Nominations Open For 2013 Ginny Valentine Badge Of Courage Awards

The Research Liberation Front (RLF) announces that it is accepting nominations for the 2013 Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage awards.

The awards, an industry first, were launched in London in 2012 to recognize exceptional bravery in the market research industry. They are named after after the late Ginny Valentine, the “ultimate revolutionary” who established semiotics in the UK as a legitimate market research tool in the 1990s. In 2013 the awards travel to New York as a collaboration between the Research Liberation Front and GreenBook, the publisher of the GreenBook Directory and the GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report (GRIT) and a champion of innovation in research.

The winners will be announced in New York City on March 19^th, 2013, at the annual GRIT celebration of market research innovators.

Unlike conventional market research awards, which typically celebrate marketing success or the rigour of a clever methodology, the Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage is awarded to those who fought long odds and showed exceptional determination to produce great market research which informs and inspires.  The awards are designed to recognise researchers wherever they work – within client companies or as suppliers.

You can submit nominations and vote on current nominations using a crowdsourcing ideation approach here: http://kl.grupthink.com/. Nominations are open through February 25^th, 2013.

Bravery takes many forms: developing a new approach; struggling with a difficult brief;  undertaking cultural research methodologies such as semiotics and ethnography; setting up new venture; pushing through controversial projects; pioneering new approaches in a client organization, even physical danger, to name a few. In all cases, the panel will look for nominees with persistence, drive, and guts.

Anyone can nominate someone for a bravery award. From anywhere in the world. As long as the area is research. You can even nominate yourself!  Nominators need to explain in up to 500 words why they think the nominee should receive a bravery award, and post this on our crowdsourcing board at: http://kl.grupthink.com/.

The public will then vote on which nominees make it to the shortlist. The final decisions will be made by our fearless panel:

• Angry MR Client (Agent Provocateur)
• Jon Puleston (remote) (GMI)
• Diane Hessan (Communispace)
• Catherine Moffatt (Diageo)
• Alec Maki (Bellomy Research)

The judges’ decisions will be revealed at the GRIT Part and 2013 Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage Awards.

For free registration for The GRIT Party and 2013 Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage Awards on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM use the link below:

http://badgeofcourage.eventbrite.com/#

This award is ideal for managers and research sponsors looking to recognize the work of team members or other stakeholders. You can find more information about the 2012 awards on the crowdsourcing site or at www.researchliberationfront.com

Speaking on the launch of the second year of the awards, Fiona Blades from the Research Liberation Front commented: “The Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage award made waves last year when we discovered that bravery takes many forms from a client researcher bringing in a new method from an off roster agency, to a young researcher setting up a new company to showcase an unproven approach, to street interviewers shot by the Taliban for persisting in running public opinion surveys.  These awards are quite unlike other industry awards and the winners have the satisfaction of knowing they have inspired others in the industry to do better braver work. During her career Ginny Valentine was an inspiration. At last year’s ceremony her son Phil Valentine said she would have been thrilled by the diversity and character of those who won.”