Chair’s Christmas Message

Chair’s Christmas Message

The temperature has dropped, Christmas lights are going up, Linda Snell has started rehearsals for the Ambridge pantomime and in my stomping ground there seems to be a fashion for uber huge wreaths this season.  It is therefore time for a quick message from the ICG reflecting on the year and where we hope to go in 2017.

We have said goodbye to Midge Clayton who has stepped down as Chair and from the committee – thanks Midge for many years of tireless contribution to the ICG, we hope your new interim role is going well.

In the meantime, last night saw the announcement of the winner of the inaugural Independents’ Day Award at the glittering MRS dinner (and is was very glittery).  We have teamed up with the MRS to sponsor this award in order to recognise the huge contribution independents and mirco-businesses make to the research sector.  The quality of entries was very high and our congratulations go to those who made the shortlist – know research, Shed Research and Momentum Research, with a whoo-hoo for the winner Hope + Anchor.  You can read all their stories on our website.  If you’re inspired to follow in their footsteps, we plan to keep recognising independents and micro-businesses next year so keep an eye out for the submission deadline in spring.  On behalf of all the members in the ICG, I’d like to thank Arthur Fletcher and Ed Newton for making this award a reality.  To quote John Bizzell, Events and Awards Manager, Market Research Society “Independent consultants have provided some fantastic case studies for the MRS Awards in the past but having a category designed to highlight how they can do things differently really seems to have struck a chord. It was great to see micro-businesses taking a distinct place alongside the big and boutique agencies who won last night.”

Next week will also see the launch of the industry Qualitative Professionalisation scheme.  Again we have teamed up with MRS, ESOMAR, AQR and SRA as backers of the scheme which will help to raise and maintain standards of professionalism.  Our thanks to Karen Cooper for representing ICG through what has been a long and challenging development process.

We believe that these two initiatives will help raise both our profile and influence in the industry.

We have two immediate projects in sight for early 2017.  We have started work on a major revamp of our website – the key aims being a more up to date visual style, greater flexibility and more intuitive usage.  This will run in parallel with a renewed brand identity which will have a stronger impact, particularly in social media.  Thanks to Claire Labrum, Lucie Wernicke, Deborah Simmons and Konrad Colleo for their time and effort on these fronts.

Otherwise it should be business as usual.  We will, of course, continue to seek out interesting and informative subjects for our webinar programme and negotiate discounts and deals where possible for ICG members.  If you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact any of the committee members.

We’ve experienced an unpredictable 2016 – enjoy the Christmas festivities and my best wishes to everyone for a happy and prosperous pathway whatever 2017 throws at us.