2009 AMSRS conference - review - Part 1

I was really happy with this years conference. Sure, the content was sometimes hit and miss, and some presenters did more talking than actual presenting. However, overall the mood of the presentation was very adult-to-adult and relaxed. Plus there were some great nuggets of wisdom, which I will share:

Andy Dexter (TNS)

• Research is in the talent/people business
• Need more human workplaces that cement trust
• If you have trust, you don't need to manage through 'presence'

Adam Ferrier (Naked)

• Consumer post rationalisation makes insight redundent, i.e. people act and then post-rationalise their behaviour
• Hence we need to understand how to get people to ACT, not understand why they ACT
• The media model changing and moving towards more interactive campaigns, that need people to ACT to work
• There fore there is a greater need to understand how to get people to ACT, and less need to understand what 'resonates' with people (because they will post rationalise why it resonated with them after they ACT anyway)

Ian Thomas (???)

• 3d charts that are plotted in 3d environments that can be navigated in by data visualization software helps explain more variance when it comes to dealing with multiple factors, i.e. it's not all about looking prettier

John Kearon (Brain Juicer)

• Get any 500 people and ask them to predict which concepts they think other people will would buy...they are just as likely to know what buyers want as the buyers themselves

Tony Keugen (Google)

• Google insight is a really great tool and we should be using it more
• 90% of Googles products don't make money - a true innovation company
• Employees get 1 day a week to work on any work related project they think is worth while
• User experience underpins everything Google does

EMOTION & NEUROSCIENCE STREAM

Lian Ringham (Inside story)

• Don't use a crazy flute lady in your presentation - it's just weird and creepy
• People have different triggers and ideals when it comes to wanting and achieving well-being
• Metaphors can help people articulate how they feel and how they want to

Hew Hepworth (Painted Dog) - won best young researcher paper

• Cognition is built on emotion (emotional imprint theory)
• Different emotions trigger different cognitive processes - e.g. Anger makes people want to act vs fear makes people want to avoid things
• People find it easier to describe their emotional states with pictures

It's Friday afternoon...I will post more up next week....stay tuned!