The positive amazement during day one of the Insights Festival continued day two and three. It is online, so I registered, but did not completely clear my calendar and I missed a few good presentations and debates. Fortunately, presentations are recorded and I can still watch them.
Day two kicked off with two excellent presentations from LinkedIn /Protagonist and Tchibo / Cauliflower. Both with a high dose of advanced (text) analytics, NLP, and AI. Both studies showed a high predictive validity, and I cannot wait to read the papers and look under the hood to really digest the work done. It is good to see these technical papers back on the agenda and well presented, so a broader audience feels the spirit of analytical progress. I only hope a lively follow-up discussion will be possible in the future.
During the inclusiveness debate and the presentation of ESOMAR Foundation winners, we learned that interaction with everyone around the globe does not always goes smooth on the technical side. This is not a criticism of the technicians, they do an excellent job, but interacting around the globe in a live virtual event is sometimes challenging and depends on the experience and the connection quality of each link in the chain. These debates and the initiatives of the ESOMAR Foundation must stay in the limelight and bring the key message across loud and clear.
Both keynote presentations at the kick-off and the closing of the Main Stage of day three, about the impact of COVID-19 on our profession and community, was intriguing and well presented, so if you missed it, I encourage you to watch both on-demand.
The three presentations on the status and the development of the insights industry revealed some significant changes. Fortunately, they findings presented in ‘The Global Insights Industry – Trends and Forecasts’ session have been published in detail already within the ESOMAR GMR 2020 report as they call for a deep dive in order to fully understand them.
The Fringe sessions are, as I found out, worth attending, and are also being recorded (to be available after the Festival). The groups are smaller and joined by people with the same interests which leads to lively debates.
What will the 2021 Insights Festival be like? The ESOMAR team showed a virtual congress is possible, and can be equally very interesting and engaging. Just imagine Toronto 2021 as a hibernated festival of 1000 attendees in Toronto and 15 000 participants joining virtually. I cannot wait to register.
