Impressions from Australia

As you know, I was invited by the AMSRS to give a keynote speech at their annual conference in Melbourne 15th-16th of , as well as run a workshop on 'word of mouth measurement and beyond'.

To say the least the experience was outstanding, all of it, the country, the conference itself and most of all the PEOPLE. Friendly, helpful, curious to learn and interested in others, I really enjoyed my short time in both Melbourne and Sydney and even got the chance to see an AFL match Australian Football match as well as meet and speak with one of the most famous AFL coaches: Kevin Sheddy.

When I came in I really though that Australia was more advanced in terms of rolling new methods and approaches in market research. This impression came from the fact that internet penetration is high in Australia, and the anglo saxon experience and background from the UK and the US. In fact, it seems that from the feedback I got my speech about LISTENING, (From Asking to Listening: Leveraging insights from a connected world) was really appreciated by the audience and inspirational for some. What a great feedback!

So my only advice is indeed Australia can really get involved in the Listening game and has a great chance to play to further influence and join the Asian region opportunities of growth. It seems clearly that the Australian government is going this way, I believe that the country has most to gain out of it and for sure will be not as far away at it seems (it is still 20 hours from Europe, 8 hours from Singapore). My only hope is really to comeback, it seems that opportunities are present after the initial contacts I had after the conference, so who knows may be in 2009 or 2010 even before for projects and consulting hopefully!

By the way, the ARF in the US is running a one day forum on LISTENING in late October (you see you got the message about Listening before America! :), so really, guys you are not really late in the game, the US is really going full speed in this direction, you have everything in place to join the crowd... so jump! Don't you have Kangoros in your country?

So to everyone I met, the AMSRS staff and members: THANK YOU.

and specifically to John (Marinopoulos & Dimopoulos), Andy (conferece chair), Elissa, Peter (president) Leslea, Francesca, Leanne, everyone really (sorry for the ones that I forgot here) you made this trip really special and full of learning, thank you very much! and feel free to ask again, I am actively listening!

Comments

[John Marinopoulos]

Hi Laurent,

what an excellent account of your time in Australia. And yes, Australia is ahead in some parts of research but behind in others. Your keynote speech was very well received by many of the conference delegates and has challenged them to docus on their roles in a new way. Thank you once again for coming to Australia and sharing your views.

Regards

John Marinopoulos

[Andy McLellan]

Laurent,

Thank you for your inspirational talk and workshop. I am confident that many attendees at our conference left with new thinking. It was our pleasure to have a key note speaker that blended so well into our conference theme - Breaking the Mould.

We hope that you come back and share your experiences and enjoy our hospitality in the future.

All the best Andy

[Laurent Flores]

Thanks John and Andy, it was my pleasure and indeed happy to hear that people get something out ny thiking and speech, thank you again,
Laurent

[Dianne Gardiner]

Hi Laurent,

I introduced myself briefly to you after your wonderful Listening speech at the conference last week.

I agree totally that Australia is behind in Listening stakes and I am very pleased you spoke about the importance of this given the change in consumer communications.

At Latitude Research we are very much into listening and establishing private online communities for this purpose and our experiences so far have been outstanding. It gives a whole different perspective when you open up the dialogue - at first it seems amazing how enthusiastic consumers are in giving open feedback but in reality it shouldn't be surprising, they just wanted to know they are being heard. The challenge for researchers and clients I feel is, getting comfortable with letting go and not trying to control the conversation. Time will tell how that goes .

Regards, Dianne Gardiner

[Laurent Flores]

Thanks Dianne for the kind comments. Again indeed Listening it is...feel free to keep me posted about your progress in Australia, be in touch,
Laurent

[joel]

As chief Research officer at the ARF, I appreciate the shoutout. Actually, we began our journey on listening in a bigtime way on July 15th. The Industry leader forum on Oct 29th in NY will be an amazing event on how listening can transform research. We have Nielsen buzzmetrics, Millward, Procter, Unilever, MTV, Sony, Google, 4As planners, and Barack Obama's pollster all on the program. The list of those attending is amazing, including Facebook. check it out at www.thearf.org/assets/forum

[Laurent Flores]

Thank you Joel!

And indeed, very glad to see you indeed that the ARF is going full speed to move the industry foreward including researchers, markerters, provides and advertisers. The combination of all is key to make it succesfull.

Looking forward to getting involved and getting everyone involved,

Thanks & best,

Laurent