Client-rich Conference for B2B Research Group

A Conference with lots of clients? It may just happen. The b2b research association BIG is changing the focus for this year's annual gathering, to concentrate on the wider business issues affecting clients, and boasts speakers from many of the main b2b research buyers.

This year's BIG Conference carries the theme B2B Marketing: the issues and the practice, and takes place from 21-23 May, once again at the glorious St Pierre Hotel near Chepstow, on the Welsh border.

The programme notes: 'We recognize that in addition to talking about B2B research, it is equally important for us to understand its place in the world and what is driving the research that clients require today.' The wider perspective will dominate the first day of the much-loved and notoriously cosy Conference, with the second day devoted to more general B2B research issues such as techniques and approaches.

Now in its 14th year and always rated very highly both by our own MrWeb delegates and by attendees in general, the Conference includes golf and tennis tournaments, dinners and entertainment. This year's speakers include representatives from RBS, Nokia, Dow Coatings, Barclays Bank, HSBC, Royal Mail Group, BT and The Highways Agency as well as many prominent agencies. Keynotes will be delivered by Dr. Roger Palmer, Professor of Marketing and Management at Henley Management College, and Mark Earls, marketing thought leader and author of Herd: how to change mass behaviour by harnessing our true nature. The session on Thursday morning will include a new format mixing papers with a series of debates between clients talking about what is happening in their world - this includes the pressures they face as research buyers and how market research is used alongside the many other forms of data now available to them. Friday's session include a debate, sure to be lively, on the pros and cons of procurement.

BIG is online at www.b2bresearch.org with a separate web site devoted to the Conference at www.bigconference.org.

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