Foundation Course Frolics

Early on in January, forty or so fresh-faced (and not so fresh-faced) researchers, planners, and brand managers assembled at the Bonnington Hotel in Holborn for the first day of the much-heralded AQRP Foundation Course.

Week One

First up, after John Rose's welcome speech, was Mo Ressler who delivered an interesting and interactive introductory presentation about group dynamics.

Lunch eventually arrived in the form of "delicious" sandwiches that unfortunately proved to be a little too reminiscent of those early 80s school pack lunches.

After a swift diversion to the nearest pub, Joanna Chrzanowska took to the podium and introduced us to interviewing. This session gave us the chance to adopt various personalities in interviewer/interviewee situations, to learn about the different power relationships that can develop during an interview.

Week Two

The first talk focused on the ins and outs of fieldwork. The message from Liz Sykes and Penny Steele was: Be thorough, be explicit and, above all, consider the recruiter's interests.

Wendy Hayward's Writing Discussion Guides opened with the teaser "What do Qualitative Researchers and Linford Christie have in common?". It caught people's attention and provoked muttered commnets relating to purpose-built containers for midday meals. The answer was, of course, visualisation.

Patterson: "interesting parallels between mineral water and giraffes"

Simon Patterson's Stimulus Materials and Projective Techniques proved to be a highly entertaining affair, highlighting interesting parallels between mineral water and giraffes. His deadpan delivery owed much to Jack Dee -- or was it the other way round?

Lunch: One of the sandwiches was found to contain mould.

The afternoon was taken up with planning discussion guides for the following week's moderation. Some found the experience frustrating at first, for others the storming part was more Schwarzkopff than Chrzanowska. Once underway, however, the exercise poved fruitful and several groups even managed to produce coherent discussion guides.

Week Three

Have you ever wondered how it feels to be part of a group discussion, on the receiving end of all the questioning and probing, subject to the whims of sartorially challenged, slightly deranged individuals claiming to be qualitative researchers? You haven't? Well, just try to moderating skills day of the AQRP Foundation Course.