Last week the younger members of the Tapestry team went to the first ever MRS &more conference. The day was full of interesting and insightful talks, ranging from biometric testing to the hype around big data. The conference did a great job of giving an overall view of the research world and there was definitely something for everyone!
Our top 3 highlights from the day:
- Northstar taught us how storytelling engages, aligns with memory and provides foundations for action – therefore make projects interesting and story based! This means stepping away from PowerPoint and writing our own narrative before then deciding what medium we want to use to illustrate it. We are all very aware of behavioural bias amongst consumers, but we have to remember it exists amongst clients and that they don’t want to see “just another PowerPoint”!
- Using participatory research to give power back to respondents was another enlightening talk from Walnut Unlimited and ICM Unlimited. This gave a real insight into we as the market research bubble can reach out to other sources who know more about a topic and incorporate them into our research at key stages, therefore giving a more rounded and true-to-life project, this was shown very well with their MS Society campaign.
- Sinead from Watermelon gave a powerful speech about how we can use confidence to ensure that we have successful careers in research. There were a lot of top tips about how to present yourself and to remember that you know more about a project you have worked on for weeks than a client seeing it for the first time at a debrief – so don’t be afraid to speak up and make sure you are giving them eye contact and smiling!
Thanks to MRS and &more for hosting a day full of networking and conversation inducing talks!
Lily Spencer is a data analyst and general number fan at Tapestry, with a passion for getting to the emotions behind the numbers. It may appear that maths is her real passion, but in fact it’s a serious case of being nosey and wanting to know the answers behind what makes people tick! She loves nothing more than making the “boring” numbers side of market research interesting and engaging, even for those without such a dedication to numbers.