Step into the forefront of innovation with key takeaways from IIEX North America 2024

In this episode of The Greenbook Podcast, join hosts Karen Lynch and Lenny Murphy as they dive into the vibrant happenings at IIEX North America 2024. Karen, who attended the event, shares her experiences of the energetic atmosphere, driven by a mix of familiar faces and exciting new entrants. The discussions were heavily influenced by the practical applications of AI in market research, with a focus on real-world integration into platforms and processes. Highlights include insightful contributions from industry giants like the NBA and Bose, emphasizing innovative approaches to audience measurement and customer-centricity. The episode also covers the Insight Innovation Competition, where Listen Labs emerged as a standout, showcasing their AI-assisted tools that enhance survey data analysis. Listen in for an in-depth look at the latest trends and transformative ideas shaping the future of market research.

Many thanks to our hosts, Karen and Lenny. Thanks also to our producer, Natalie Pusch; and our editor, Big Bad Audio.

Transcript

Lenny: Hello, everybody. It’s another edition of the Greenbook Podcast. I am Lenny Murphy, one host, and today I’m joined by our other host, Karen Lynch. Karen, welcome.

Karen: Hi, it’s so good to—[laugh] good to get to be talking to you Again, in this context. It’s a little surreal on some level, but so happy we’re talking.

Lenny: I am too. So, and regular listeners, you’ll know generally if Karen and I are together in podcast, not on the exchange, because we have a very specific thing, and usually it’s a debrief about IIEX. So, we’re recording this on the 24th of April. Last week was IIEX North America. I was not able to attend because April and farms and events are not a great combination. But Karen was there. So Karen.

Karen: I mean, I was there with the most amazing presence of industry professionals because we also had, you know, over a thousand registrants. I don’t know what our final number was, but we also had on-site attendance that blew us away. I mean, I think we peaked close to that at our maximum. It was incredible. Usually there’s some attrition between people that register and people that actually show, and our showing was tremendous. You can feel it. It was… people were really jazzed to be there. It was pretty cool.

Lenny: That’s very cool. Now, we had talked a lot before the event of looking at the attendee list on how different it was—

Karen: Yeah.

Lenny: —on paper, right? Now, you’ve got a couple of these under your belt. So first, did you… did you see the difference in the attendee makeup, and did that change the dynamic or the vibe of the event?

Karen: I just think there was a lot of conversations that went beyond people you knew. You know, when you walked the area of the space that was reserved for exhibitors, and sponsors, there were new names, so there were a lot of people to meet. It wasn’t the same experience of, “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen them before. Yeah, I know what they do.” It was, “Oh, this company’s new. Let’s see what they’re about.” So, I think there was a lot of chatter on the floor, and that was exciting to observe. And, you know, yeah, the conversations that people were having were not just the typical, hey, “How have you been?” [laugh], “How’s your year gone?” It was, you know, much more of the, “Tell us what you do.” And then the conversations at that higher level about everything that they were hearing. It was cool to watch that play out.

Lenny: That’s a great point, and I think you and I had made the point, looking at the attendee list, like damn, I don’t know most of these people. Which was a unique thing because we—yeah, we’ve just kind of built this other thing. So, I think that’s pivotal for our listeners. We kept saying in other venues that this was, kind of, empirical evidence of these changes that we’ve been talking about with [unintelligible 00:02:57] and other ways. And we’re seeing it manifest at IIEX. So, the flip side of that, then, would be new attendees, new suppliers. And what was the topic that was, kind of, driving—

Karen: I mean—

Lenny: —everything [laugh]?

Karen: [laugh]. I mean, do I even have to say AI out loud? But here’s what was—if you read—well, you and I can talk on the exchange about some of the specific recaps that we’ve read, but if you—you know, if anybody just goes to the hashtag #IIEXNA on LinkedIn and scrolls through many of the posts, you’ll see top content rising to the top. AI drove the conversations because even though there were 26 sessions that overtly talked to AI out of the, you know, 130 that there were, but everybody brought it into their conversations. So, it wasn’t just those, right? So, it was obviously the hot topic. But what made me really proud of our speakers, was the fact that they really did lean into the directive that we’ve been given, which is, we are well beyond ‘should you adopt AI?’ We are into use cases. We are into show us your platform and how it’s integrating AI. It is, how are you using it in your workplace? So, we’re so far beyond that in our community, and that was really great to see. You know, applications abound, and pretty cool. You would have been proud of everybody [laugh].

Lenny: Oh, I am. And let’s get that perspective, right? I mean, this time last year, April of 2023, we were three or four months into the ChatGPT—if we use that as the launch of the AI era—we were a few months in, right?

Karen: Right.

Lenny: —this is a year later.

Karen: Right. And we were showing—we were also talking about use cases for synthetic data. We were talking about, you know, chatbots, like, there was just—it was there, right? The technology providers were there, and the integrations were there. It almost feels like a bummer to me that we’re not doing it again for another year because they certainly—everybody came together to kind of elevate that aspect of our industry. It was super cool.

Lenny: That is. Well, but amazing progress, right? I mean—

Karen: Yeah.

Lenny: —oh, my God, how many years did we talk about mobile, or social media, right, and the adoption is lagging years and years, [laugh] right?

Karen: Yeah. Yeah, I know. And just last year, I think we had, I forget how many submissions we had in 2023 that were like, “Ai: Friend or Foe?” “Is AI Coming for Our Jobs?” And it really is tremendous that we’ve gotten so far from that. You know, that conversation is over.

Lenny: Right. All right, so obviously, you curate all the content, so I’m not going to ask you to play favorites.

Karen: [laugh]. But I can. I can [laugh]—

Lenny: Because I am—the flip side of that is for you personally as a researcher, and as a qualitative researcher specifically, what jumped out? What were you like, “All right, I’m running around, but I have to listen to this presentation. I’ve got to be here.”

Karen: There were a few. So, you know, of course—this is in the context of everybody listening—like, I facilitated two amazing fireside chats on our main stage, one on the morning of day one and one on the morning of day two. And, you know, day one, I was with the, you know, the brilliant team from Bose, and we were talking about sound in general, and we were, you know, discussing how they use their work to kind of not just bring innovation to the entire organizations or insights that can fuel innovation, but really becoming customer-centric. So, really good topic of some amazing thought leadership with an organization like Bose. And then on day two, the fireside chat that I had with Michelle Auguste from the NBA, which was, I mean, a crowd pleaser because first of all, the NBA is iconic right now. We were just coming off an epic season.

Lenny: Yeah, March Madness.

Karen: It was inspiring from what she’s doing with audience measurement, which is not something that we talk a lot about, you know, but the media companies learning, looking at the numbers and the data and the analytics from their audience and viewership numbers and how that informs strategy. So, that was a great conversation. I mean, she talked about global expansion and new markets, in addition to just the inspiration as a woman of all things that were, you know, women’s collegiate basketball this year, and the, you know, record-breaking viewership numbers. And then also she had an amazing career [unintelligible 00:07:12]. So again, super biased. Our podcast episode, I can’t wait till it’s released—speaking of the podcast—with Tulika Chikersal, from Post was one of the best podcast conversations I’ve ever had. I mean, she showed up ready to talk about bringing insights into innovation at that organization. And we covered successes, and we covered failures, and it was just, like, way to go. Pretty cool. So again, one of my favorite podcasts conversations. So yes, I’m super biased from that standpoint. Those were things I was involved with. I could take a breath and say, if you have anything you want to, like, chime in about that, before I tell you other things that just piqued my interest that I had nothing to do with, I’ll do that, too [laugh].

Lenny: Yeah, again, for our listeners, this is Karen as an individual. So, to all of our sponsors, you all rock, you’re all fantastic. We love everybody.

Karen: They all rock. But I can even call that out. Many years in the past, I’ve had like that cringe feeling with some of our sponsored sessions because they’re like, oh, they’re so overtly salesy. And this year, our sponsors showed up with brand-side speakers and case studies and thought leadership like I’ve not experienced before. So, that’s the other thing I noticed as I was walking around, there was nothing that… there was nothing that made me take pause and say, “I wish they hadn’t done it.” Now, might I might have missed some things. I can’t be everywhere all at once. But our sponsors really stepped up. And even our organic speakers who were from the sponsor side of the equation, if you will, who brought brand-side speakers with them, we had some amazing presentations this year from people that, you know, we gave them organic spots in the hope that they delivered, and they one hundred percent delivered. So, really good stuff coming from all aspects.

Lenny: Very cool. Now, I know we also—we continued the Pay For Your Say conversation.

Karen: Yeah.

Lenny: An important one, guys. If you follow the exchange—plug—listen to us on Fridays for the exchange. That’s been an ongoing saga that you’ve been intimately connected to. But around—

Karen: I know, and—

Lenny: —quality.

Karen: Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go to that one. I wanted to. And there were other sessions on data quality also that took place kind of on the same stage, but I was elsewhere when that was going on. I had a conflict. So, I didn’t get to continue the conversation, but I know that some people that were there hadn’t been tuning in and so that was all new information for them. So, that was, you know, incredibly important. I mean, I think that, you know, our data quality continues to be an area of focus. I can tell you that. Like, our new speaker track was amazing this year, and that was largely thanks to Annie [Pettit 00:09:51], who always helps but this year she couldn’t, so KaRene Smith from Burke stepped in to help, and she curated an amazing panel of brand-new speakers. Gosh, the two that stood out to me, there was a woman named Kristen McCloud from Levi, and a young man named Joshua Miles from Electronic Arts, and they really, they just did the job of sharing new thinking with the people that were sitting and listening to that. It was just really good stuff. You know, and our future list honorees were also amazing, they also brought that new, inspired thinking of people who are just figuring out that they have something to say within the industry. So, you know, just really inspiring talks from people.

Lenny: So, two more things I want to—always of interest to me. One is the—for people who haven’t attended or do attend, right, one of the unique things at IIEX that we created was a private meeting program. It’s evolved over the years, but the point is to facilitate networking and connections between buyers and suppliers. Was there a good vibe going on there? I know we have it kind of structured a little bit differently.

Karen: Yeah. I just think that that’s space. You know, every time I walked by—I did not have any private meetings myself because I didn’t set them up or engage in that—anyway, required elsewhere—but every time I walked by, lots of conversations, lots of people engaged. I had heard from a few companies that were booked non-stop. And so yeah, I think that when people take advantage of that, it’s incredibly helpful for all. You know, one thing about our event is brands do really show up looking for partnership in a very different way than they might at some of the other industry events, right? They are coming to us because they want to know what’s new and innovative, and what do they need to stay abreast of the work that they’re doing, so—or, you know, ahead of the curve that way? So yeah, no, it’s super cool to see those just taking place without the walls that there used to be in previous years [laugh], which are always behind closed doors. So, there was a bit of, you know, mystery and intrigue with what used to happen, but now it’s like you see them happening. It’s kind of cool to watch.

Lenny: But it’s also a vital data point, right? I mean, the—you know, as we, Greenbook, we position ourselves—and I think rightfully so—as kind of, you know, looking at the future, and all of these are inputs in how we kind of think about what’s happening. You know, we have GRIT, we have, you know, we have the events, we have the private meetings, we have all—we have the competition, which I’ll ask about in a second—and they give us a sense of where’s the puck going, which we try and build into all of our content and into our thinking across the board. So, for those listeners, understand, this isn’t just—we’re not just bragging about, “Oh, we did this cool thing in the event,” it’s also intelligence gathering for us as well, so we can help you.

Karen: And even with that, with the GRIT data—so for those of you don’t know, at the event, I presented the executive summary for this, you know, this current wave of GRIT data in the report that we’re about to release, which probably is going to be right around now. If you’re not already on the list to receive it, you can, you know, go to the website, and [crosstalk 00:12:51].

Lenny: And it’s a good one. You need to sign up. Yes. Sorry, go ahead.

Karen: You need to sign up. So, I present that data from the executive summary, and then Lucy Davison follows it up with a client panel, so brand-side researchers kind of reacting to what I share. And it’s the second time we’ve done that. We did it the first time at Europe last year, and we did this at North America, now. We’ll do it again in Europe, towards the end of June. But the idea is that I share what we uncover, and then they talk through it. So, that’s also really interesting to get their perspective and what they can corroborate, and what resonates with them from the executive summary. So, it’s a nice, kind of, checks and balances. It’s pretty cool.

Lenny: Did they—let’s probe on that for a minute because one of the big findings is the democratization of insights and the inclusion of new buyer constituents—

Karen: Yeah.

Lenny: —right, that sit outside of the traditional market research industry. And you’ll see the report, right, we actually refer to them as two distinct segments, and look at all the results from the perspective of traditional insights buyers, and this kind of new emerging folks. Was that on the panel? Did the folks say, “Yeah, we’re seeing, yeah, lots of folks.”

Karen: Yeah, I—you know, what? I did not get to hear the entirety of their conversation. So, I can’t say definitively, but I don’t know if that was, you know, specifically talked about or not. You know, we could certainly find out and follow up before our great forum, all these plugs, you know [laugh]? But anyway, yeah, so no, super, super curious as to that particular conversation.

Lenny: All right, so in the interest of time, one of the unique things that we created was the Insight Innovation Competition, a way to reward and honor innovation and give them—give startups—a little leg. We’ve had a kick-ass track record of winners, I just got to say it that way. You know, it’s stellar. The winners of this competition have become household names in our industry over the years, and it’s been really amazing, and one of the things I’m personally most proud of, and I think we all are proud of. This year another crop.

Karen: Another crop. And the thing is, when you’re sitting there, and you watch them, and especially this year, so you know, this is the third year I’ve watched it with this lens, but this year it was clear, like, yes, these are movers and shakers we all need to pay attention to. So, all of the finalists are worth, you know, sign up for a demo, check out what they’re doing because they are all useful, you know, services within our industry. So, I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it because it was really amazing to watch because I personally could say, “Yes, yes, yes, good stuff.” Some of them were more complicated than others, and they were at a bit of a disadvantage because the audience is kind of wrangling how it all works. But the winner. So, Listen Labs was the winner, and it was clear to me that [laugh]—not that I—

Lenny: As a qualitative researcher, no that—like—

Karen: As a qualitative researcher, it was so clear to me, but also what they did on stage—which is genius for people who want to pitch in the future—what they did. So, for those of you listening, Listen Labs, you know, it’s an AI-assisted tool that, you know, you can run a survey, and of course, it will help synthesize the survey data, but it will also probe very clearly on some of the language used in some of the open-ends for the survey. And so, you know, a question that they demoed was, “Tell me your exper”—you know, “Rate your experience with such and such.” And then it was, you know, it was, “Not great,” and then the follow-up open-end was somebody said, “Frustrated.” Then it’s like, “Tell me what you mean by frustrated?” Or, “What caused the frustration?” And you could see it all unfold on screen, and it looked, you know, out of the gate, extremely credible, extremely useful, and as a career qualitative researcher, I was like, and there’s your [qualit 00:16:35] scale, delivered in such a way that I bought into it, and I would want to experiment with it. It was unbelievable to me. But here’s what he did, also, from a presentation standpoint, which is part of it. These people have five minutes to pitch what they’ve created. He got up on stage—the young man who was kind of spearheading it all—

Lenny: Right. That a Harvard education came in handy, I guess, right [laugh]?

Karen: My gosh. He stood up there, lab coats for Listen Labs [pause].

Lenny: [laugh].

Karen: But he stood up there, and he said, “We were asked to create a survey for IKEA”—so name brand right out the door there—and he was holding it his hand high above the ground, you know, four feet up off the ground, and he held onto one side of it, and he dropped it, and it went all the way to the ground. So, he had a visual cue for a pain point about survey length that was unforgettable. Literally showed a survey that was ridiculously long. And he said, “So, not only do we have to do this, but how are we going to synthesize all this data?” And then he went right to, you know, “At Listen Labs, here’s how we do it.” And so, it was like, started with a pain point that resonated with everybody, showed a solution. Mike drop. I mean, it was like, “Oh.” Like, there was no, trying to figure out how it worked. There was no complicated process to get into. It was just, you’ve got a problem? We’ve got a solution. It was so simple. And you know, and I could see right away, you know, kind of the nodding, and I’m like, yes, this is how you do it. Like, just keep your message really simple and meet that need. It’s the same as consumer research, right? Meet a consumer need, address a pain point, don’t just come up with something because you can and it’s cool. But if you’re going to address a pain point, then you’ve got a winning situation.

Lenny: Really, really cool. And I’m glad that I was not a—I’m not a judge of the competition, ever. Was really glad it wasn’t this year because boy, it would have been hard.

Karen: Yeah, they were good. And I mean, even those that came in second that came in third, you know, it was so clear to see that they were also excellent. And the judges do a great job. You know, three of our judges this year were past competition winners themselves. And you know, we had someone from P&G, so you know, Charlie representing the brand side, and then we had Elaine, who works in, kind of, investment banking for all of this venture capital conversation. So, the panel of judges just did an amazing job bringing to the top, the best of the best. It was really impressive this year.

Lenny: Yeah. Really, really is. One last point I’ll make about that, when looking in this era of transformation, right, of the industry, and go back to their previous comment about the new constituents, new buyers, right, so we’re seeing an influx of companies without traditional research background because they’ve identified opportunities for innovation within how we do things—and this is a great example, Listen Labs—in leveraging technology because the opportunity they saw was not with necessarily in the market research organization. It was, you know, maybe customer service or brand product, whatever it may be, right, other groups in the enterprise, and finding ways to create efficiencies. And it’s really cool for me when we see the merging back together, right? I mean, the synergies that can be unlocked between old folks like us, right, been around forever, the veterans of the industry, helping and engaging overall with these new for companies that are emerging, and see where that goes, that is incredibly exciting. Because we missed the boat as an industry a few times on previous waves of innovation. We missed it on social media, we missed it on big data, on CX, and by God, we’re not going to miss it now.

Karen: No, we are not. And, you know, if you could have seen the team from Listen Labs walking around with a great big check for two days—

Lenny: [laugh].

Karen: —like, they were [laugh] they didn’t put it down. I mean, I think he probably, you know, brought it home, propped it up in his, you know, hotel room, and then brought it back the next day because every time you saw them, they were holding that check with a whole lot of pride.

Lenny: Sure. Yeah, fantastic.

Karen: It was—yeah, it was really exciting to watch. And yeah, good stuff there.

Lenny: Anything else that you just want to highlight about the events that you think that our listeners—like, if you didn’t go, you need to know this?

Karen: All right. I will share two other things really fast, watching the clock, one of them, The New York Times, you know, a gentleman from The New York Times came and spoke, and I was a little worried because, you know, they approached us and said, “Hey, can we speak at this event?” It’s their advertising department, and I got a little worried that we were going to, like, add pitches, you know, built into their conversation. But instead, what they did is they talked about the value and role of games in our lives. Because, you know, here’s a media company who successfully enter the gaming category. And you know, I don’t play games on my phone anymore, but I do play Wordle, and Connections, and the Mini, and now I’m adding Strands and, like, I am now, not just somebody who plays games on their iPhone, but somebody who plays The New York Times-branded games. And so, the talk resonated with everybody there. You know, their audience, it’s amazing how many people do that. So, that was just a really cool talk that built in pop culture. And I’d loved it. And then you know, shout out to a good friend and former client of mine, Mimi Sherlock at IFF who talked about the color Peach Fuzz as one of the—you know, the color of the year, the Pantone color of the year. But why? She dug into trend intelligence and explained why that color, and why we’re going to see that color, and how that color is going to manifest, and what it means, what human beings are seeking, that that’s the color of the year. And it was just for anybody who follows trends, good stuff. That’s a deck that I think everybody should look for, attendees, you know, who are able to download this decks, just good stuff. We never tire of seeing ourselves in presentations as individuals, and I think that’s what those two both brought to the table.

Lenny: Very cool. Well, we mentioned that we, for our audience, we’re operating on time limits today, but we wanted to squeeze this in and get this out for you for those who couldn’t attend so you get some insight, the benefit of Karen’s insight into key learnings from the event. Thank you so much. And now that gives us more time to talk about other stuff on Friday for the exchange.

Karen: On Fridays, yes. Tune in every Friday at noon to the exchange where Lenny and I just talk. We’re not as structured as we were today [laugh].

Lenny: Uh, yes. With the latest news. So, but this is special. And well, let’s plug: if you missed IIEX North America, IIEX Europe is coming up. IIEX—

Karen: Sure as heck is—

Lenny: LatAm is coming up.

Karen: —in June.

Lenny: Yep. So—

Karen: In September.

Lenny: —catch the vibe. Although there is something very special about North America.

Karen: It really is.

Lenny: It is different. And—we’ll put this out there real quick, too—we’re going into the reinvention phase, so next year, it’s going to be different than it was this year, too. So.

Karen: It’s going to be different. It’s going to be different.

Lenny: It’s going to be different. So.

Karen: So, anyway. But it’ll be a lot of fun, and worth everybody paying attention to, right, so—

Lenny: Yep, yep.

Karen: Pretty cool.

Lenny: All right. Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you, to our audience. Thank you to Natalie, thank you to James, our editor, to Big Bad Audio. Thank you to our sponsors. We have one I’m not sure we have one this week or not, but—

Karen: No, but shout out again to the Logit Group for sponsoring North America as our title. Good stuff from them.

Lenny: Yes. And everybody there because without all of you guys, we wouldn’t be here. So, we’d have to be, like, doing real research.

Karen: [laugh]. No shame there.

Lenny: No, no shame there. But this is, you know, this is fun in its own unique way. I’d rather be doing this than going through crosstabs, that’s for damn sure. So, thank you to all of us for letting us do that [laugh]. So, all right. That’s it. We’ll see you on the next edition of the Greenbook Podcast. Bye-bye.

Karen: Thanks, Lenny. Bye-bye, everybody.