2008 ARF Industry Leader Forum
Transforming Research. Are you Listening?
OCTOBER 29, 2008 • 8:00AM–6:00PM
New York Athletic Club
Tap into the flow of consumer conversations and behavior. Hear how it is changing existing approaches to research. Learn how to impact your marketing and research. Leave with not only knowledge, but tools.
Come and Experience Your Own Transformation
A One-Day Workshop
October 29, 2008 • New York Athletic Club • New York City
On July 15, 2008, magic happened at the ARF. A meeting of industry thought leaders was convened, rather innocently, to discuss a subject growing in importance for marketers. That subject was “listening” to the millions of organic online conversations that go on each day among consumers about brands, companies, products and services.
The 15 industry leaders that participated reflected the importance of the topic. They included leaders from P&G, General Mills, Nielsen, ESPN, Millward Brown, Unilever, Avenue A Razorfish, Digitas and others.
The day was moderated by Joel Rubinson, ARF Chief Research Officer, and began with an exploration of new tools to enable intelligent listening and the application of the insights gleaned.
After about 90 minutes, the group realized that they were onto something much bigger than a new toolkit. In fact, they were onto an organizational transformation built around the concept of listening – a new vision for the research function.
The group heard comments like “research as we know it will be on life support by 2012”…”80% of research is about testing and validation and much of that is wasted”…”research can code the meaning out of a response”…
This Industry Leader Forum will open up the discussion of this topic to another 100 invited industry leaders. The day will include a keynote address from Kim Dedeker of P&G; listening case histories from General Mills and Unilever; and breakout sessions focused on the how to leverage listening to build your brand including topics like:
- How to listen
- How to be sure that what you are hearing can be acted upon with confidence
- How to measure the impact of the action you take based on your listening insights.
Join us on October 29 and undergo the transformation yourself. For you, as for all fifteen leaders participating in the July 15 meeting, the future of research in your company will never be the same.
“I had a very busy schedule that week and almost decided not to come to the meeting. But I did attend. And, after a couple hours, I realized that the future of research at ESPN would never be the same.”
Artie Bulgrin – SVP Research and Sales Development, ESPN
Epilogue – Artie shared the meeting summary with his ESPN research staff and they all agreed to change the way they approach research … shifting more resources to “inspiration” rather than “validation” … for example.
Registration
$495 for ARF members • $750 for non-members
The Industry Leader Forum is sold out.
Due to the demand for this event, a similar workshop is planned on the West Coast at the beginning of 2009. Please look out for our email announcements and check back here soon.
Register Using Form
Event Location:
The New York Athletic Club
180 Central Park South
(corner of 59th St. & 7th Ave.)
New York, NY 10019