The Future is Now: IRI Growth Summit 2016

IRI’s Big Growth Summit was held April 18-20 in the Washington, D.C. area. While the conference focused on Big Data, there was clearly an eagerness for everyone to understand what the future holds in this dynamically growing area of the information industry. Though we have all heard for quite some time about how Big Data is being applied across many verticals, the IRI Summit created an environment that both assisted the insights professionally as well as exhibited that the company is comprised of thought leaders within this area of the insights industry.

This year brought many great presentations along the spectrum of how Big Data assists those professionals who are charged with insights. Two very compelling presentations around what the future holds were given as anchors to the conference.

The Liquid Data platform has been evolving over the years to offer one of the largest integrated consumer insights platforms within the information industry. It is with that accomplishment that Andrew Appel, president and CEO of IRI, gave his keynote presentation. “This is the decade where data comes to life,” Appel told attendees. His compelling message weaved through the many real-life examples of how the Liquid Data platform and IRI have viewed the world of retailers in synergistic convergence with manufacturers who in turn look to consumers. As he peered around the corner, Appel spoke of how the information industry will need to embrace the future of each consumer, having their own “personalization” platform for their own personal journey. As Appel spoke to movements such as 'Automated Analytics, Execution, and The Measurement of Everything', the audience quickly realized IRI's intent to be the company to find the edge of the future as it converges with information. 

As the Summit wound through presentations on real-world examples applying the Liquid Data platform for insights, analytics, targeting and activation, it became apparent that IRI client view this platform as crucial to their everyday activities for execution all the way through to the C-level suite. With that much interest in the Liquid Data platform, it is apparent that IRI is filling an unmet need. The unmet need of real-time insights in the marketplace is where former Tesla, Apple and Gap executive George Blankenship picked up his presentation on “The Future of Innovation.” As Blankenship shared his fascinating story about the successes and challenges of Apple and Tesla, it was apparent that he sees “innovation” differently than most other professionals. There aren't too many authorities who can say they have helped created products that were so in demand that consumers camped out to be among the first to make a purchase. Blankenship has experienced that level of consumer attraction -- twice.  As demonstrated in his many accounts through his career, Blankenship showed how incredibly important innovation is in this new, connected world.

There was a clear message from these two presentations (along with more than70 other presentations): Now is the time when we can have any insights we want when we want them, and as such, IRI has created a compelling reason to believe that the hunt for data is over. If you cannot find the insights you need, you are not looking in the right place. With this ability, we can now breathe life into data in ways that could not have been imagined even five years ago.