ESOMAR Congress Day 1: A Client Side Highlights Reel
Editor’s Note: Client side research June WestHolland (most recently the Global B2B Senior Market Research Manager at Kimberly-Clark Professional) guest posts with her take on day 1 at ESOMAR. June is funny, insightful, and personable; I think you’ll like her perspective very much. I will chime in with my take later this week.
By June WestHolland
Oh, what a great day to be in downtown Atlanta! The ESOMAR Congress kicked off this morning with a bang – literally – with a group of high energy, explosively entertaining hip-hop dancers on stage, giving us all a little taste of fitness, flexibility and fashion (something about the dancers’ camo pants and plaid shirts worked for me). The choice of this dynamic group surprised me actually… I know a lot of people who don’t readily associate a large group of Market Researchers with percussive jumping and stomping, but it was terrific! Then, after such a large beginning, I waited for the room to still and the energy to seep out… but it didn’t. On the heels of a witty welcome by the Judith Passingham, Committee Chair, keynote speaker, Sherry Turkle (MIT Initiative on Technology and the Self) grabbed and held my attention with what I thought was a riveting session entitled “Online Identities: The Person in the Machine.”
Among Ms. Turkle’s many points around how today’s technology has created a wedge between people in terms of how we communicate, one comment in particular struck a nerve with me. I was intrigued by the notion that technology, so seductive across generations, with all its uses and glamour, has also taken us to places we really don’t want to go. According to Ms. Turkle, we’d rather text than talk. As much as I’d like to, I can’t argue with that – it’s true, given the choice between calling up a friend and ripping off a quick “thinking of you” email, I’ll do the latter all day long. And well into the night, too. But I draw the line at this between personal and business communications, and I think others should as well. At some point it’s nothing short of sheer avoidance and lack of responsibility to continue to hide behind technology, pretending to be so connected and valuable and important that you can’t afford to miss one single phone call or text. Ironically, being so electronically “connected” often only succeeds in making you more cut off from the conversations that truly matter.
My experiences confirm, time and time again, that texting must be easier (think: lazy) than personal networking and it has reached epidemic proportions. In the last few years I frequently worked from home rather than report into the office despite my meager 2.5 mile commute. More often than not no one else showed up in the flesh at the office anyway – why should I! Standard practice was to add a call-in number to every single meeting notice. After a few months of this, without any discussion or consensus, that became the M.O. In hindsight, there’s no telling how many hours were wasted through the endless stream of phone calls when one face-to-face conversation would have done the trick. Oh, well… live and learn. Moving ahead I’ll make a concerted effort to be that person, that one-off professional, that odd-ball, who insists on meeting in person whenever possible. And I’ll like it.
As I think about it, I suppose I should be thankful for all those Crack berries out there – they only make me look better. While they are texting and typing away, I’m getting some much needed face time in with friends and colleagues, taking full advantage of the 94% of communication that’s non-verbal. In person I’ll hone my conversation skills, perfect my ability to think clearly on the fly, and be just a tad vulnerable. I’ll be known as the bold, confident one who, although busy, always makes time to connect – personally – on things that matter most.
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