Oct
19

My Top 7 Take-Aways from QRCA in Las Vegas: How I Won More Than Just at Black Jack

Post by Jeff Henn

Vegas Baby!  What can I say?  It was mind altering – in a good way.  The connections I made will run deep, hopefully for my entire career.  The ideas I garnered were brilliant.  Timing?  Well, perfect.  It is the inspiration for our third blog post on our new website.  After all, aren’t 3 and 7 lucky numbers?  I’m really not a numerologist, but when in Rome…or in this case, The Venetian.

Let’s begin with the Master Class Keynote Address.  What a great way to begin the conference!  At least for me, this was the most powerful and also most memorable experience.  This was a very well-orchestrated, live case study on style and technique for moderating.  Lead by J.R. Harris, Judy Langer, and Pat Sabena, we had probably the biggest observation room in the history of qual.  I don’t know the exact count, but I would guess we had somewhere on the order of 200 – 300 viewers of three fantastic 30-minute real, live sessions.  Each one was streamed from a nearby private conference room into our main banquet hall. 

If I could distill what most captured me during each session with two words, here’s what I would choose:

J.R. Harris – ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM
Judy Langer – INTELLIGENCE and WIT
Pat Sabena – COMPASSION and CONNECTION

Clearly, these are very broad brush strokes and the three pros possessed all qualities plus much more.  But thinking in terms of how I might remember them and their unique styles, I would distill their differences down to these core attributes.  How were they similar? – professional, good at their craft, easy going, developed great rapport with their respondents, and perhaps most importantly… got their participants to answer the research questions!  To those who devised and executed this keynote session – kudos!  Michael Karchner (of KMR ) was the consummate MC.  I know a similar scenario was run by the Philly Chapter a year or so ago.  For those listening and involved in next year’s conference in Montreal, can you do something similar?  This was really good stuff.  When else can you learn from the best in the biz? 

Working as both a QRC and an employee of a focus group facility, I feel that I have a unique vantage point.  I get to continuously serve other moderators and serve as a moderator.  Networking with other moderators over the past week has provided a new twist that I don’t usually get in my day-to-day functions.  It was so reassuring to hear from my peers that in many ways I’m on the right track, while in other ways I’m not alone in my “key learning experiences” (code for failures).

Getting back to my Vegas-esque title, what were my 7 key takeaways?  Here they are in no particular hierarchy:

• Respondents: Leave respondents’ egos intact, if not better than when they entered the session. 

• Facilitating: There is no secret ingredient to what we do as QRCs.  We already possess everything we need to be great in this industry.

• Clients: They are most attracted to the ideas we bring to the table.  They’re looking for a consultant, not just an order-taker.  When bombs go off, clients remember how you handled the situation more than the problem itself.

• Operations: There is a geometrically growing number of free and low-cost solutions out there for running your home-based or office-based business.  This is especially salient in light of the current state of our economy.  While this list alone could be a blog post in itself, there are many affordable online services available for office management, project management, marketing, and training and education. 

• Business Development: Social networking is not a panacea for business development.  It’s great for keeping connected with peers and can be an excellent addition to a QRC’s toolkit.   Word of mouth and recommendations from other research buyers seem to reign supreme for gaining new clients.

• Blogging: Just do it regularly and have fun with it!

• Vegas: It was my first, and likely not my last visit.  It was Disneyland for grown-ups.


Thanks again to everyone at QRCA, who made this years’ conference a smash hit in my book : )