Recently our AskingCanadians team attended the annual Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) conference in Vancouver as the Pinnacle sponsor for the second year in a row, to share some of the innovative work we’ve been doing and to look for new technology partners that can help our clients collect and apply data in innovative ways.

And for the first time in seven years, the conference was brought back to British Columbia, giving us the chance to see the amazing work western Canadian companies are doing in data collection. Automation and technological disruption quickly became dominant topics of conversations at the conference as brands continue making the shift towards integrating consumer insights into every part of the marketing process.

Here are just a few of the notable companies from western Canada doing innovative work in this space:

Lux Insights: Director Lauren McCrae spoke about an emerging technique using in-survey respondent videos to bring consumer personas to life.

Insights West: VP Jane Ha-Trapp presented findings on how they undertook one of the most ground-breaking surveys in Canada to explore sexual harassment in the workplace in response to the #metoo movement.

Insightrix: The team spoke to how they’re using neuroscience testing methods—like EEGs, eye tracking and facial coding—to help companies produce award-winning ads.

We already have our calendars marked for next year’s MRIA conference June 5-7, 2019 and hope to see you all there!