Tag Archive for MRS Conference 2011

MRS Conference 2012: The Book Club reading list

March 27, 2012 MRS Book Club No comments

For anyone curious, the list of books discussed at the very first Research Book Club that launched at the annual MRS Conference last week:

Andrew Bradley (ThinkBritain) read ’1984′ by George Orwell, though I doubt I needed to tell you that
But he ALSO read his bosses book, Talking to a Brick Wall by Deborah Mattinson.
Jonathan Wakeham (Co-founder of LoCo) read ‘Comedy Rules’ by Jonathan Lynn
Layla Northern (Boots) read ‘Nickel and Dimed’ by Barbara Ehrenreich
Rose Van Orden (BBC) read ‘The Trusted Advisor’ David H. Maister, Robert Galford and Charles Green

Honourable mentions from the floor:

‘The e-Myth’, Michael E. Gerber, about entrepreneurs
‘Presentation Zen’, Garr Reynolds, which is attached to a good website
‘Influence and the Power of Persuasion’ Robert Cialdini
‘The Listen Lady’ F. Annie Pettit – about social media and market research
‘Nixonland’, Rick Perlstein
‘Never had it so good – a history of Britain from Suez to the Beatles’, Dominic Sandbrook
‘Capital’ John Lanchester
‘The Game’ Neil Strauss – about becoming world’s greatest pick-up artist

For details about how to sign up to come along to the next MRS Book Club go to http://www.mrs.org.uk/event/course/535. There are 2 coming up – the 20th April and 15th June. Turn up with some thoughts on something you’ve read and we’ll take it from there.

Chloe

PS. And with MASSIVE thanks to Rose who actually had the foresight to take notes during the session. My failing utterly. I was nervous and excited and realised (too late) that my pen was on the other side of the room. It won’t happen again.

MRS Book Club: the first Chapter

August 26, 2011 MRS Book Club, Research magazine One comment

The story in a nutshell

We held a pilot MRS Book Club (post my session at the MRS Conference back in March) on Thursday 25th August.  Everyone was asked to bring along a book, an article, a blog or even just a thought to introduce to the group in a minute or so.  We then followed the themes – spending time chatting about each one in turn and some more than others.  As a first attempt I think it went pretty well and am gathering feedback so we can explore the best format if the Book Club goes ‘live’.  And in the meantime, keep reading!

The cast

Chloe Fowler, Rachel Simmons, Amelie Truffert, Tom Morgan, Claire Webster, Razor Research (helped by the fact it took place under the office!)

John Griffiths, Spring Research

Caroline Hayter Whitehill, Acacia Avenue

Kate McEnery-Evans, Discovery Research

Ed Nash, TNS

Rose van Orden, BBC

Rachel Boyd, Sainsbury’s

Payam Ghamsari, Four Eyes Research

Tom Woodnutt, Conversation strategist

Chapter 1

Tom M kicked off by talking topicality.  He wanted to tell us about an article in The Economist  (http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/08/civil-disorder-and-looting-hits-britain-0) that looked at how different media sources reported on and analysed the recent riots.  We talked about the Left and the Right presented their different reasons for the riots…and then he talked about Russell Brand’s article in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/11/london-riots-davidcameron) – and we were only temporarily thrown off course by whether or not we thought he was sexy (or maybe that was just in my head).  We agreed on the fact that he was smarter, and more articulate, than you might think.  Finally, we talked about an article in www.media-awareness.ca charting the rise of the Tweens category and the jump between The Lion King and looting (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/issues_teens_marketing.cfm).  What implications might this have on how we recruit tweens in research?  What duty do we have as researchers to stand up for the ethics of the research we might do WITH teens and tweens?

Caroline sparked off a conversation about reading per se: how do we read and what are we reading?  And if we’re not sure what to read, she told us to check out an App called Kevin Duncan’s Greatest Hits, (http://www.expertadviceonline.com/greatesthits.htm.) Handy one liners that have done the hard work for you…and then she threw in a recommendation for www.tomfishburne.com, a marketoonist (see below).  A prize for the first one of us that puts a cartoon in a debrief?

So back to how we read.  Are we dippers and skimmers or analysts with highlighters?  Do we e-read or paperback? Annotate or re-read?  Do we read to form our opinions or do we read to ‘borrow’ from others?  And isn’t the analysis of the analysis just as interesting as where we started?  We talked about sites like www.reference-tree.com (Tom W) from which students can buy textbooks by the chapter or www.getabstract.com (Rose) a library of business book summaries. Nifty.  All this swiftly and neatly followed by the perfect example of a dip and skim as Kate introduced us to The Big Moo, by the Group of 33, edited by Seth Godin.  A compilation of fables, aphorisms and parables by the likes of Malcolm Gladwell.  It’s a book that can help you be more remarkable which frankly – I could do with.  So dip in or you’re a big moo.

Rose fessed up that she gets seduced by the big ideas…finding herself dropping in references for months at a time before moving on to the next one.  And then chucked a question back at us…her current phase is a fascination with Russia and China – China especially and wanted some recommendations for what books should be on her reading list.

And then it was John’s  (first) turn and I tried to write it down but I might not have captured it all, surprise surprise.  He talked about his quest to establish the Cloud of Knowing at the same time as write 2-3 reviews a month in his blog – but I reminded him that his memory is prodigious so his well-stocked mind is a genuine trove. Whereas mine is more like half a tube of tomato puree.  Caroline introduced the best word of the morning – dilettante – and we talked about knowing a bit about everything was the bomb or whether magpies were better.  Which are you?

Tom W brought us back to order with an introduction to Listen First! By Stephen Rappaport, who rather handily also has a blog (http://listenfirst.buildcapacity.com/about-2/). So I guess we should read first and listen second.  He described it as a nifty tour through the world of social media and marketing – offering case studies of best practice and how to ‘turn conversations to business advantage’.  Published by the Advertising Research Foundation – one of the books that’s NOT half-baked but the full loaf.

From the sublime to the not-as-ridiculous-as-you-think, Ed told us about www.pottermore.com – a unique site developed by J.K. Rowling that the cynics would suggest is a way of monetising her e-books without the need for a publisher or retailer (take that Kindle) but you could more generously suggest offers a fascinating case study into the brave new world of the e-reader.  John chipped in with a recommendation for Wizard!: Harry Potter’s Brand Magic by Stephen Brown – an exploration of just what it says on the tin.

Rachel brought us back from Hogwarts and into the class room with her reminder of the online (and offline) debates raging about the issues of privacy and e-ethnography.  It’s important and we should be engaging with it – and for those who need to bone up, check out our very own Research Live for a few recent blogs and articles: http://www.research-live.com/genning-up-on-the-big-data-privacy-debate/4005855.blog and http://www.research-live.com/features/time-to-rewrite-the-rules-of-research?/4005880.article.

Payam shared an article about the phenomenon of what creates value and the perception of value and recommended we read the following article about the recent rush to purchase of a discontinued Tablet.   http://thisismynext.com/2011/08/22/hp-touchpad-99-in-your-words/. 

Claire is reading Consumerology: The Market Research Myth, the truth about consumers and the psychology of shopping by Philip Graves.  It’s lucky we were running out of time because even as she started telling us about it I could tell the mood was getting heated – he appears to not like what we do very much.  To be continued…

We didn’t get around to my book but I was going to talk about No Angels: my undercover journey to the dark heart of the Hell’s Angels by Jay Dobyns because I like the title.  I was going to talk about ethnography and just how close is close?

And finally, the last word to John who is perhaps the best read, or at least the one with the best memory.  Do you know what psychogeography is?  No, Neither did I.  He’s reading Psychogeography by Melvin Coverley and for fear of ballsing it up, it’s defined in a nutshell by Guy Debord (thanks Wikipedia) as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”

And that, dear readers, is the end.

Well nearly…so what next?

This was a pilot and it’s down to the people who came along (and the MRS) to help decide whether it should be a more permanent fixture or not.  I know we were pressed for time and that we could have talked for longer about loads of these themes. I loved the serendipity of subjects and the myriad of new reading choices, but we will need to strike a balance between eclecticism and ‘education’ as we move forward.  We’ll talk about and think about how to revise the format and keep you posted.  But most of all, it was a rare treat to spend 90 minutes with such a great bunch of varied colleagues (and clients) and with that I’m straight off down the Amazon.

Chloe

Buzz Library at the MRS Conference 2011

April 3, 2011 General No comments

I’m not going to be able to add much in terms of take outs from the conference – largely because Elle has done an amazing job of summing in a much cleverer way that I will.

Just wanted to add in (yes, not subtle) some thoughts about the session that I was chuffed to bits to chair – Buzz Library. The format was simple (despite my early attempts to over complicate it) – 4 speakers were given 3 minutes (timed) to tell the audience about a book that had influenced their work lives in some way. After that, eschewing the typical ‘audience question time’ I asked for volunteers to plug a book that had influenced them (and in return, they were given one of the 4 books as a prize).

I was lucky that the 4 people I most wanted to speak all said yes…Alison Winter is a client I’ve worked with at the BBC, Caroline Hayter Whitehill sits on the AQR committee, Tom Woodnutt is a new friend who has struck out on his own and who I’m keen to work with and I saw James Mitchell on the stage at the Battle of Big Thinking and I took the brave step of tweeting him afterwards…and then there he was on the stage.

The session itself went well but to be honest, my favourite bit was the meetings we held to discuss their book choices. We don’t often get the chance to just chat about clever-stuff and it was an honour and privilege to do so.

Anyway – I’m hoping to start an MRS Book Club at some point in the future and you never know, maybe the session could become a regular fixture at the conference.

Icing on the cake – a nice review by Teresa Lynch of MRWeb. Thank you to anyone who came along and thanks to the MRS for the opportunity. Baby steps into conference land…next year I’ll toddle.

Chloe

*****

Over the last few years the Research conference has organized quite a few ‘stunt’ sessions. These are designed to show that researchers are also interested in things other than research and that they can be a bit wacky. Teresa Lynch looks at this year’s entrant in the category.

Who can forget, in 2009, ‘The Research X Factor’? Or last year’s ‘Research Dragon’s Den’ and ‘Big Thinkers’? Very few of these sessions in the past have achieved lift-off or been repeated the next year. However this year’s ‘Viewpoints – This Book will Change Your Life’ was an exception.

It wasn’t particularly high concept, which may have been an advantage since it was on at 2.15 on a day when a large percentage of the potential audience had been up till the early hours the previous day. Introduced by Chloe Fowler of Razor Research, four young researchers gave a three-minute pitch for a business book which had changed their working lives.

Tom Woodnutt, a freelance Conversation Strategist picked the somewhat predictable What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis. Woodnutt mentioned all the regular things people say about Google: the twenty percent time for individual project and the ‘dare to fail’, but he still managed to make the book sound like a good read – which having battled through it myself, it really isn’t.

Next up we had Alison Winter of the BBC on Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon Mackenzie. According to Winter this is the book for all those worker ants slaving in the big colony, hemmed in by the inflexibility of historic systems, and unable to break free. Winter spoke well about the book’s advice to try to change small local things rather than whole monolithic organizations like, for example, the BBC.

Caroline Hayter Whitehill of Acacia Avenue followed with a Q and A for the audience. We had to put up our hands if we agree with various marketing mantras such as ‘20% of your customers give you 80% of your value’ and ‘certain types of people like certain brands’. Given that all of the statements were deemed to be wrong by Byron Sharp, author of How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know, the audience learned pretty quickly not to make twits of themselves putting up their hands.

Lastly we had James Mitchell of BBH singing the praises of Mastery by George Leonard, a book applying the principles of Aikido to achieving life goals. Mitchell proved a very engaging performer and used some very basic hand drawn visual aids to draw us into what was essentially a self-help book.

However the best part of the session was still to come. The audience were asked to make a one-minute pitch for a book they felt had changed their lives, the reward being their choice of one of the platform books. This was a fascinating exercise and the audience, caught off-guard, were shown to good advantage as they responded. Your correspondent’s favourite of all these instant summaries was not one of the many management or infographic books mentioned but the lady who stood up and said reading novels not manuals had made her a better researcher since they gave her insight into the human condition.

In all about 12 members of the audience went out clutching an unexpected prize. This was a good session, well conducted, with good speakers and no razzle dazzle. It would be easy to repeat next year instead of trying a new borrowed-from-TV format. After all, everyone loves a book club.
Teresa Lynch, MR Web