By Christoph Welter
‘Creative, collaborative, cool!’ Three buzzwords and a rallying call to frame this year’s gathering of the qualitative research community under the ESOMAR banner.
Creative! Collaborative! Cool! Paris must have seemed like the perfect location to underpin this conference with a sense of confidence and verve. Now, the day begins with the question of how to switch into working mode at all after the events of last Friday. Yet, the room is full of people, 20 out of 22 presentations will go ahead over the course of two days – it’s an amazing outcome of delegates showing their support for Paris and France and their resolve to come together, to exchange thinking, to share and connect in a difficult time.
On a personal note, I feel that with the recent events, one question looms somewhat ominously: What does the research industry have to offer in creating a better tomorrow? Qualitative researchers in particular are known as people’s people, as empathisers and engagers: Can we use this skill, as an industry, to bring about positive change on a societal level?
But let me come back to recapping Day 1 of the conference. Stephanie Davies from Laughology (UK) provided a fantastic opening keynote that not only talked delegates through the transformative power of laughter and humour, she actually engaged everyone right in it! There was cheering, hugging, and lots of laughing. In doing so, she made a pristinely simple and convincing argument for fun and humour in the business world. Moments of happiness release Dopamine, Serotonine, Oxytocine and Endorphine, which in turn are proven to facilitate learning. And humour is a way of making sense of the world that prompts positive connection. What more motivation do we need to allow more fun at work?
Now, is that an appropriate way to start a conference after the recent tragic events? Let me explain my resounding YES, by drawing the connection to the second talk of the day. Vivek Banerji of Insight Dojo (UK) talked about ethnographic research into post-traumatic growth. He showcased how chronic pain patients transform struggles, creating a positive outlook on their life – and how the insights from this research helps to create a framework for healing that can be applied to patient-support programmes on a larger scale. It also provided something of a therapeutic moment for delegates in the room.
In the afternoon sessions, the presenters took it upon them to further fill the conference motto with life. Els Dragt and Pernille Kok-Jensen of MARE Research set a highlight with their talk on trends within Generation Y. Not another Gen Y talk I hear you say? Well, the MARE ladies showcased how to do it right! They provided 4 cultural practices replete with examples that showed how Gen Y is engaging with the world in a different way than previous generations. And then they went and asked how these practices might impact on how we do research. A successful exercise in learning from perspective shift – by the way, exactly the crucial lever that qualitative research has in impacting business.
A creative breakout session then saw delegates come up with their own ideas on trends in society. Although both the task framing and the working material left something to be desired, everyone rejoiced in the opportunity to switch from listening into doing mode. One team even went ahead and turned one of their members into a ‚universal human‘, plastering him with snippets from magazines and covering him in stickies. It is these moments that bring to life the motto of a conference like this – and we need more outlets for creativity at conferences in order to balance and make sense of the onslaught of inspiration through talks.
Speaking of onslaught – I noticed that presenters tried to cram a lot of content into their presentations and more often than not it was great content indeed. But we need better economics of messaging: paring down content to essential takeaways and more storytelling to bring these alive.
Andrew Vincent and Helen Clark from Waves Research (UK) gave a great example of framing their own key message so as to make it sticky. Their opening statement that we live in a post-quantitative world immediately caught on Twitter – beyond the confines of the conference delegates. Their talk also pointed towards the greater topic of relevance: What is all that being ‘Creative, Collaborative, Cool‘ good for? Contextual face-to-face qualitative research is growing more important the more clients are dealing with massive data sets – speaking about the power of qual to act as sensemaker in a complex world.
Sensemaking was then also the focus (sic!) of Shoba Prashad’s (Drshti Research Services, India) talk, where she used the analogy of vision disorders like myopia and hyperopia to create a framework for different analysis biases and how to overcome them – I can easily imagine that this is a paper worth checking out for training young qualitative researchers.
Over the course of the day, the Programme Committee chaired by Graeme Lawrence from Join The Dots (UK) also provided timely reminders around the identity of qualitative research and the value it provides to business. I want to single out three points: Anne-Sophie Damelincourt (Blue Lemon, France) made the case for research as an artform, Graeme reminded us of the need to treat people like people, and Anita Black (The Magnetic Collective, USA) encouraged researchers to be like magpies – to seek out inspiration everywhere and bring it back into our nests.
At the end of Day 1, my mind goes back to that question of what the commercial qualitative research industry has to offer in creating a better world. During the day, Phillys MacFarlane provided a short overview of training, charity and philanthropy activities provided by the ESOMAR Foundation throughout the world. It is one possible connector.
Christoph Welter is Strategy Director at Point Blank International. He is also the official ESOMAR Global Qualitative 2015 blogger.
