Reflecting on SampleCon: Fresh conversations, real progress and an even stronger focus on data quality

Data Quality C0-op (DQC) was proud to sponsor, attend and speak at this year’s SampleCon, and we’re grateful to have been part of a conference that felt genuinely fresh. From new session structures to more candid conversations on stage, SampleCon created space for richer dialogue and more meaningful industry exchange.

This year’s event introduced several changes that made a real impact: debates in place of traditional keynotes, shorter talks, more in-depth opportunities to engage with speakers and an industry leader “ask me anything” that drew so much interest it ran out of time. The result was a conference experience that felt dynamic, practical and deeply relevant to the challenges the insights industry is working through today.

One of the biggest highlights was seeing more brands take the stage and openly share their perspectives. That voice is essential. Hearing directly from organizations navigating data quality, procurement, respondent experience and operational transformation helps ground the conversation in real-world needs and outcomes.

A few standout moments stayed with us.

• Jamie Lussier from Travelers and Bridget Sellers from People, Inc. offered valuable perspectives on the importance of accurate data, including the large amount of time her team spends managing data quality. That single point reinforces just how central quality has become: not as a side concern, but as a core operational priority. For years, there has been a sense that data quality conversations at conferences had grown stale. This year felt different.
  
• Our own session reflected that shift. Our CEO Bob Fawson was honored to moderate a thought-provoking panel on data quality and the implications for the market research industry. We were especially glad to share the stage with Walmart Data Ventures, who challenged the industry to invest in new models for better outcomes. Their work building a proprietary consumer community, grounded in a commitment to putting the customer first, demonstrated that it is possible to step outside the traditional ecosystem and do things differently.
  
• Dan Entrup from Aggknowledge also shared important observations from a year of interacting with expert networks. One clear takeaway: even specialist audience providers are not paying enough attention to respondent respect. Across the session, a broader theme emerged: if we want better outcomes, we need to think more seriously about how we treat respondents and how reciprocity shapes engagement and quality.
  
• Greg Wells and Sebastian Sciarra of JD Power added another important dimension to that conversation by sharing their journey of transforming research operations within the current ecosystem. Through a proprietary routing and qualification engine, modularized surveys and a stronger focus on conversion and respondent experience, they offered a practical example of innovation from inside the system, and issued another strong challenge to the industry to meet evolving expectations.
  
• Another standout session came from Monica Feldt of The Harris Poll, who shared the company’s procurement journey, from managing suppliers based largely on relationships, responsiveness and price to building a more systematic, measurable and quantitative quality governance process. We were proud that DQC’s quality intelligence infrastructure is serving as the backbone of that quality-first procurement approach.
  

What stood out most across the event was a real shift in tone. The conversation is moving beyond simply identifying quality problems. Increasingly, the industry is asking better questions: How do we build better systems? How do we create better respondent experiences? How do we make quality measurable, actionable and operational? And how do we align innovation with trust?

Those are the conversations DQC is committed to helping lead.

Thank you to the SampleCon team, the speakers and everyone who made the event such a success. We were glad to participate, glad to contribute and glad to see the industry pushing toward more open, constructive and forward-looking dialogue.

We’re already looking forward to continuing the conversation.