Reviews of AQR Events

Fun, frolics and food for thought
Stay Curious lived up to its promise, with attendees eager to know, and pencil in, the date of the next conference. Valencia 2018, however, is going to take some beating. Eyes on Human Packaging
Eyes Wide Open broke new ground for AQR, attracting speakers and an audience that looked beyond the traditional fare of forums. Value of a good breakfast
Riaz Marzban arrived at AQR's Breakfast Bites, Recruitment: Access All Areas, a relative newcomer but left substantially wiser. Semiotics: A way to stay relevant
Identifying the origins of a beer brand with no text to guide you can be tricky, but Rachel Lawes gave her Young Disruptors audience a few visual clues. Nuggets from point of impact
This year's MRS Conference, Impact 2018, promised much, and it delivered. In fact, it's worth noting that it's now just ten short months until the next one! Semiotics is simple, it's context
May's AQR Breakfast Bites North proved one of the most successful to date, attracting attendees from overseas as well as the UK. Why? Well, read on… The myth of the focus group
A month or so ago emails were flying within the qualitative research community following a Guardian long read article, so AQR decided to engage the author in conversation. Moving on up at IIex Europe
For the second year in a row AQR spread the word about qualitative research at IIeX Europe in the impressive halls of the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam. Talking a new language
An energetic threesome put the case for Behavioural Economics to a sell-out crowd in this two-part session, setting the scene for the next stage in its development. Making waves with Behavioural Economics
The second in the Behavioural Economics Sparks series revealed how clients such as Barclays, Diageo and Swim England drive and embed insight within an organisation. Tales from an AQR party novice
AQR holds its Christmas party in February but this doesn't mean the festivities are lacklustre. This year's cocktail, the Incentive, made the party go with a real swing. Not the Christmas Party 2018
Back once more at The Ivy for the AQR's Christmas Party. The art of "wellbeeing"
Author John Grant features in the AQR Hub's recent Facebook Live, quizzed about his latest book: Better. He says that qual research has a key role in making brands "human friendly". Back to the future
ESOMAR may have lacked a Marty McFly at its 21st Global Qualitative Conference, but it was as fast-paced, idea generating, innovative and humorous as its namesake. AURA day goes north and south
AURA conferences are a great day out of the office and the 'What's Fresh in Qual' event was no exception. This year it was repeated in Manchester to 35 AURA members. Schmoozing ups and downs
ESOMAR celebrated its 70th anniversary in style this year, with a conference noted for the range of presentation topics and innovations such as its first 'hackathon'. Networking in disguise
The Young Disruptors group held its inaugural meet in the heart of Soho, with a fiendishly difficult pub quiz that prompted ruthless rivalry and intellectual showmanship. Thinking up vs Thinking down
As an ever-inquisitive qualitative researcher, Hazel Haskayne was both excited and intrigued at the Spark invite to a session titled 'The Cultural Revolution'. Sorting quant quandaries
The Linney team's quallies hared down from Mansfield for AQR's Breakfast Bites, and were pleasantly surprised not to find themselves drowning in numbers, graphs and statistics Who's a cognitive dissident?
Andy Dexter reprised his award-winning Brexit presentation from the AQR Conference at the recent Facebook Live session – and it didn't disappoint second time round. First steps towards creativity
Infographics – design, data and story. That's it. Simple. As AQR's Breakfast Bites took a trip up North it managed to demystify the process of creating visuals from a debrief. Creativity key to [R]evolution
Hannah Mills won the Qualitative Apprentice Award at this year's AQR Conference, but she also explored whether the day lived up to its title. Day of [R]evolution
If you have attendees lining up at the door an hour or more before they're due to open…then you know that there's a good conference in the offing. So it was at AQR's [R]evolution this summer, held at the Wellcome Collection in Euston. Wedding cake hosts AGM
This year's AGM was a tense affair with eight slots on the Board up for grabs, but it also proved an informal opportunity for networking in salubrious surroundings. Hope is not a strategy
The beverage market isn't a key focus for Sapio, says Jane Hales, but she was intrigued as the focus of this Spark was on the innovation process and building a brand. Insight Show 2017
This year's Insight Show/Marketing Week Live event (my fifth) was a case of all change: new location within Olympia, and much experimentation with layout and set-up. Survival tips from the masters
March was a crowded month for conferences this year, and smack bang in the middle came the MRS's 'Are you future fit?', demanding an element of fitness to survive it. Everyone's a semiotician
You think not? Then maybe you should have been at the last Spark event, when Alex Gordon used the Royal Family, Mr Kipling and Labour's 'rose' to bring semiotics to life. Talent finds new outlet
February saw AQR flying the flag at IIeX, its latest association partner, in Amsterdam. It proved a refreshing change in terms of speakers, exhibitors and audiences. Not the Christmas Party 2017
AQR's annual "Not the Christmas Party" was once again in February, and once again back at The Ivy. Eyes Wide Opened
Research conferences this autumn have been a tad more exciting than normal, and though this session at the RSA lacked a gorilla the panel debate more than made up for it. Three stars from ESOMAR
For an ESOMAR conference first timer (AQR was an association partner), Sam Nunn was impressed. Here she picks out her standout moments from Amsterdam.