Last week’s AQR/QRCA conference in Prague

I’m slowly recovering from the joint AQR/QRCA Worldwide conference on qualitative research in Prague last week: this year’s theme “Inspiration in Action.” The workshop day – with Wendy Gordon, Jay Zaltzman and Ava Lindbergh gave me enough to contemplate for a month, but the next two days were jam-packed with session after session that made me think and re-think qualitative research – specifically how we do it on a daily basis. The presentations were inspiring, provocative and beautifully done. Here’s a snapshot of my top Three Inspirations from Prague..(not in any particular order except top-of-mind!):
1. Wendy Gordon kicked off workshop day with an overview of behavioral economics, starting first by discussing the fact that consumers are not rational and challenging why we ask “why” when consumers can’t tell us why.  She emphasized the need to ask questions like who, how and when, rather than why, and to watch behavior to understand the why. She also had a fascinating overview about the science of social connection but her behavioral economics made my top ten list because of the consumer irrationality piece – a principle that forms the basis for much of our work at Sentient. I have another important “why” question: why are we relying on market research methods that are 20+ years old (explicit measures) when we can put behavioral science to work for us in marketing?
2. The always-inspiring pecha kucha sessions – we had 7 in Prague – where presentations are limited to 6 mins, 40 seconds and a compelling story must be told in a lot less time than qualitative researchers usually require to tell a story-! The sessions in this conference were awe-inspiring (Listening; from Cacophony to Polyphony, etc.), but it’s the format that really gets me: when you’re forced to tell a story in a small amount of time you really, really get to the point and in doing so, you communicate an enormous amount of information. These sessions really challenged me to think about the way we deliver client reports, and whether we need to challenge ourselves more to be concise and compelling with fewer words. In fact, a client who shall remain nameless, concurred that our research reports are often too long and filled with less-than-useful information that may seem important to us, but contains clutter she needs to cut through to get to the brief. As she said, “I don’t have time to read your opus. Get to the point.” It could be a pecha kucha itself.
3. Bricolage, hybrid, multi-modality research: by whatever name, using multiple methods for research smells as sweet. Qualitative researchers are faced with the challenge to incorporate multiple perspectives  (or, triangulate our understanding of the consumer, to borrow from our friends in anthropology) in order to understand the complex decision-making environment consumers are faced with. For many firms this means combining multiple qual methods (like focus groups with IDIs, or ethnos with groups) or using quant+qual (focus groups plus a survey, anyone?). We take it a step further and to the side, and use methods that measure the consumer conscious as well as the non-conscious by incorporating ABA, PoE and physiological measures into our study of the consumer. This makes for not only a thorough understanding of consumer truths, but a wicked fun research study from a researcher standpoint as we get multiple touches with consumers
As I go through my notes these next few days, I’m bound to write more. If you attended the conference we’d love to hear your perspective, too. As much as I look forward to the MRA annual conference in Boston in June, and the QRCA in Philly this fall, there’s nothing like a worldwide conference to provoke and stimulate deep thinking.