Global Thought Leaders Met on October 6, 2010 to Discuss the Future of Market Research at Toluna's 'The Future is Now' Roundtable Event at the Eiffel Tower in Paris

WILTON, Conn., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate its 10th year anniversary, global online panel and survey solutions provider, Toluna assembled a group of 50 market research thought leaders to discuss the implications of current and future change agents and how they can be harnessed to evolve the market research industry.

The event featured speakers including:

• David Rowan – Editor, Wired Magazine
• George Terhanian – Group Chief Strategy and Products Officer, Toluna
• Andrei Broder – Chief Scientist, Search and Advertising, Yahoo!
• Adrien de St Hilare – Equity Analyst, BNP Paribas
• Alexandre Mathe – Team Leader, Rothschild
• Orli Yakuel – Blogger and Co-Founder of Go2web
• Delphine Touboul, Bersay Associates

Founder and CEO of Toluna, Frederic-Charles Petit commented, "This was not your typical market research event.  This year's roundtable discussions were all about exchanging with thought leaders and inventing the future.  We look forward to hosting this summit every year to leverage the experiences of other complimentary industries to foster the necessary changes to adapt to our new ubiquitous world. I feel we have made groundbreaking progress and look forward to our next summit."

Keynote Speaker and Editor of Wired Magazine David Rowan started the event with a compelling presentation that began with a William Gibson quote "the future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." Rowan's presentation provided insight into the available consumer information that can be found online in real-time, and examples of companies that have used technology to create game changing business models.

Rowan's compelling presentation was a 'wake- up call' to the research industry, and attendees left with an understanding that insights are needed in real-time, and must leverage all available consumer information.

Rowan's comments were followed by George Terhanian, Chief Strategy and Products officer, Toluna. George encouraged the research industry to think beyond methodological constraints to evolve, while Delphine Touboul of Bersay Associates, provided insight into the consumer privacy regulations to be mindful of.

Alexandre Mathe and Adrien de Saint Hilare of BNP Paribas, and Rothschild, provided a 'banker's view' of the market research industry, including reactions to valuation in the current economy and go forward projections.  The C-level audience felt this presentation provided valuable insight into their business.

Andrei Broder, Chief Scientist, Search and Advertising for Yahoo!'s discussion focused on online advertising, and the ability to supplement demographic targeting, with behavioral targeting for a more ROI-based program. This, of course, is something that the market research industry should be mindful of both as advertising is a market driver, and, as respondent recruitment efforts can be improved with this technology.

Finally, Orli Yakuel, Blogger, concluded the day with insight into social media, and offered suggestions to businesses about using social media to their advantage.

Full access to the content of this event will be available shortly at www.toluna-group.com.

In the meantime, Toluna has compiled a video montage of interviews with key influencers on their predictions for the industry. Visit www.toluna-group.com to view these segments.

About Us

Toluna is the world's leading independent online panel and survey technology provider to the global market research industry with offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. In 2009, Toluna welcomed Greenfield Online and Ciao Surveys into the group – complementing its traditional strengths in Europe and increasing its online sample and delivery capacity in the US, Canada and Asia Pacific.

Unlike other panel providers, Toluna has developed a unique online community approach to the management of its panels. Through the use of web 2.0-based technology it has created the world's first social voting community site toluna.com, focusing on maximizing panelist engagement to offer increased survey responsiveness and data reliability to its clients.

In addition Toluna is enabling organizations to generate valuable customer insight by creating, hosting and managing their own online communities using its software as a service community management solution; PanelPortal™. Toluna's portfolio of research technology solutions also include QuickSurveys™ - an online self-service  tool that enables you to ask 1-5 questions and receive 1,000 responses in a few hours, Interactive Voice Response, mobile survey capabilities and BrandSpector™ a new approach to measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of online advertising campaigns using the Toluna online panel.

SOURCE Toluna