry events, it's extremely important that you come prepared. Before I attend any sort of conference or tradeshow, I do a short check to make sure I'll get the most out of the event. In a recent podcast episode, I shared my top 3 tips for a successful conference season.
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Insights Leadership Symposium
I was asked to host and speak on the Insights Leadership Symposium track. Haven't heard of it? It was something brand new that the IA was testing out this year - a 1-day, before-the-event track for providers and leaders.
Along with my favorite fellow MR podcast hosts (shout out to Sima Vasa, David Paull and Jamin Brazil), I co-chaired an impactful day of amazing speakers. The all-star line up included: Roger Dooley, Karen Walker, Adam Lichtl, Jamin Brazil, Joe Beier and Susan Stacey, David Paull, Lisa Wilding-Brown, Greg Jones, and Andy Storch.
We'll make it simple. While we have pages and pages of notes (digitally because Rocketbook, duh), these are our top 3 most-favorite quotes from the track:
- "Your company culture is the sum total of behaviors you allow."
- Karen Walker - "Knowing why something works is just as important as knowing why something doesn’t."
- Adam Lichtl - "Your customer experience will never exceed your employee experience."
- Andy Storch
Have another? Let us know by leaving a comment on this page!
Keynotes and Other Conference Takeaways
While we were busy with the Leadership Symposium and tradeshow floor, BIG things were happening in the keynotes and breakout sessions of the conference.
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CRC was truly great this year. Don't just take our word for it, we asked some of our friends to contribute their favorite parts of the conference.
"The thing that stuck out for me at CRC was a conversation I had with a long-time qual. researcher. She had lost half of her client base, not because of anything she was doing, but because her clients had their insight departments restructured and were transitioned out. In the past her clients would have jumped to another company, but they haven’t been able to find spots to land yet. This is emblematic of the shifts going on in the industry. My sense is that the days of being a generic qual. or quant. full service research company is ebbing away. Businesses need to hone in on their compelling unique value and find a specialty that is crucial to brands’ success if they are to thrive in the current market research landscape."
- Steve August, Founder & CEO, Steve August Coaching
"A consistent theme of the 2019 Corporate Researcher’s Conference was the imperative for Insights Professionals to acknowledge that our job is to uncover sales-generating insights. If we aren’t impacting the bottom line, which means sales, we aren’t doing our jobs. To ensure that we have our “seat at the table,” we must measure and take credit for our successes. My presentation on French Market Coffee’s successful rebrand did just that. Leveraging a strong platform of market research on consumer and category exploration, brand positioning, package design and brand tracking, French Market Coffee’s re-brand and relaunch has resulted in a 15% growth in sales, 22% increase in units sold, and 35% increase in velocity."
- Sondra Brown, President/Founder, MDRGinc.
"My key takeaway from CRC is that there is a phenomenal amount of great work being done by client-side Insights teams and their agency partners. I feel, however, that whilst it is important to preach to the converted, that we need to do a better job at spreading the gospel to the unconverted. First and foremost, we need to do a better job at measuring the business value of all this great work being done by Insights, and then do a better job at demonstrating this value to decision-makers in our companies, especially to those holding the budget strings. We know that if we do this, then Insights teams can grow their resources, do even more great work and share even more great case studies at CRC next year."
- Andrew Cannon, Executive Director, GRBN
A Podcast Recap
Want a taste of that CRC magic? Tune-in as Ashley and I get the straight scoop from fellow event speakers including:
- Adrian Amrine - Lead Qualitative Researcher at Grubhub
- Andy Storch - Talent Development Consultant, host of Talent Development Hotseat Podcast and The Andy Storch Show
- Jennifer Reece - Global technology marketing expert at Microsoft
- Katherine Ephlin - COO at Gongos
- Maya Bourdeau - Founder and DEO at Attune LLC
For more on CRC, listen to the full episode,
"Priscilla Is Down With CRC (Yeah You Know Me!)"
by clicking the button below.
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