Merlien Institute

🌍 How do you keep an insights function audience-centered when the organization operates at global scale? That is one of the questions behind the Research Hot Seat at MRMW Europe 2026. After her Day 1 session, Meije Bello (née Gernez), Head of Global Insights & Strategy at UNICEF, will move from the stage to the table for a direct, unscripted discussion with attendees. 🎙️ Research Hot Seat: Building a Sustainable, Audience-Centric Strategic Intelligence Function at Scale You will have the opportunity to ask what rarely fits into a formal presentation: → How do you operationalize insight across a complex global organization? → How do you balance scale, consistency, and audience relevance? → What does it take to build a strategic intelligence function that lasts? → Where do these models struggle in practice? No slides. No prepared talking points. Just an open conversation with the person doing the work — and peers facing similar questions. This is one of four Research Hot Seat tables at MRMW Europe 2026. 🎟️ Explore the Hot Seat table: https://lnkd.in/dY2ipgym   📍 MRMW Europe | October 21–22 | Berlin 💡 MRMW Europe is organized by Merlien Institute, the team behind global conferences on market research, UX research, and qualitative insights. #MRMWEurope #MarketResearch #ConsumerInsights #InsightsLeadership #ResearchCommunity

🎥 "When we're just in our own worlds, we have tunnel vision." That's Kean Yew Lim, Vice President of Marketing Asia at Monster Energy — on why he keeps coming back to QUAL360: to meet, as he puts it, his peers, his competitors, and the thought leaders of the industry. That's the room QUAL360 APAC builds: the only global conference built entirely for qualitative research, bringing together the people shaping how qual is actually practiced. This November in Singapore, the 2026 edition takes shape. 📋 What to expect: → Practical frameworks to keep qual credible, decision-ready, and fast → Guardrails and quality bars for AI-enabled research → Real case studies and lessons on proving impact 🎤 Who's speaking: → Yashan Cama — Head of Brand & Consumer Insights, APAC, Google → Katherine Mendoza — Consumer Science and Product Experience Global COP Lead, Haleon → Belinda Pang — Regional Director, Product Experience, Greater Asia, IFF → Warisara (Cherry) Bergholdt — Insights & Analytics Director, FrieslandCampina 🎨 Interested in UX? → The co-located UX360 Workshop runs the day before — a full day on where UX research goes next With Kenneth Law and Ernest Hui (Cathay Pacific), Bharati Dixit (HP), Tridib Chowdhury (Thales), and more 🗓️ QUAL360 APAC · November 3–4, 2026 · Aloft Singapore Novena 🎟️ Full agenda and registration: https://lnkd.in/dAe-aDhB 💡 QUAL360 APAC is organized by Merlien Institute — the team behind global conferences on qualitative research, market research, and UX insights. #QualitativeResearch #QUAL360 #QUAL360APAC #ConsumerInsights #MarketResearch

🧠 Speed vs. rigor. Automation vs. expertise. Scale vs. nuance. Efficiency vs. customization. AI didn't remove these trade-offs from research. It sharpened all four. Instant insight is now easy. Strategic value still takes deep human interpretation. Most teams are trying to resolve that tension. The harder, more useful skill is learning to hold both. That's what Chiinga Musonda, Market Intelligence & Commercial Strategy Planning Leader, works through in her MRMW Europe 2026 session. 🎙️ "The Insight Paradox in Pandora's Box: Balancing Speed vs. Depth in an AI-Assisted Research World" You'll learn how to: → Navigate the tension between AI's instant insight and the depth strategy requires → Manage the paradox across four fronts — strategy, technology, representation, personalization → Hold multiple contradictory truths, practically, in real research work Faster research is here. Whether it's better research is the question her session takes on. 🎟️ Explore this session and the rest of the agenda and speakers: https://lnkd.in/d-BVDDBq 📍 MRMW EU | October 21–22 | Berlin 💡 MRMW Europe is organized by Merlien Institute — the team behind global conferences on market research, UX research, and qualitative insights. #MarketResearch #ConsumerInsights #MRMW #AIinResearch #InsightsStrategy 

🌐 Nobody trained insights teams to forecast tariff wars. Stakeholders are asking anyway. Geopolitical disruption, new forms of competition, a global environment in constant motion — and the questions keep landing on the research function, whether or not it was ever trained for them. So what makes a research team effective in that environment? Martina Bozadzhieva, Managing Director of Macro and Investor Services at Oxford Economics, has spent her career at that intersection — economics, geopolitics, and corporate decision-making. Her answer, in the clip, isn't a tool or a technique. The full interview goes deeper: → Why single-point forecasts mislead when a policy decision in another hemisphere can move pricing, demand, and category dynamics → How scenario thinking — already standard in economic forecasting — is heading for market research next 🎥 Watch the full conversation: https://lnkd.in/diGcZ6ZB 📍 Meet Martina at MRMW Europe 2026 | October 21–22 | Berlin 💡 MRMW Europe is organized by Merlien Institute — the team behind global conferences on market research, UX research, and qualitative insights. #MarketResearch #ConsumerInsights #MRMW #GeopoliticalRisk #ScenarioPlanning

⏳ The QUAL360 Europe 2027 Call for Papers closes tomorrow. For 18 years, QUAL360 has been the only global conference built entirely for qualitative research — a senior room of qual researchers, insights leaders, and the people shaping how the craft evolves. Why take the stage: ✔️ Present to the only global room built entirely for qual ✔️ Reach senior researchers and insights leaders across industries ✔️ Get featured across our blog, LinkedIn, and email campaigns ✔️ Put your methods in front of the people who'll actually use them What earns a spot: real projects, honest methods, and a genuine point of view on where qualitative research goes next. 🎤 Apply now: https://lnkd.in/duxjZRff 🗓️ QUAL360 Europe 2027 | January 27–28, 2027 💡 QUAL360 Europe is organized by Merlien Institute — the team behind global conferences on qualitative research, market research, and UX insights. #QualitativeResearch #QUAL360 #CallForPapers #QualResearch #InsightsCommunity

📈 At Haleon, marketing effectiveness isn't a report you read after the fact. It's how investment decisions get made. Marketing mix modeling has been around for years — but most teams still treat it as measurement, not a planning tool. The shift is making it a core part of how marketing invests, forecasts, and proves its impact. That's what Ammar Basit, Analytics Director – Europe at Haleon, works on across one of the world's largest consumer-health portfolios. In his MRMW Europe 2026 session, he shares how to build and scale a marketing effectiveness program that actually drives growth. 🎙️ "From Analytics to Growth: MMM, Insights, and Better Decisions" You'll learn how to: → Scale MMM and pricing into a core part of marketing planning and performance → Combine MMM with other analytics to drive efficiency and growth → Get a marketing effectiveness program started — in any industry Still measuring decisions instead of shaping them? His session is where that changes. 🎟️ Explore this session, the full agenda, and all speakers: https://lnkd.in/dgdivfzV 📍 MRMW EU | October 21–22 | Berlin 💡 MRMW Europe is organized by Merlien Institute — the team behind global conferences on market research, UX research, and qualitative insights. #MarketResearch #ConsumerInsights #MRMW #MarketingEffectiveness #MMM 

🎤 Keeping qual credible while AI speeds everything up — that's the question qualitative research leaders across APAC will tackle in one room this November. That room is QUAL360 APAC: for 18 years, the only global conference built entirely for qualitative research. The 2026 edition is taking shape in Singapore. Here's what's confirmed so far. The first speakers: → Yashan Cama — Head of Brand & Consumer Insights, APAC, Google → Marie Kristel Gabawa — Head of Growth and Innovation, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) → Warisara (Cherry) Bergholdt — Insights & Analytics Director, FrieslandCampina → Belinda Pang — Regional Director, Product Experience, Greater Asia, IFF → Mark Jefferson Go — Chief Strategy, Research and Development; Enterprise and Education Director, PT. Erajaya Swasembada, Tbk. → Esther Tan — Global Director of Marketing & E-Commerce, Plaza Premium Group And what the program is built around: ✔ Practical frameworks to keep qual credible, decision-ready, and fast ✔ Real case studies on quant+qual workflows that improve confidence ✔ Guardrails and quality bars for AI-enabled research ✔ Operating-model lessons on governance, adoption, and proving impact The day before, the co-located UX360 Workshop — a half day on where UX research goes next. Swipe for the full first lineup 👉 More speakers to be announced. 🗓️ QUAL360 APAC · November 3–4, 2026 · Aloft Singapore Novena 🎬 UX360 Workshop · November 2 🎟️ Registration and details: https://lnkd.in/ddycjJ_r 💡 QUAL360 APAC is organized by Merlien Institute — the team behind global conferences on qualitative research, market research, and UX insights. #QualitativeResearch #QUAL360 #QUAL360APAC #ConsumerInsights #MarketResearch

💬 The hardest part of becoming a strategic advisor isn’t the research. It’s changing how the business sees you. That’s why one of the new interactive roundtables at MRMW Europe 2026 tackles exactly that challenge. Unlike a traditional conference session, this format is built for discussion. No long presentations. No one-way conversation. Just a small group of senior peers exchanging experiences, challenges, and practical approaches. 🎙️ Featured Roundtable: Transforming Market Research into Strategic Advisory Led by Tom Cakl, Director, Business Insights & Analytics (Germany), Bristol Myers Squibb Together, you’ll discuss: → How insights teams are earning a seat at the strategy table → What’s helping research functions become trusted business partners → Where organisations still struggle to bridge insights and business decisions → Lessons learned from teams making the transition This is one of four interactive roundtables taking place at MRMW Europe 2026, each designed to encourage open discussion around the industry’s most pressing challenges. 🎟️ Explore the full roundtable programme, agenda, and speakers: https://lnkd.in/dHY2NQGb 📍 MRMW Europe | October 21–22 | Berlin #MRMWEurope #MarketResearch #ConsumerInsights #InsightsLeadership #StrategicInsights

ICYMI: we recently launched something new for the UX community — and spots are filling. Across UX360 events, speaker conversations, and close exchanges with UX professionals from leading organizations, one shift has become increasingly clear: UX work has moved far beyond research outputs, wireframes, and design recommendations. Today, the strongest UX professionals are expected to connect user insight with product decisions, business impact, and stakeholder confidence. That’s why we’re launching the UX360 Certificate in Applied UX: Strategic Experience Lead — a 5-week live online certification designed to help UX professionals move from Figma expert to product builder. Across five applied sessions, participants will work through a practical journey from problem framing to solution validation, narrative building, and a final boardroom-style presentation. The program is taught by Utkarsh Seth, Senior Staff UX Research Manager at Google, and focuses on strategic judgment, product thinking, and applied UX methods that reflect how modern teams work today. Participants can choose between two certification paths: → UX360 Certificate of Attendance → UX360 Certificate of Achievement, including project-based learning, expert feedback, and Certified UX360 Practitioner designation. Explore the program and choose the path that matches your goals. Register for the UX360 Certificate in Applied UX - https://lnkd.in/dF6yfK8t #UX360 #AppliedUX #UXResearch #UXDesign #ProductStrategy #UserExperience

📬 The July edition of our newsletter is out. Inside: the UX360 Europe 2026 recap, an interview with Warner Bros. Discovery on content discovery research, and a Microsoft Commerce case study on research leadership under shrinking budgets. Plus what's ahead: MRMW Europe in Berlin this October, and QUAL360 APAC in Singapore this November. 📖 Read the full edition below