Editor's note: Joe Rydholm can be reached at joe@quirks.com.
As I write this in late September, there’s still a good a good chunk of 2022 left but, being in the publishing and event space, we can’t help but start looking ahead to 2023. Along with our established slate of Quirk’s Events for next year (Chicago, March 27-28; London, May 3-4; and New York, July 19-20) we’re excited to announce that we’ll be back on the West Coast in 2023 with our Quirk’s Event Los Angeles on February 22-23.
We had long planned to return to California after holding events in Orange County in 2017 and 2018 (even though a local power grid failure on Day 2 of the 2017 event certainly isn’t something we’d like to relive) but the pandemic had other ideas. Instead, we staged three virtual events across an eight-month span in 2020-2021!
As big believers in research (surprise!) we learn from the data we gather during and after our events and with our two U.S. conferences being in the Midwest and East Coast, we knew we needed to reengage with researchers west of the Rockies, whether vendors or client-siders, so a return to California is a natural expansion for us.
In our DNA
Serving corporate researchers is in our DNA. Always has been – from the day back in 1986 that one-time corporate researcher Tom Quirk published the first issue of Quirk’s Marketing Research Review – always will be. Thus it’s been interesting to watch as some MR industry organizations have shifted their longstanding focus from research vendors to those on the client side, almost as if they felt they’d suddenly discovered an audience whose needs were not being met by anyone else. That’s fine, though. We’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing for over 35 years!
On that note, while I have you, if you’re a corporate researcher, I hope you’ll consider speaking at a 2023 Quirk’s event. One of the wonderful benefits of our longevity is the relationships we’ve established with so many of you and your willingness to get up on stage for 30 minutes and share your knowledge with your peers is what makes our gatherings so great.
If you’ve spoken at a Quirk’s event, thank you! If you haven’t, here’s a quick overview of the process. Our events don’t have subject tracks, per se, as we have found it can be difficult to force themes or topics together. Rather, our goal is to assemble two days of presentations that cover a wide range of topics. Sessions that share real-world experiences, strategies, case studies, best practices and effective uses of research techniques are of particular interest, as past attendees have told us they truly enjoy hearing how others have solved some of the same problems they may be facing themselves. And I always caution prospective speakers to not self-censor. You don’t have to be cutting-edge to be of value to the audience!
Already gearing up
To my earlier point, while 2023 may seem far away, we’re already gearing up to recruit speakers for next year’s events. Here are our general target dates for when we would like to have session titles and descriptions submitted to us for each event (session slide decks are not due until five or six business days before the actual event):
Los Angeles (February 22-23): session titles and descriptions due by December 2
Chicago (March 27-28): titles and descriptions due by January 2
London (May 3-4): titles and descriptions due by February 3
New York (July 19-20): titles and descriptions due by March 3
Not to leave our awesome vendor readers out, as you’re the ones who have stepped up to fill the pages of the magazine with your articles all these years, since most corporate researchers are typically constrained by their internal PR/coms teams from even uttering the phrase marketing research in print! I’ve been blessed to have so many passionate vendor-side authors write for us and those who have embraced the role of thought leader have delivered the same kind of helpful, real-world advice in print that we try to give voice to at our event speaking sessions.
So no matter which side you’re on, and whether you’re a prospective event speaker, attendee or article author, I hope you’ll make a plan to work with us in the coming year.