When:
Thursday, May 27, 2010; 6pm-8pm

Where:
Santa Monica Public Library
MLK Jr. Auditorium
601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Program:
Product Integration & Sponsorship: Strategy, Challenges and Measurement
Featuring Speakers and Case Studies from: A&E Television Networks, Adelman Media Group, comScore, Fox Sports Network and NeuroFocus

Scheduled Speakers:
(Subject to change without notice)

Adelman Media Group, Jason Adelman, Principal

A & E Television Networks, Mike Greco, EVP Strategic Insights

comScore, Graham Mudd, VP Marketing

Fox Sports Network, Mark Sommer, Research & Programming

Warner Bros., Bruce K. Rosenblum, EVP Media Research & Insights

Moderator; Emily Della Maggiora, President, Treehouse Strategies Inc.; Santa Monica College, Workforce & Economic Development

This is aFREE event!

Registration online at eventbrite.

Greetings members,

Our sister chapter in the great Northwest is hosting  a riveting education day up in Napa Valley.  Information below, or check out the details on their website.

Silverado Resort, Napa Valley
April 29th-30th, 2010

Pairing the Perfect Vintage:
Cultivating Partnerships in Market Research

In this discussion we will talk about how to be seen as a resource in a competitive business environment. How to provide value through smarter engagement practices, by learning the steps to get prospects and clients to return your calls and respond to other communication efforts. We’ll explore how operations staff and sales staff, alike, can benefit from creating more engaging communication. Guests will be participating in an exercise that will help unfold their company’s core strengths and weaknesses in order to make them stand out from the crowd.

Presenter: Paul Kirch, ActusMR

Paul Kirch has a passion for entrepreneurship, sales and sales coaching. He is President & CEO of his own sales management consulting firm, ActusMR, Inc., specializing in the marketing research industry. Actus is a Latin word meaning “perfection, determination and compliment.” These words define his company’s overall philosophy. In addition to his role within ActusMR, he is an active volunteer within many industry organizations, including the Marketing Research Association (MRA), as a former President of the NorthWest MRA chapter.

Wine Reception Sponsor:		Event Sponsors:

Greetings friends,

We’re hosting our Hispanic Research Event this upcoming April 16th at the Miami Grille in La Jolla, CA.  We’ll be having beverages, appetizers, dinner,  and a featured speaker, Walter Meneses. We’ll also be giving away some great prizes for those who are in attendance.

“Miami is the epicenter of its staggering choice of ethnic restaurant choices – Cuban, Nicaraguan, Honduran, Peruvian, Argentinean, Haitian, Bajan, Jamaican, and Trinidadian. Miami Grille introduces a new style of cooking with a new food vocabulary to San Diego- boricua, canasta de fritas, tostones, yucca, maduros, plancha and plantains-gathered from these exotic destinations and prepared with superlative raw materials imported and found here in California. The cultural richness and ethnic diversity of the Miami Grille displays our fondness for grilling, salads and planchas. The interior ambiance reflects the warmth of the tropics and our love of the traditions and music of the colorful, Latin ethnic heritage.”

Buffet Style Dinner 7:00pm—8:30pm
Sponsor: e-Rewards

Featured Speaker:
Walter Meneses, Owner of Meneses Research
“How To Effectively Reach The U.S. Hispanic Consumer”
PRC Contact Hours – pending approval by MRA

8:45 pm Everybody is invited to a Group Salsa Dance Class

9:15 pm Open Dancing with live Cuban Band / 1:30 am close
(Embassy Suites and Marriott close by)

Cost for the evening is $45!

RSVP by April 9, 2010
Sponsorships still available – Contact Ginger Blazier, Directions In Research (619) 299-5883 / gblazier@diresearch.com

Download the Hispanic Research Event Flyer & Registration Form

We’ve heard from Ginger doing some fieldwork that the special SoCal MRA Sangria is a hit!
Special Thanks to all of our sponsors for making this event possible.

• Taylor Research
• Directions in Research
• Toluna – Greenfield
• LA Research
• e-Rewards
• ISA
• Worldwide Translation Center
• Frank Magid & Associates
• America’s Survey Corporation

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings friends,
We’re hosting our Hispanic Research Event this upcoming April 16th at the Miami Grille in La Jolla, CA.  We’ll be having beverages, appetizers, dinner and a featured speaker Walter Meneses. We’ll also be giving away some great prizes for those who are in attendance.

“Miami is the epicenter of its staggering choice of ethnic restaurant choices – Cuban, Nicaraguan, Honduran, Peruvian, Argentinean, Haitian, Bajan, Jamaican, and Trinidadian. Miami Grille introduces a new style of cooking with a new food vocabulary to San Diego- boricua, canasta de fritas, tostones, yucca, maduros, plancha and plantains-gathered from these exotic destinations and prepared with superlative raw materials imported and found here in California. The cultural richness and ethnic diversity of the Miami Grille displays our fondness for grilling, salads and planchas. The interior ambiance reflects the warmth of the tropics and our love of the traditions and music of the colorful, Latin ethnic heritage.”

Buffet Style Dinner 7:00pm—8:30pm
Sponsor: e-Rewards

Featured Speaker:
Walter Meneses, Owner of Meneses Research
“How To Effectively Reach The U.S. Hispanic Consumer”
PRC Contact Hours – pending approval by MRA

8:45 pm Everybody is invited to a Group Salsa Dance Class

9:15 pm Open Dancing with live Cuban Band / 1:30 am close (Embassy Suites and Marriott close by)

Cost for the evening is $45!

RSVP by April 9, 2010
Sponsorships still available – Contact Ginger Blazier,
Directions In Research (619) 299-5883/gblazier@diresearch.com

Download the Hispanic Research Event Flyer & Registration Form

We’ve heard from Ginger doing some fieldwork that the special SoCal MRA Sangria is a hit!

Special Thanks to all of our sponsors for making this event possible.

• Taylor Research
• Directions in Research
• LA Research
• e-Rewards
• ISA
• Worldwide Translation Center and Frank Magid & Associates

We just wanted to let everyone know that the membership challenge has been updated. The winning Chapters will receive awards which can be raffled off at a future event to raise money for the Chapter, presented to a member or local company for outstanding service, etc.

The awards are as follows:

• Winning Chapter with 10 or more new members will receive a full conference registration to the 2010 Annual Conference in Boston.  This is a $900 value.
• The 2^nd Place Chapter with at least 5 new members will receive a National MRA eNews banner ad for one month (2 issues).  This is a value of $175.
• The 3^rd Place Chapter with at least 5 new members will receive one MRA archived or live webinar.  This is a $65 value.

So please reach out to your colleagues and urge them to join today. SoCal membership form available here.

Read more from

the National MRA site.

We’ve been getting a number of requests to push back the early bird registration period, so we did! You now have until the end of this week to signup for the Holiday Party. The signup forms are available here and on the website. We’ve picked up and moved from the Sofitel a few blocks down the street to the SLS Hotel, as recently seen in Entourage and Top Chef, where Marcel from Season 2 is now a chef. We’re having a cocktail hour and a tapas style dinner.

Early Bird: Register by November 13^th for $75/ticket
Special rate for party of 10 – $700

Regular admission $85/ticket after November 13^th
Special rate for party of 10 – $800

Special thanks to our sponsors for making this event possible:

• Research Now
• Greenfield Online
• e-Rewards
• Adept Consumer Testing
• Schlesinger Associates
• LA Research
• PeekABoo Research
• Taylor Research
• Frank Magid Associates
• Focus and Testing
• I/H/R Research
• United Sample
• Universal Studios Hollywood
• Directions in Research
• Peanut Labs

Click here to download the registration form: SoCal MRA Holiday Party Registration 2009 Form

If you’re interested in sponsoring please contact Shelia Thompson.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Hello So Cal Members,

Due to unforeseen circumstances and to accommodate the schedule of the majority of our prospective attendees, we have decided to postpone our Education Day to a future date that is yet to be determined. We will be working to reschedule our Education Day and will send details as soon as possible.

For those who have signed up for this event, please contact Shelia Thompson at sthompson@magid.com for your reimbursement.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and look forward to seeing everyone in the near future. Please continue to visit our website for the latest updates and Calendar of Events.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to gather comments from you for the types of information you would like to see at upcoming SoCal MRA Events. Please feel free to leave information in the comments section.

Sincerely,

Rudy Yu
President
Southern California Marketing Research Association

Hope everyone is doing well.  Just wanted to send out our first reminder for our 5th SoCal MRA San Diego Meet & Greet.  The Meet & Greet will be at  BASIC, on Thursday, February 26th.  ”Converted from a circa 1912 warehouse, Basic is left open and raw with original brick walls, high ceilings and industrial garage doors.  The atmosphere is relaxed, attracting a cool urban crowd that live, work and play in Downtown San Diego.” www.barbasic.com   (Located near Petco Park.) This is an informal get together, so there is no registration, no tickets to purchase or cover charge.  It will be Dutch treat!

We have managed to reserve the “VIP” section, which is exciting!  There will be special drink discounts and free sampling of their famous brick-oven pizza, until 6pm and then we will also have pizza available after 6pm.  So far there’s been a lot of interest and we have received quite a few RSVPs, including an attendee who is coming from as far as Nebraska!!!

You can show up anytime between 5:30pm & 8:30pm, earlier if you want (Happy Hour starts at 4pm.) However, I would appreciate an RSVP, just to let me know that there is a possibility that you can make it, so we can ensure we get an area that will suit the number of people.  (Remember – All members and non-members are welcome.)  Please note that your response will not be “set in stone”.  Thank you to those who have responded so far.

So come join us!  This gives us all the first opportunity in 2009 to catch up with each other!

Our final event of the year was the Annual Holiday Party held in December at the Sofitel Hotel in West Hollywood.  It was a wonderful evening filled with good conversation, great food and dancing.  A special thank you goes out to the Board Committee that dedicated a lot of time to put together a wonderful event…including the massive leather-boxed tequila centerpieces that were given away throughout the evening.  Congratulations to Ed Sugar who received the 2008 “Research Pillar” award for his outstanding dedication to the field of market research both as a businessman and MRA volunteer. 

Tobin Bailey, Irene Gustaitis, Lee Nizani & Jerome Bettis

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest members who have joined our Chapter since November 2008.  We are looking forward to meeting you at our upcoming events and having you active in our Chapter.

Lisa Gulino                               California Marketing                           San Diego, CA

Sebio DelaPena                      California Marketing                           San Diego, CA

Joe Andere                              American Survey Company                Chula Vista, CA

Julie Peggar                            Ethnographic Research, Inc.               Kansas City, MO

Michael Howe-Fontes              Nielsen NRG                                         Los Angeles, CA

Jamie Quider                           Interviewing Service of America          Sherman Oaks, CA

Sarah Meyers                           Taylor Research/GroupNet                  San Diego, CA

Gustavo Mendoza                  Data Solution Group                           San Diego, CA

In October, our first Hispanic Research Event was held at Café Sevilla in the beautiful coastal city of San Diego – tapas, flamenco and knowledge – all in one evening!  The event received rave reviews, so much so that we may be similar event in the Los Angeles area this year.  According to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, Hispanic purchasing power is expected to hit $992 billion by 2009.  Event attendees heard from Hispanic market research specialists and gained valuable insight on the future trends for this important segment of the population.   We would like to give a special thank you to Dr. Mary Beth McCabe, President of Sun Marketing, who was our keynote speaker and presented her insights into the “US Hispanic Market – Past, Present, and Future.”