Plenty of the participants at the Danish Market Research Day, DMD, has told us what a great event it was, either directly the same day or via email afterwards. Although nice and comforting as this might be, relying solely on spontaneous comments to evaluate the event would be folly. During the day, two phone surveys were performed to capture feelings and impressions in real time, the results of which are presented in this article. Whether you were there or not, we welcome you to comment the results and give us suggestions for improvements for next year.
We would like to extend a warm thanks to the Norwegian company Infact for helping us free of charge with the two surveys, performed with CCTI (Computer-conducted telephone interviewing) at lunchtime and during the networking drinks after the last presentation (reminders were made the day after as well). The survey was available in Danish, Swedish and English. All in all, 37 persons out of the approximately 150 present took part in the survey concerning the morning and 42 replied about the afternoon. Not enough to enable very detailed analysis and definitive statements about every aspect of the day, but certainly good enough as a foundation for further discussions, especially as the results were available to us less than two days after the event.
The replies were given on a 5-point scale with 5 as very good and 1 as very bad. With few expections, the mean values for all questions ended up firmly above the middle of the scale. The general opinion about both the morning and the entire day lands on a satisfactory 3.6, same as for the delivery of the presenations, whereas the professional content gets slightly lower reviews, at least for the morning sessions. Quite along with our own opinion, the venue gets even better grades, 3.8, but one of the few lows in the evaluation comes with the lunch, which ends up below the midpoint of the scale at 2.9. I must say I was at first a bit surprised by this as I rather liked the wrap sandwiches of different tastes, but several persons later explained to me that the least you want when networking is to get your hands smeary and having food fall in different directions with a potential client standing in front of you. This will be different next year!
Mean values for general questions (same order as in questionnaire)
Lunchtime survey
Satisfaction with the day so far; 3.7
Professional content; 3.3
Delivery of presentations; 3.6
Opinion about the lunch; 2.9
Afternoon survey
Satisfaction with the entire day; 3.6
Professional content, afternoon; 3.5
Delivery of presentations, afternoon; 3.6
Opinion about the venue; 3.8
Recommend the event; 4.1
Among the speakers, the Danes ended up in top, with Alexander Kjerulf, the Chief Happiness Officer, as the undisputed winner. Perhaps a bit embarrasing for the others or for us as an industry, he was the only non-market researcher speaking at the event, but to be honest, he is also the only one in the line-up earning his living as a lecturer and it showed! It should further be noted that it was a very close shave between the other Dane, Henrik Dahl, and most of the other speakers - a sign as good as any of the high quality of the program.
Mean values for speakers (sorted with highest value first)
Alexander Kjerulf; 4.2
Henrik Dahl; 3.7
Øyvind Solstad; 3.7
Neil McPhee 3.7
Nadhim Zahawi; 3.6
Ola Gaute Aas Askheim; 3.5
Graham Page; 3.4
Michael Heberle; 3.1
Frits Spangenberg; 2.5
The most positive outcome of all is of course that as many as 72% of the respondents finds it likely or very likely that they will recommend the event to colleagues. Only one of the respondents was certain he/she would not recommend the event. Could you hope for a better outcome than that?
For more detailed information from the evaluation, download this PowerPoint document about the morning and this one about the afternoon.
As mentioned above, several of the delegates have been kind enough to write us with their views and suggestions after the event. Here are some of the comments:
"...it was indeed a successful event and a good mix of speakers and insights - we look forward to next year!"
"...vil gerne takke dig for en spændende konference og en god aften. Jeg var meget imponeret over præsentationer fra foredragsholderne, men faktisk synes jeg det bedste var muligheden for at netværke med kollegaer i branchen. " (Want to thank you for an exciting conference and a good evening. I was very impressed by the presentations, but the best thing was the opportunity to network with colleagues in the industry.)
"talere: der var noget for alle - helt i top
frokost: skift leverandør, den duede ikke
Sted: det fungerede fint
Udstillere: relevante (men kunne trænge til at være mere skarpe i deres produktpræsentationer)"
(Speakers: something for everyone - top class.
Lunch: Shift supplier, not good enough.
Venue: Worked well.
Exhibitors: Relevant (but should be sharper in their product presentations).)
"Thanks for a great seminar yesterday. Well prepared and prof speakers. Very little sales pitching. Of course not all sessions were equally relevant, but that is probably also an impossible task."
The only question remaining is: what is your opinion about the day? Could you enlighten the quantitative results of the surveys with qualitative insights? Are there important aspects we didn't even cover in our questions? Please make your voice heard by commenting this article.
Henrik Hall
SMRN
Check out Infact at: www.infact.no