Can you get almost 100 persons to attend a full-day market research seminar in a quarter-million-inhabitant city, far from any other urban area, and have them pay more than 200EUR per person for attending? Of course not! That is, it would be impossible anywhere else in the world but Bergen in Norway and it look s like it takes some cheating even there.
A relaxing morning coffee before the seminar kicks off.
NMF-Bergen, the local subsidiary of the Norwegian Market Research Association, today repeated the success of last years "The Trends in our Time". The organisers were a bit disappointed they missed the 100 delegates target with a handful, but hey, we're not exactly in London here! They should instead focus on being very content with the professionality of the event, the high standard of the food and snacks served and their wonderful ability to attract high quality speakers from near and far.
Trine Reinkind, BKK and Lisbeth Hofstad, Respons, took care of the reception with a smile.
The format was the usual: as many interesting presentations as possible, on various subjects, delivered swiftly and with few and short breaks. The only real disappointment was that one of the most interesting speakers had cancelled with short notice, but those who were there all did what they should and did it well. But was it really a seminar on market research?
Finishing speaker and Brann supporter (Bergens football team) Doddo Andersen (who also played the guitarr) with moderator Hilde Sandvik.
The inspiring moderator, Hilde Sandvik from local newspaper BT, desperately tried to squeeze in a question or two about market research or measurement after most presentations, with meagre results. Most speakers were simply there to speak about something else and the audience, where the client-side formed an overwhelming majority, didn't seem to mind.
The speaker coming closest to the core of the arranging organisation was, not surprisingly, the only market research expert in the line-up: Cecilie Kløvstad of Nielsen. I can't say she gave me any hot new insights, but her presentation was a valuable brush up of things we all need to have at the back of our heads.
Øyvind Solstad of NRK likes to stay in touch with people.
Øyvind Solstad from NRK, Norways public service TV company, started the whole day with a rollercoaster ride through Twister, Facebook, YouTube and just about every other new feature on the internet that not only market researchers have to keep in touch with. Maybe this was the best presentation of all and maybe it is not always so wise to put something like that at the beginning of the day.
The red shoes are no coincidence or strike of bad taste - this is how Espens SeconLife avatar, bank manager Sparre Ferrari, is dressed!
I say maybe the best, because Espen Sparre-Engers tale of financial group DnB NOR:s adventures in SecondLife, was also a clear highlight. Most of all I admire his courage of presenting something that was far from a great success. Not that their presence in SecondLife was a failure either - they seem to have had reasonable expectations - but there were no figures to support increase in image or awareness, no rise in sales, just a whole lot of costs. DnB NOR has seen this as a learning experience and we in the audience certainly learned a great deal too! I have called for something else than success stories many times and finally my prayers were answered!
The rest of the day ranged across almost the entire spectrum of marketing in general: sponsoring, events, litterature-based tourism, football-fanatism-blogging, music. A valuable update and very well worth attending, not to mention some spectacular and funny video clips, nice photos etc, but market research? No, not really, but does anyone care? Maybe we learn enough about our own trade in our daily work and need seminars and conferences to open our eyes and ears to the rest of the world? And maybe it is a futile dream that anyone outside our small circle of fanatics would share our obsession with market research methodology.
Ottar Olsvoll, chairman of NMF-Bergen, enjoys a tasty and well deserved lunch.
So the cheating is really a bit of magic: give the crowd what they want (marketing) by in the guise of an illusion (market research). The same goes for the notion of a full-day seminar. The first presentation begun at 10am and the last one ended at 3pm. In between, there was time for a coffee break and lunch. No one seemed to mind this either - in fact, some left before the five hours were through. Giving us more hours would have made no sense. It is hard as it is to manage listening to seven presentations in one day, so even more would have been simply confusing (or would have increased the risk that one of them was not so good). Giving each speaker more time would just have meant they didn't have to be on their toes and perfectly focused as they were now.
And last but not least, I wouldn't have had the time and energy to publish this article on the same day as the event.
Henrik Hall
SMRN