Getting there (eventually)
I will be honest: getting to New York City for Quirk’s NYC 2026 was an adventure I did not anticipate. My flight to Newark was delayed twice, then canceled outright. The rebooking put me at a landing time more than 24 hours later than planned, which was not an option. I then switched to a LaGuardia flight. That was canceled too. After two hours on the phone with Air Canada, I had offers to route through Boston or Toronto, but with no guarantee of making it to the conference at all. Good thing I passed, because those flights were canceled as well, the whole region snarled by severe weather.
So I did what anyone with a stubborn streak and a conference to attend would do: I booked an overnight Greyhound at 10 PM, arrived in the city at 5:30 AM, grabbed a couple of hours of sleep, and met my client at 8:30 AM to walk into the conference together. Not glamorous, but it got me there.
And honestly? I would do it again – no hesitation.
Why it was worth every minute
This was my first market research conference – I’d been wanting to attend one for years. That alone made the travel chaos easy to brush off. But there was something more important pulling me to New York: Chrissy Linzy from Genesys, a client I have worked with for over three years across a wide range of projects, was attending specifically to meet with our Commercial VP Andrew Trudeau and myself in person. After years of calls, emails, and shared work, finally sitting across from her was something I had genuinely looked forward to. Strengthening that relationship was the priority, and we absolutely achieved it.
On top of that, I got to see Savanta colleagues I have not seen in years and met our new Marketing team for the first time. Every moment with the team was a joy, right down to staying late to tear down the booth. I may have momentarily defected to Marketing in spirit – to the team, thanks for having me!
And then there was an unexpected highlight: I topped the leaderboard in a reflex-testing game at the Market Expertise/E-Tabs booth. Seeing my name and Savanta up on the big screen was great– and as a fun bonus, I ended up winning a $100 Amazon gift card!
Three sessions that stayed with me
The Savanta and Genesys session, presented by Andrew Trudeau and Chrissy, was a natural highlight. It showcased more than three years of work and the direction of our ongoing partnership. What struck me most was how naturally Chrissy advocates for Savanta. At the booth, in conversation, in the session itself, she spoke about our work with real conviction. She even mentioned me by name from the stage. That kind of client relationship does not happen by accident, and seeing it play out in that room made the overnight bus feel well worth it.
The Mondelez International session, “Better for You Is Not Just a Trend: It’s a Live Test of the Say-Do Gap,” tackled something close to the heart of this industry: the gap between what consumers say and what they actually do. The argument for combining traditional and behavioral research to close that gap was compelling. Meanwhile, Live Nation’s session, “Beyond the Hot Dog: Leveraging Fan Intelligence to Elevate the Live Event Food and Beverage Experience,” explored how different audience segments need different targeting strategies to genuinely improve their experience. As an added moment, Live Nation gave Savanta a public shout-out for our tracker partnership, unprompted and unrelated to their talk. Hard not to appreciate that!
What I took away
I left Quirk’s buzzing. This industry is so much bigger, richer, and more dynamic than I understood when I started in market research five years ago. The breadth of knowledge on display, and the willingness of people to share it openly, was something I did not fully expect.
AI was everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Company after company described how they are embedding it into their work, sometimes in overlapping, sometimes in contradictory ways. I left with a genuine question about whether that concentration is a strength or a fragility for the industry. I do not have a clean answer yet.
What I do know is this: as someone who works fully remote, getting into a room with vendors, clients, colleagues, and thought leaders reminded me how irreplaceable face-to-face conversation is. Savanta is entering a new chapter, and moments like these, where relationships deepen and new ones form, matter more than ever. The more AI grows, the more the human side of this work becomes the differentiator.
I’m already looking forward to next year.