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25. September 2024

Herberts World #15

Issue No. 15 of the Mafo.de column "Herbert's World"!
This time, the topic is the "DACH Dinner" as a forward-looking networking format as part of the ESOMAR conference.

Find out how the first edition of the dinner went in Athens, what Herbert plans to do with it in the future and what he personally learnt from the congress in the following reprint from "Herbert's World"!

Enjoy reading!

Seven. Nine. Eighteen.

No, this is not the start of Lotto on Saturday, but the result of the WeLoveResearch DACH dinner on the eve of the ESOMAR Congress 2024 in Athens - organised by AMR Advanced Market Research and moweb research in cooperation with marktforschung.de.

So I was able to welcome seven guests from Austria, nine guests from Switzerland and 18 from Germany! Our first "Pre-Congress Networking Event" exclusively for the delegates of ADM, BVM, DGOF, VMÖ and Swiss-Insights was therefore a complete success.

Together with the introduction of Claudia Kuhlmann (Interrogare) and Andreas Knappstein (Bilendi) as the two new German ESOMAR representatives, it was a truly inspiring and productive exchange among the guests. And thus the perfect warm-up for the following three days at the world's most important congress for our industry.

"Re-establish the German-speaking research community". This was my postulate in the last issue of Herbert's Welt: the DACH Dinner as a new forum to make our voice louder and more audible on the international stage.

So? Is DACH now BACK?
At least we've made a very good start. And one thing is clear: we're staying tuned and are already planning for ESOMAR 2025 in Prague, with the aim of at least doubling the number of delegates at the dinner.

From the future back to the present - to ESOMAR 2024, a celebration of innovation and insights in Athens. Three full days of get-togethers, presentations and keynotes at the highest level on the latest trends in market and opinion research.

Here are my personal key takeaways from the congress:

• As part of the pitches of the "Young ESOMAR Society", Vince Grana (Orchard, USA) put his finger right in the wound with the title of his contribution: "Out With the Old, In With the New - a new way to reach consumers in an era of error-prone traditional forms of market research".

  Although his diagnosis and solutions apply worldwide, they are particularly relevant to the research landscape in the DACH region. Don't we absolutely have to open up to new methods, new modes of communication and new platforms? Although the ADM dual frame approach or the various forms of mixed-mode methods are ways in the right direction, this will certainly not be enough for a long time yet.

• Artificial intelligence was in fact the famous "elephant in the room" in 99% of all presentations. Especially, of course, in the context of the "Research Effectiveness Awards" with valuable impulses for improvements and further developments. I still vividly remember the concept of Emotion AI, presented by Cyrus McCandless and Aaron Reid from Sentient Decision Science.

  Emotion AI as the decoding of our feelings and thus the implicit measurement of "what works and what doesn't". Emotion AI primarily utilises the fact that we humans present our feelings as a visible statement on our own face. Identifying these correctly and precisely and really understanding them "gives research and creative professionals a deeper understanding of their audience's motivations and therefore greater persuasive power."

• My personal highlight and the jewel in the crown were the best practice recommendations for collecting "International Demographic Data" from ESOMAR. The aim of a team of experts led by Judith Passingham and Jon Puleston was to eliminate inconsistencies in data collection worldwide. To this end, standards have been developed for variables such as labour status, age and gender to improve accuracy and ensure better comparability (or comparability at all!) in cross-national research projects.

  Particularly commendable and worth mentioning in this context is the work of Frank Buckler (Supra), who presented his findings on the notorious income issue. How do you reliably measure (high) purchasing power?

  Particularly in subject areas (dimensions) with a high degree of co-linearity between the individual factors, traditional analyses (such as regression) often reach their limits - everything correlates with everything else and it is difficult to find a causal relationship. This is where Frank Buckler uses "Causal AI" and is able to identify the few out of over 200 statements (factors) that really are an indication of "high purchasing power".

  The exciting thing about this is that "Causal AI" will become increasingly important in the coming years and will be part of the standard repertoire of a good research expert, especially when it comes to large and complex data sets.

  The entire ESOMAR initiative is an absolutely commendable project for the (unfortunately) almost impossible task of standardising the retrieval of socio-demographic variables at an international level. For all those interested, read more here.

• Despite the presence of AI & Co., the keynote on the third day focussed on one of the most important human skills of all: trust. Philipp Kristian, author of "The Trust Economy", gave a powerful and inspiring keynote with the core idea that trust is the key to innovation and lies at the centre of almost every problem.

  The background: If the head is overwhelmed, either the gut or the heart decides. While the gut tends to follow the short-term survival instinct (premise: what dangers could be lurking NOW?), the heart follows intuition, i.e. a sensitive, long-term impulse that leads people to strength and knowledge - but can never develop without trust. Incidentally, trust has this influence not only on people, but also on companies and business models - ideally in the titular "trust economy".

  My opinion on this: Distrust leads to disruption, but trust leads to innovation. Unfortunately, market research as an industry is currently characterised by the deepest mistrust and this presentation is a plea to change this as quickly as possible!

After ESOMAR is before ESOMAR and thus to the DACH Dinner 2.0

We are taking the next step with the 2025 Congress in Prague. With our own agenda, the joint formulation of "German-speaking interests" and the development of a long-term strategy to get closer to our above-mentioned goal: The revitalisation and permanent strengthening of our voice in international market and opinion research.

"ESOMAR Connect Events" to strengthen our community.

Of course, no DACH dinner will take place without close coordination with the new ESOMAR representatives Claudia and Andreas. I am very much looking forward to supporting both of them in their work to the best of my ability. Perhaps at the next "ESOMAR Connect Event", which is already being planned and will take place between the congresses in Germany.

One final word on Athens:

The delegates and I will probably remember the ancient metropolis for a long time to come, and not just because of the DACH dinner. It's simply a fantastic place and ALWAYS worth a visit. As a little incentive, here is our WeLoveResearch sightseeing goodie, which all guests also received at the meeting. A kind of "Perfect day in Athens" to download.

Have fun with it and αντίο Αθήνα - see you in Athens!

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