The fall always brings a little cooler weather and research conferences. In fact, lots of conferences:ESOMAR Congress Sept 15 – 18
AMA Research Conference Oct 4 – 7
QRCA Annual Conference Oct 7 – 9
CASRO Oct 13 – 16
IIR The Market Research Event Oct 18 – 21
PMRG October 25 – 27
MRA Conference Nov 4 – 6
WOMMA Nov 18 – 20
With tighter budgets and a challenging economy:
- What conferences have you decided to attend?
- What about exhibit?
- Are you going to send fewer people to conferences?
- Did I miss any conferences?
As of now I plan on attending the AMA, IIR and WOMMA conferences and am still on the fence with a few others. We will be having colleagues at most if not all of the conferences that I listed.
I look forward to reading your comments and hopefully seeing you soon.
Fee Sepahi says:
I will look forward to seeing you at the MRA conference in Nov.
We will exhibit there and most likely it will be me and no one else, given the tight budgets, this year.
Beth Rounds says:
IIR MR Event – for sure
CASRO – maybe
Joyce Rachelson says:
GLC-MRA in Sept. CASRO Annual. MRA First Outlook. CASRO Data Collection. Exhibiting at all but the GLC. I’ll be the only one at the GLC but there will be at least 2 of us at all of the others.
Ocucom has increased the number of conferences this year. Tough times call for finding the most economical way to reach a targeted audience. Conferences provide that better than anything else.
Bob Ferro says:
Merrill,
I will be at ESOMAR, AMA, CASRO and IIR this fall, so I am sure we will run into you. Western Wats is exhibiting at all of these conferences.
I think one of the hot topics that we will all be addressing this year is how do we deal with social networks and communities. If building our business is about building relationships, can we effectively use social networks in that process. If our customers are more then just business associates, do we add them as friends on Facebook?
I am not sure yet.
Jeff Adler says:
I am speaking at the AMA Research Conference — an update of the standing room only talk I gave last year on Virtual Venues for Qualitative Research. I have always found this AMA Conference to be a good value. I hope some of you reading this will check it out and join me.
I will attend PMRG. There is a dinner where they recognize past award winners, and people would notice if I was missing.
Just kidding — the conference has excellent content. It is located in Philadelphia, so there will probably be record attendance even in a recession year — since this may be the only conference members have enough budget to handle the travel. PMRG is also having a Networking Event on Sept. 17 in Jersey City, and I will attend that also.
I am skipping IIR this year. A lot of end users passed on it last year due to travel budget cuts. With the conference in Vegas this year, I expect that dynamic to be even worse. If you are working at an end user, this is going to be a difficult year to explain to your boss why you need money to go to a spa in Vegas.
Merrill Dubrow says:
ARTICLE THAT JUST CAME OUT IN QUIRKS ONLINE TODAY THAT I THOUGH I WOULD SHARE:
3. Why we go to trade shows when we shouldn’t
It’s the season of the trade show and the perennial question arises: Should I stay or should I go? Some shows are must-go events that warrant the expenditure of time and money. Others of questionable value fall into the “but we’ve always gone” category. Using the five most-common reasons given for attending the latter type of gathering, Chris Chariton, vice president of marketing and product services at New York online services company GlobalSpec, offers advice on breaking out of your trade show rut.
We will be conspicuous in our absence. What will our customers and competitors say if we don’t show up? Most likely they’ll say nothing, or “Oh you aren’t going to the show this year?” Unless you really are close to going out of business, not attending a trade show won’t cause your customer base to think you are.
This show is small and the booth space doesn’t cost much. It’s cheap – is that a reason to go? Don’t forget to add in your time (pre-, during and post-show), the cost of taking sales people out of the field or office and freight, hotels, food and graphics. It is probably not as “cheap” as you think, and imagine what else you could be doing with all your money instead.
It will be different this year. Will it? If the show is doing the same thing it always does (same place, same location and same focus) and you plan on doing the same thing, then you might want to reconsider.
We go because it’s really about meeting and greeting our current customers, not new business. This can be a truly valid reason to attend a trade show. Just make sure that is really happening and you are using the event to its fullest to build relationships.
The head honcho really likes shows and nobody wants to be the one to suggest you don’t go. Approach the situation with facts. Summarize the previous results, capture comments from sales and other key show attendees and – most importantly – offer an alternative. All honchos love ROI, so explain it in those terms.
Chariton can be reached at cchariton@globalspec.com.
Christine Cook says:
Speaking at QRCA, hoping to hit MR Event and possibly AMA since it’s the same week as QRCA.
Scott Baker says:
Hi Merrill,
I look forward to seeing you at several of these… AMA, IIR (maybe), PMRG – The Institute and MRA for sure.
As always… an interesting read! With so many conferences out there and budgets shrinking… local conferences and good content will determine which ones we attend!
Marisa Pope says:
I wear multiple hats so you will see me intermittently through every conference season.
I always go to MRA conferences; call me biased, but I think the education can’t be beat (and I’ve been to them all). This First Outlook in San Diego is especially exciting for me – not just because of the content – but also because all I have to do is ATTEND and help my friend Angela Lorinchak (the Education Work Group Chair).
I am also the Marketing Chair for GroupNet, so we will be exhibiting at AMA and IIR – events that always draw strong attendance even when they’re said to be “down”.
And then there are a few less popular (but fantastic) ones I will wander to – although I tend to keep those to myself.
Kim Larson says:
I have to prioritize my time. Every year this gets tougher and tougher. I will only be attending the MRA Conference this year. We will have others at the AMA conference. I really need to attend conferences that give me valuable information to do my job and MRA always has the broadest offerings.
Kim C. Larson
Adam Jolley says:
Merrill, I was just thinking of that Quirk’s article today.
As a sample vendor, our main goal for conferences is to drum up more business. Months later, we always look at the ROI from the trip to weigh out if the conference was worth our while. This whole practice has changed how I view the conference scene.
Rather than only focus on who is there, I’ll look for the city the conference is in to decide if its worthwhile. Conferences in NYC, LA, Chicago…no problem; I could visit clients and prospects in between sessions. It gets tough to justify going to a “social” location and being set in your attendee list to set up appointments.
Thonisha Barnes says:
Merrill,
I look forward to seeing you at the AMA conference. I’d like to attend the IIR conference, but budgets wouldn’t allow that one. So the AMA it is! It should be a good conference! I’m looking forward to Jeff Adler’s talk too.
Ian Kiernan says:
I will definitely attend PMRG and most likely CASRO – these are the conferences that will be most attended by my existing client base.
I will bring one person to each conference as it is a good development opportunity for my team members to attend industry events.
malcolm williamson says:
You will see me at ESOMAR and AMA.
Brad Larson says:
The question of which conferences to attend and how many people to send has always been an issue. This Fall I will be attending AMA, CASRO, IIR and MRA First Outlook. Still debating PMRG. It’s local, which really helps.
As a company, Thoroughbred has decided that we will continue to attend conferences, making sure that we use them for what they are; an opportunity to learn more about our industry, meet new people, strengthen relationships with clients and prospects and promote our company’s services.