As the leading voice, resource and network of the market research and data analytics community in the United States, the Insights Association helps its members create competitive advantage. A founding member of GRBN and ARIA, IA has accomplished much during the past several months and many new initiatives are underway. Here are just a few brief highlights of recent work, all guided by the four pillars of its mission: Protect, Connect, Inform and Promote.
- Helped secure dozens of amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), improving the chances our industry will be able to comply with this wide-sweeping law, which came into effect on January 1, 2020; assisted in procuring a $1 billion funding increase for the 2020 U.S. Census and defeated a proposed citizenship question that would have diminished the accuracy of the U.S. industry’s most vital data backbone.
- Bringing to all conferences renewed excitement, objective education, and opportunities to connect with peers. This begins with a reinvention of the NEXT conference, June 1-2 in New York, which will provide much-needed unbiased education on many emerging market research skills as well as such coveted “soft” skills as problem solving, influential storytelling, team building and leadership, and much more.
- As a founding member of the Privacy for America Coalition, IA is working with leaders in Washington, DC, to forge a U.S. federal data privacy law that will not impede our work, and critically, that will eliminate the impossibly complex requirement of complying with dozens of individual U.S. state laws.
- Revised in 2019 with 130+ updates and improvements, IA’s Code of Standards and Ethics for Marketing Research and Data Analytics presents the fundamental, overarching principles of ethics and professionalism for the industry and helps ensure vital protection for data subjects while establishing a needed platform for self-regulation.
- Recently announced was a revision and expansion of the association’s individual certification program previously known as PRC. To be rolled out in 2020, the Insights Professional Certification (IPC) program reflects new methodologies, techniques and technology. There will be multiple pathways towards certification at different levels and specialties – accomplished with unprecedented coordination and support of the industry’s leading education providers.
- IA subsidiary CIRQ (the Certification Institute for Research Quality) is leading the way in providing International Standards Organization (ISO) audit and certification services to the all-new 20252 market research and data analytics standard and ISO 27001, one of the most widely recognized and internationally accepted information security standards.
With a new CEO, six new Board members, a growing membership, and an expanded events calendar, 2020 will be a landmark year for the Insights Association.
