On 25, 26 and 27 January, the city of New Orleans was the venue for the SampleCon 2016 Conference, an annual market research event exclusively focused on survey samples.
This year the congress had a record 203 attendees representing 89 companies from 7 different countries. 19 companies sponsored the event, including Netquest.
In fact, Netquest was represented by the Business Development USA & Canada team (Cristian Enriquez and Virginia Agustí), Quotation Manager (Oscar López and Shaloom Guerrero) and its Managing Director (Bruno Paro). International Sales Director Andreas Wech was also present.
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Netquest takes care to offer its clients the most reliable opinions and data, guaranteeing high-level studies in the genuine way that characterises us. Based on this premise, we gave all those attending a mini-bottle of Southern Comfort, a fruity liqueur with touches of bourbon, a drink originally from New Orleans, reinforcing the value of the local perspective.
Now we would like to share with you some of the experiences of our colleagues who took part in the event:
Quotation Manager Netquest USA & Canada
For me it was a unique and very important experience for my development as a person and my professional development as it helped me to realise some very important things in the industry, such as understanding the needs of our customers and competitors much better and knowing the points our customers pay special attention to when it comes to making a decision to buy samples from different panel companies, such as quality, times, high profiling, efficiency, etc. To be able to use these needs as sales and negotiating arguments and understanding where to reach the customer.
It was also useful for realising where the industry is going and its innovative trends in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, such as, for example, the use of mobiles to be able to reach our panellists and get an early answer from them, making panellists’ lives easier. This benefits us and is eventually translated into satisfied clients and into productivity. I consider this part to be critical, as it was one of points most taken into account by sample purchasers who were at the event, along with the quality-speed relationship.
In this way I managed to achieve a much deeper understanding of many issues where they are competing with us 100%, such as the use of APIs, and understand why Netquest does not form part of these platforms at the moment, although we will undoubtedly have to work on it and adapt to the market without losing the high quality we offer, as in such a changing, ground-breaking and innovative industry I consider it essential.
Quotation Manager Netquest USA & Canada
SampleCon was a very enriching event which undoubtedly had many positive aspects. Among these, I would like to highlight:
- Distance and location barriers are eliminated: having the opportunity to get to know all the people and put a face to all the customers we come into contact with every day helps us establish a stronger bond which helps us generate trust and even friendship between the customers and ourselves in a much simpler way.
- Living together and learning: human beings are social beings and what better way to exploit that natural characteristic than living together with others? Having the chance to go to such a big event helps us to make the most of every moment to be in contact both with our own team and with the customers who, at the end of the day, are experts with great knowledge of this branch. We can learn quite a lot from them.
Business Developer Netquest USA & Canada
It was a great pleasure to attend for the second year in a row to such a great conference. The topics, very sample and very much panel related, were exactly the ones we need to discuss as an industry. I was very pleased to see a panel discussion regarding quality and transparency, those are key elements that make a difference between a good supplier and a great supplier. I was able to see how us, the suppliers, are getting on the same page and are seeing the same challenges across the board, which will allow us to jump those hurdles by working together, I believe we are realizing more and more that we are relevant part of the Market Research Industry.
For the Netquest team was a very fruitful conference, we were able to connect with new possible clients and also to reconnect with good old (and young) Netquest friends. It’s very rewarding to see how the Netquest name and team is getting more and more recognize, comments like, “yes Netquest, my team loves working with your team, very responsive and attentive” or “We are very pleased with the panel quality, the open ended responses were amazing” are some of the feedback we received, confirming that the team and company is on the right track and making our way in the North American Market.
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On a personal level, it was really cool to participate in the millennial panel, it was a great experience as it’s the first time I get to actively participate in the conversation at a conference. I was able to explore different point of views from my fellow panel members and received great feedback and questions from the audience, overall great experience. Looking forward to participating in more discussions and will definitely go back to Samplecon 2017!
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To round off the conference in style, Netquest offered the last lunch of the event for all those attending. As always, we take care to participate in the main events in the sector to be able to share insights and learning with you.
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