As always, we're going to learn new skills and techniques to help make our clients smarter about their consumers. There are workshops on everything from including video in presentations to the newest online methodologies. That's in addition to meeting with a long list of new vendors, suppliers and research partners we can work with.
That's really the nuts and bolts of why we go, but it doesn't really tell you much about why we find this conference so valuable year after year. (After all, surely we could stay pretty current by going only every other year, right?) The real value in the QRCA conference for me is the sense of community that exists there.
For all intents and purposes, everyone in those conference rooms is a competitor (and sometimes a person I've bid projects against). And yet, we're all there with a spirit of sharing and of making every member of our professional organization smarter and more qualified. Speakers share their knowledge in all of those workshops, sponsors give out valuable advice along with free ice cream bars in the exhibit area and the cocktail parties are sometimes where the freshest, newest techniques are uncovered and shared. After all, this is an organization of people who LOVE to talk to people but who largely work in 1-person offices. New Directions Consulting is considered one of the bigger companies with 3 full-time staff!
This year I'll actually be heading to Philadelphia early to participate in the leadership meeting. Since April, I've been serving as the co-chair of the Creativity + Innovation Special Interest Group. It's been challenging and fun to figure out ways for our group to make a splash at the conference.
The hardest part about going to the conference is choosing which workshops to attend. If there's a workshop - any workshop - that you find interesting, let me know and I'll try to attend it and give you an overview when I get back. A full list of the workshops and descriptions can be found at:
