Theme: “Understanding Shifting Consumer Priorities”
Introduction
With the aim of ensuring the steady growth of our industry by promoting a learning culture, the Marketing & Social Research Association (MSRA) Kenya welcomes your participation in its 9th conference scheduled to take place on the 16th of November 201 7 in Nairobi at the Villa Rosa Kempinski Hotel (map)
Rationale for the Conference Theme
It is undeniable, that the consumer we knew is no longer the consumer of today. The consumer is more rapidly evolving in response to the equally fast changing environment and stimuli within.
In turn, this is changing their behavior and decision making patterns. MSRA will dig deeper into
“understanding shifting consumer priorities” in order to promptly and accurately facilitate our client responsiveness and ensure market sustainably. The onus is also on the market research industry to reinvent itself in terms of thought and approach, so as to better generate insights from a changing consumers.
THE MARKET RESEARCH INDUSTRY NEEDS to reinvent itself in terms of thought and approach, so as to better generate insights from changing consumers.
The conference will aim to Understand what is shifting from a consumer perspective, as well as what the main contributors to the shift are. We will examine responses that have worked and failed, and together agree on how best as an industry to “future-proof” our business and our clients brands to this change.
Objectives of the Conference
By the end of the conference, participants should be able to:
- Articulate how the consumer is shifting.
- Identify the stimuli or circumstances that are driving the shift.
- Evaluate success factors in responses that have worked, and factors for those that have failed.
- Interrogate how best they should respond as a business in order to stay relevant.
- Appreciate innovative thinking and practices from local and international firms that are winning in
their response to changing consumer properties. - Participate in sharing research best practices that have had a real impact in identifying the changing priorities and insights generated in response to the changes.
- Expand the working network of researchers and business.
Conference Sub Themes
- Understanding the trend – This subtopic seeks to articulate what the shift is or has been with
regards to the consumer behaviour today and decision making partners. We hope to see
evidence of the shift from desk research or primary research in supporting conclusions made. We
also hope to hear, how clients have understood or seen the shift, and its impact on their business. - Responding to the shift – Within this subtopic, we would like know what we as a research industry have done to better understand a consumer whose priorities are changing. Has it changed our thinking, approach or
execution? In the same breath, how have businesses responded? What insights have driven their responses? Have consumers noted the change? - Future proofing in business (identifying the priorities we need to focus on) – How does a business protect its bottom line within a dynamic consumer environment, in order to attract, recruit and sustain growth. How can the research industry help businesses avoid “Kodak Moments” and create “Uber entities”?
To achieve the objectives of the conference, the following activities shall be undertaken:
- Plenary sessions
- Panel discussions
- Outdoor exhibitions
- Networking sessions
We are now calling for presentation submissions for this 2017 conference for the plenary sessions.
For information on submissions, please see the MSRA Speaker’s Manual.
The deadlines for submissions are:
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Synopsis
The deadline for submitting your summary paper (which will outline in brief of what your final paper will cover) is set for the 2nd of October 2017 (closed).
The synopsis will be primarily used to help us ascertain your papers purpose, its relevance to the topic, scope of coverage of the topic among others. A panel of judges will review your synopsis and give you feedback/advice to guide you in preparing your paper & presentation by the 6th of October 2017.
Presentation
Following the advice/feedback from the judges you are required to prepare your presentation and submit it to MSRA by the 20th of October 2017.
Guidelines of how these should appear, the judging criteria to be used, and timings for the presentation are included in the Speaker’s Manual.
Dry Run/Selection
A dry run is scheduled for the 27th of October 2017 where you will be given the opportunity to present your paper. The dry run will be primarily used to identify and select presenters who will proceed to conference and therefore need to complete their final paper and presentation. This selection will be done by a panel of judges with speakers notified by 1st November 2017.
Final Paper and Presentation
Presenters selected to proceed to conference should submit their final written paper (is more detailed and
is normally uploaded on the MSRA website after the conference) and final presentation (in presentation
format for use during the conference) by the 10th of November 2017. Guidelines of how these should appear, the judging criteria to be used, and timings for the presentation are included in the Speaker’s Manual. The Manual also includes deadlines for submitting your equipment and other requirements.
Award Presentations
There will be 2 awards given at the conference with decisions for the Best Paper Award and People’s
Choice Award being made by a panel of judges and delegates in attendance respectively:
Best Paper Award (Judges’ Award)
- A token from the Association (MSRA)
- Official MSRA recognition plate
Best Presentation (People’s Choice Award)
- A token from the Association (MSRA)
- Official MSRA recognition plate
Conference Discounts
All research paper presenters will be able to attend the one (1) day conference for FREE. Please note that this applies to only one speaker per presentation. In cases where more than one speaker is presenting then the additional speaker will be given a 50% discount on the conference fee. Maximum is two speakers per paper.
Downloads
- MSRA 2017 Conference – Speaker’s Manual (pdf, 380KB)
- MSRA 2017 Conference – Call for Research Papers (pdf, 372KB)
Contact Us / Leave a Comment
We look forward to your participation. For any clarifications/questions, please contact the MSRA Secretariat (Sylvia Radido) via email (info@msra.or.ke) or our online contact form. Alternately, feel free to leave a question or comment below.