By Jackie Mold
For me, ESOMAR Congress is an opportunity to keep up-to-date with the MR industry trends and to identify potential vendors. Add to that all the fun networking opportunities and you have an excellent mix for a 3 day industry conference.
Having attended the event for the last four years, I was expecting a busy three-day event, and sure enough, it met all my expectations and more.
Before arriving on Sunday, I like to plan my time to help ensure I manage to get the most out of Congress. So I read the program and do a quick research snoop on the speakers. As always, there is a lot going on, it can be difficult to decide which presentations to go to, and I almost prefer the all-in-one room option that is used for the keynote speakers, as this takes away the “umm what room shall I go in to” overload factor.
On the Monday morning many were expecting a lively start to the day and we certainly got that with a wonderful magic show. ESOMAR always seems to have an element of glamor for me, which is an added bonus. This was followed by a wonderful welcome by Joan Burton, Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), Ireland.
Over the next three days I managed to hear and see all the speakers and presentations that I had highlighted. I spoke to vendors and I networked like a partygoer at a festival.
During coffee breaks there was a lot of chatter about the industry trends and what we all felt was happening, and still lots of talk on what we are doing with big data (still not sure!). For me, a trend I want to see happening is the effective use of various devices capable of collecting data. Yes, we all know we have the mobile option, but we really do need to shorten the questionnaires. It was good to hear that this is an area that seems to be seeing some improvement.
One presentation that did make me think was: Watching the Devices: do we watch video differently on smaller screens? This presentation demonstrated how we consume media in 2015, and how viewing on mobile devices has changed our relationship with programmes. We were shown how we watch and how our brains are reacting, which is a fascinating insight for researchers. I was astonished at the way our viewing options have increased, but it seems large uncluttered screens are still the best for advertising, and we pay more attention to programs shown on traditional TV, because there are fewer distractions!
In previous years I have been able to pick out my favorite presentations, but this year the standard was so high I found myself leaving saying “that was the best” on at least four occasions. There were also remarkable keynote speakers. Listening to Sir Ranulph Fiennes talk about his amazing explorations and endurance made me feel very humble. His almost comic routine to tell his story made his talk highly entertaining. We also heard from an inspiring young man named Jordan Casey. This was a follow-on from his presentation last year and he gave us an update on what he has been up to in the last 12 months. His latest project, Kids Code, is an online game that uses puzzles to teach children how to code – how smart is that?! – and he has accomplished this at the ripe old age of 15!
ESOMAR always manages to have a great party and this year the dinner event was superb. There was plenty of bubbles on arrival at the beautiful building of Royal Dublin Society. The Irish drummers and dancers gave the night a real Irish Craic feel, and by the end of the night there were a lot of people on the dancefloor all strutting their stuff and looking pleased with their age, era or country- appropriate dance styles. We even kept the craic theme going at the end of the night on the buses on the way back to our hotels with an impromptu singalong!
I left this year’s ESOMAR worn out, but full of ideas and inspiration. I met up with friends and contemporaries from all over the world and I made new contacts, some relevant and some not, but all worth a chat.
Bring on New Orleans 2016!
Jackie Mold is general manager Europe at Ugam, a global leader in managed analytics for retailers, brands and market research firms.
