MRS Announces UK’s First IJMR Research Methods Forum

Flagship event addresses methodological challenges facing the research sector

Date: 16 September 2008

MRS has unveiled the line-up for the first ever IJMR Research Methods Forum, which will take place on Tuesday 25 November at The Royal Society in central London. The International Journal of Market Research (IJMR), published by WARC on behalf of MRS, is the world’s primary source of cutting-edge thinking and ideas about market and social research, and is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2008.

Methodological innovation has been fundamental to the rapid growth of market research over the past fifty years. The Forum’s theme, Methods Matter: Interviewing and Beyond, focuses both on the methodological challenges facing today’s research sector and the way in which researchers can successfully address these, in order to ensure the sustained evolution of the sector in the face of changing market conditions. The one-day event provides a unique opportunity for research practitioners and academics to debate the issues presented by leading practitioners, such as multi-mode projects, sampling, the future of sample based surveys and new sources of data that dispense with interviews.

The speakers, drawn from across the market, academic and social research spectrum, will describe how they are addressing these challenges and demonstrate how the increasing opportunities to understand consumers through non-traditional data collection can strengthen, enhance and expand the methodological base of the industry.

The Forum, which is supported by WARC, will open with a keynote address from Professor Paul Wiles, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Home Office and Director of Research, Development and Statistics. Further speakers will include: Sir Roger Jowell, Research Professor at City University London, describing the challenges facing mixed-mode research in international surveys; Bill Blyth, Research Director for TNS Europe, discussing solutions to the dilemma of interviewing representative samples and Martin Hayward, Director of Strategy & Futures at dunnhumby, who will examine the role for market research in the database era.

Peter Mouncey, Editor-in-Chief of IJMR, comments: “IJMR has provided a key forum for presenting new thinking within the market research industry for the past 50 years. The Methods Forum is a logical extension to this role as, despite the vital importance of methodology to the ongoing growth of the sector, there has until now been no forum devoted to debating methodological issues and sharing the latest solutions. The Research Methods Forum embarks on new ground – and is set to become a key event for all those interested in this aspect of the sector.”

The IJMR Research Methods Forum will be held on Tuesday 25 November at The Royal Society, off Pall Mall, London SW1. For more information or to book a place please visit www.mrs.org.uk/conference/ijmr_forum.htm

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