&more Virtual Conference 2025

&more Conference 2025 Programme

• 09.45am Welcome from the Chairs

Amanda Hammond, Qualitative Senior Research Executive, Sky UK and &more Leadership Team
Christina Tarbotton, Research Director, Boxclever and &more Leadership Team

• 10.00am – 10.25am

"Alexa, do I know what AI is?"

AI has become part of everyday life, from workplace tools to the tech we use without thinking. But as researchers, how much do we really know about how people outside our field experience AI, and how should this shape our approach?

Savanta and House337 set out to look beyond the headlines, surveying over 7,000 people in seven countries to understand how consumers interact and perceive Gen AI, voice assistants, and other technologies.

In this session, the speakers will share how the use of AI is evolving and what this mean for research. Including fresh findings from our latest research wave, we will explore how AI is shaping the workplace across different generations, offering early-career researchers.

Isobel Hunt, Associate Director, Savanta

• 10.25am – 10.50am

The power of face-to-face from the digital

In a world dominated by digital research, fast turnarounds, and AI-generated participants, it’s easy to overlook the value of face-to-face (F2F) fieldwork. This session will explore why physical presence still matters—not as a nostalgic nod to 'old school' research, but as a vital tool for uncovering genuine human insight. Drawing on real project examples, from taste tests to in-store observations, we’ll examine how F2F delivers richer, more authentic data than online methods often can.

We’ll highlight the subtle cues that make F2F research so powerful, including body language, facial expressions, environmental context, and emotional nuance. These insights help researchers and clients reach deeper understanding, spark more meaningful 'aha' moments, and build greater empathy with customers, driving stronger, human-centered decision making.

The session will also address the next generation of researchers, many of whom have never developed classic F2F skills. We’ll explore how these abilities can be preserved and strengthened, while making the case to clients for investing in deeper, more impactful research

Millie Holliday, Insight Executive, STRAT7 Researchbods

• 10.50am Break (25 mins)
  
  
  
  
• 11.15am – 11.40am

Shame, Silence & Solicitors: Designing research for vulnerable audiences

What happens after someone is scammed out of £90,000 by a fake investment platform? Or when a romance scam ends not only in financial loss, but heartbreak?

This presentation will reveal how Mustard Research conducted qualitative research with fraud victims to help CEL Solicitors understand the emotional journey of their audience to shape a rebrand built on empathy, trust and understanding. We’ll touch on how to design research for vulnerable audiences, how behavioural science can help translate complex emotional journeys into actionable insights and how rich qualitative insights can directly shape brand identity, communications and strategy.

Robyn Mason, Research Manager, Mustard Research
Charlotte Mckeown, Digital Marketing Manager, CEL Solicitors

• 11.40am – 12.05pm

A Fresh Scoop on Brand Measurement!

Understanding brand health is more important than ever, yet traditional methods are often slow, costly, and limited by low survey participation. This session explores how i-Genie.ai leverages generative AI, data science, and large language models to analyse consumer conversations across social media, e-commerce, and search, providing faster, more affordable indicators of brand strength. Drawing on a recent study of the European ice cream category, it demonstrates how this approach can reveal how consumers perceive and engage with brands while reflecting broader marketplace shifts.

Ilse Latifa, Client Engagement Manager, i-Genie.ai

• 12.05pm – 12.30pm

Ofcom Children’s Passive Monitoring

As the first truly digital generation, children’s online habits are becoming more immersive, platform-driven, and private. To better understand this, Ofcom and Yonder Consulting carried out the UK’s first large-scale, ethics-led passive tracking study of children’s digital lives, supported by a dual-consent process to ensure safety and transparency for families. The research delivered powerful insight into children’s behaviour, offering a rare window into how they navigate the online world.

The findings revealed critical themes across age and gender, including platform use, night-time activity, messaging apps, and exposure to adult content. This session will discuss what was uncovered through the study and how these insights have directly shaped policy, including new measures under the Online Safety Act.

Joe Wheeler, Associate Director, Yonder Consulting
Nigel Fuller, Senior Research Manager

• 12.30pm – 1.30pm Lunch (60 minutes)

• 1.30pm – 1.55pm

What does it feel like to be a client? Voices from tomorrow's leaders

Following the recent Client Sight survey—a collaboration between MRS, AURA, and the IMA—new insights have emerged into the needs, satisfaction, and engagement levels of those working in clientside teams. The session will open with a high-level view of the perspectives of younger and early-career clientside researchers.

The main focus will be a panel discussion exploring what it means to be a younger person working clientside: how they feel about their careers and the journeys they are on, their priorities for training, development and growth, and how they see and value the impact of their work.

The session aims to inspire personal career journeys—whether considering clientside work in the future or for those already working in those roles—or help enhance understanding of the clientside experience, which sits at the frontline of insight delivery. This will be an open, honest, and important conversation about the state of clientside insight teams and what it means to have impact at all levels.

Sinead Jeffries, SVP Professional Services, Zappi Store

• 1.55pm – 2.20pm

Creative Risks, Real Results: What happens when clients and researchers push boundaries together

Creative Risks, Real Results: What Happens When Clients and Researchers Push Boundaries Together

Being bold in research isn’t always easy, for agencies or clients. Often, both sides want to push boundaries but aren’t sure how to get there together. It takes trust, creativity, and confidence. Rupesh Patel (Samsung) and Temitope Longe (Redblue) will share how they’ve built a partnership that embraces risk, challenges tradition, and delivers work with real impact.

Through their ongoing BeMe project, they’ll reveal practical strategies for fostering collaborative client relationships that let creativity thrive, guided by their “3 C’s”: Commitment, Creativity, and Confidence.

- Commitment - to the process, research, and each other’s success;
- Creativity - challenging tradition and prioritising pointed insights; and
- Confidence - to speak up, take risks, and trust your unique experience.

This session is essential for anyone seeking to strengthen client-researcher collaboration, take bold approaches to insight work, and deliver outcomes that have real impact.

Temitope Longe, Senior Research Executive, Redblue
Rupesh Patel, Head of Insight, Samsung

• 2.20pm – 2.45pm

The Power of Detail: building inclusive research from the ground up

This session reflects on research with accessibility at its core. Combining an open survey of 800+ blind and partially sighted respondents, workshops, and advanced analytics, the case study demonstrates how careful attention to detail—guided by close collaboration with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)—can drive richer data and stronger insights. Becca Altman from The Social Agency explores how initial assumptions were challenged and how methodological adaptations led to deeper empathy and engagement throughout the research process.

We’ll share actionable, transferable lessons for designing inclusive research, including practical guidance on co-creation, survey accessibility, and analytics strategies. Attendees will learn how accessibility considerations can be embedded from the outset, enabling research that is both inclusive and impactful.

Becca Altman, Senior Research Executive, The Social Agency

• 2.45pm Break (25 mins)
  
  
  
• 3.10pm – 3.35pm

Care to grow: creating a new feedback culture that works for everyone

How do you build a culture of feedback?

“Feedback”: whether we thrive on it or dread it, how we handle it shapes the paths we’re on. And yet, it’s often the conversations we shy away from that are the ones that we most need: the ones that unlock sharper thinking, stronger relationships, and better work.

But even as qualitative researchers (who take pride in our ability to navigate tricky conversations), when it comes to giving and receiving feedback ourselves, we sometimes struggle. That’s why Firefish set out to challenge and upgrade the way we handle feedback as a team.

Join Firefish as we share our journey. We’ll discuss how we examined and re-shaped our own preconceptions and barriers, and the tools we forged for more open, honest, and productive conversations. This will be a radically candid talk about how we managed culture change from the ground-up.  

Beka Smith, Research Manager, Firefish
Michelangelo Palmisano, Senior Research Exec, Firefish

• 3.35pm – 4.00pm

The Gen Z workforce: Why listening now could futureproof research

A lot is talked about the new generation of young researchers and graduates. With over 700 responses to a recent survey fielded by the MRS Delphi Group, this session takes a fresh look from the perspective of young researchers.

This isn’t about decoding a new generation of consumers. Instead, it is about asking what their presence as workers tells us about the future of our industry. Because behind the noise, something quieter but more consequential is happening: Gen Z researchers are arriving into a sector that is frequently under pressure.

This means that when we ask, “What does Gen Z want from work?”, we’re not indulging a generational trend. We are asking: What kind of industry are we building? Who gets to shape it? And are we ready to evolve?

Christina Tarbotton, Research Director, Boxclever and &more Leadership Team
Colin Strong, Head of Behavioural Science, Ipsos and Chair MRS Delphi Group
Josephine Hansom, MRS Fellow, MRS Board Member and Chair of MRS ED&I Council

• 4.00pm – 4.10pm Closing remarks from the Chairs

Amanda Hammond, Qualitative Senior Research Executive, Sky UK and &more Leadership Team
Christina Tarbotton, Research Director, Boxclever and &more Leadership Team

• 4.10pm Conference Close