Feature - More from the BIG Conference

The UK's b2b research association BIG completed another successful annual Conference in Chepstow, Wales on Friday. In addition to the presentation of papers, covered in Friday's news, highlights included an excellent workshop on presentation technology, an unusually high turnout for sporting events and the announcement of a new Conference President.

Your correspondent must first confess to a good deal of scepticism on seeing that one of the Conference workshops, hosted by Dipen Mehta of TNS NFO Dubai, was to tackle the thorny issue of research presentations under the title 'Are your presentations dull and lifeless? Not any more!' The subject of dull presentations, and the consequent reinforcement of MR's sometimes staid image in boardrooms the world over, is much discussed at Conferences and seminars, and I was expecting another session largely based around bemoaning this fact and making vague assertions about what ought to be done, perhaps combined with a quick PowerPoint tutorial. Not a bit of it.

Mehta is a researcher and not a full-time presentations consultant or technology speaker, but he kept his audience rapt, scribbling down references and asking questions right up to the bell. The low cost and relative simplicity of adding sound and video clips to presentations was the key message, and while an in-depth look at the latest version of PowerPoint formed a substantial part of it, numerous other software titles and several neat pieces of recording, storage and playback hardware were also demonstrated. The convenor also digressed into a couple of related technology areas such as voice recognition software, disappointing those of us who expected a comic turn with a remarkably accurate dictation. One of the few remaining obstacles to widespread adoption of the software, we are told, is the discomfort most office workers feel with talking out loud to their PC - as opposed perhaps to occasionally shouting at it and hitting it.

The fact that the device Mehta uses to record interviews and plug straight into a PC to download them also doubles up as an MP3 player cannot, surely, have been the main reason so many of those present asked for details at the end. Indeed, Mehta put together a 'bundle' of hardware and software between it providing most of the functionality seen in the talk, most of it costing nothing and the rest totalling under £500 ($900). Whilst many of us may take a little longer to learn the packages in question than our tech-savvy presenter suggested, and some may still not find the time to upgrade and start producing executive summaries worthy of slots on MTV, it is no exaggeration to say that an initially cautious audience came out of the workshop charged with enthusiasm for the technology involved.

Mehta will be running training sessions at an ESOMAR Conference in the autumn and as this is a 'feature' and not a normal news article, we'll break DRNO tradition and heartily recommend them.

The sporting side of Conference continues to grow. The Conference tennis tournament has generally produced a good turnout but this year's 20 may have been a record, creating a challenge for organiser Tariq Mirza [despite his software background] in working through the permutations and giving everyone a fair chance on only two courts of working their way through a round robin system to the final. Also, if my memory serves, the standard was considerably higher this year than in some previous tournaments. Golf is also becoming a fixture with an excellent course available at the the Marriot St Pierre Hotel, and time now formally set aside for a competition on the Wednesday. Winners of both events received prizes at the Thursday night dinner.

The dinner is also the place for the major BIG announcements, and this year we learnt that NOP MD Phyllis Macfarlane is taking over as Conference President, with former Chairman David Cavalier stepping down [note the change of title]. Somewhat oddly, Cavalier was not present at the Conference but sunning himself in his recently-purchased property in Greece- no doubt this has something to do with the change, although his hard work for Conference over the years has undoubtedly earned him the opportunity to hang up his velvet jacket.

Altogether the Conference organisers have put on another good event and we look forward to next year's. See www.bigconference.org for further details and contact information. If you want to follow up any of the report and can't find it online, or would like further information about joining BIG, we're happy to pass on enquiries - please email drno@mrweb.com

Nick Thomas

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.