Call for Papers EN German Market Research Congress, 26 June 2025, Berlin
What market research of the future must achieve:
Valid data, methods, and analytics in the AI era
When it comes to market research, versatility and innovation have long been watchwords. Nowadays, qualities like these have never been more sought-after and the challenges around them could not be greater: More data, everything around the topic of quality, more automation and more disciplines under the market research umbrella - all of which compellingly combined with the powerful AI tool: the future looks exciting.
Let’s break down the challenges one by one:
- Ever new data sources and the challenges of integrating and merging data they bring alongside.
- A greater understanding and more use of IT in day-to-day market research.
- A change in cooperation and division of labour between companies and institutes alongside new interfaces that apply to specialist departments and market research.
- The emergence of newer disciplines that demand their role very independently, such as EX, UX, CX or social media monitoring.
- Market research departments reinventing themselves, with job titles that include terms like Insights, Intelligence, Data Analyst or Data Scientist.
- The theme of data quality, increasingly on the radar in recent years amid increased digitalisation and mechanisation. Click farms and bots compound the challenge for panel operators and market researchers alike.
- Finally, a near-ubiquitous use of AI as the tipping point, drawn on in all value-added stages of the market research process.
- Equally unavoidable topics are the ethical dimensions and discussion in market research, not least due to the use of AI.
AI is changing everything
Though some of the challenges are long familiar, it's the scale and scope of the changes that stand out. Artificial intelligence is the potentially disruptive spark that could transform all of the above. After all, it creates new data sources (particularly synthetic), can transform collaboration between research partners, impacts on the quality of data and how it is integrated and ultimately creates a new discipline.
Reassessing the market research profession
The (perhaps) obvious consequences: Market researchers now find their job scope turned on its head and upskilling is a must. Some 70 years since the BVM was first founded, this is certainly one of the key hurdles. In other words, we have to re-examine the market research profession from a whole new perspective!
However, a point worth reiterating: Over the last seven decades, market research has had to repeatedly tackle new areas of technical potential and implement them in its own workflow successfully. Market research is malleable and will remain that way! With this in mind, the BVM will also review the historical hurdles it has already overcome.
We welcome practical contributions on the following topics:
Forward-looking cooperation between companies and institutes
- New interfaces: Market research, marketing, specialist department - who talks to whom?
- Redefining things: How will cooperation between companies and institutes work tomorrow?
- Realignment: When AI intervenes throughout the value chain
The methods of today and tomorrow
- Synthetic vs. real: Where do artificial interviewees outperform people?
- Data collection methods: When colleagues question ‘AI’
- Data analytics: From ever-new sources and how they are integrated
A new market research job description
- Market research in the AI era: Which skills are indispensable?
- A new job profile: From insights to intelligence and IT
- EX, UX or CX: Do they all constitute market research - or what?
What is the Pecha Kucha format? Pecha Kucha is a Japanese term for a form of presentation ensuring the precise presentation of a theme by strict timelines: summed up to the point and visualised with pictures, photos or graphics. As a result, Pecha Kucha lectures are entertaining and concise. What does this mean for the speakers? Which rules of the game have to be considered? A Pecha Kucha presentation consists of 20 slides of 20 seconds, so there are a total of six minutes and 40 seconds available. Each slide is shown for 20 seconds. The change from slide to slide takes place automatically, so that the speaker must keep very close to the speaking time per slide. Of course, the lecturer determines the order and content of the slides. We look forward to your presentation in the Pecha Kucha format. And the special thing about the BVM congress: the audience chooses among the six Pecha Kucha lectures, which will be discussed in a later podium discussion.
What awaits you?
- A central platform for the exchange of industry knowledge and networking
- An interested audience and the feedback of around 200 specialists and managers
- Comprehensive advance communication through BVM and specialist media (digital and print)
- Follow-up reporting in BVM and trade press publications
Tips for a successful application
- Present an original - Contributions that have already been presented or published in German-speaking regions (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) will not be approved for the convention. If you have already published or presented your contribution at an event outside of German-speaking regions, please inform the program committee accordingly.
- Get to the point - Describe your idea or approach as precisely as possible. Make the decision easier for the program committee by expressing everything essential in your abstract (using about 4,000 characters).
- Do not shy away from specializing - Illustrate what the special strengths of your contribution and your know-how are.
- Meet the deadlines - Please note the specified submission dates.
- Less is more - A maximum of two speakers will give presentations. For each contribution accepted into the convention program, one person is given the opportunity to attend the convention on the day of his/her presentation free of charge.
- Refrain from self-promotion - Rather than a sales pitch, your contribution has to be a professional and objective examination of an issue or problem.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Call for Papers
- Are presentations submitted in response to this call for papers eligible for the German Market Research Award? - Before submitting your presentation, please decide whether you want to respond to this call for papers or compete for the German Market Research Award. Competing with the same contribution in both competitions is not an option.
- Who evaluates the submitted contributions? - The BVM Program Committee decides on the contributions, which will be part of the congress program.
- Who serves in the BVM Program Committee? - The program committee members are market researchers who work in commercial and institutional settings. The members are excluded from submitting contributions in response to the call for papers and may not compete for the German Market Research Award.
- When do people who responded to the call for papers learn whether their contribution was accepted? - First, we let you know that we received your contribution. If you do not receive such a confirmation of receipt, please contact us as early as possible. We will let you know whether we accepted your contribution by the end of February 2025.