Tick, tick. Only two weeks left until Forrester’s Marketing Forum, and turnout is high for this strategic view into the next digital decade. Personally, I’m ecstatic that the Forum is in San Francisco. I lived here decades ago and can honestly say that I left part of my heart here (am I the only one old enough to actually remember this song?). You’ll come for the great presentations and, if you’re not careful, you’ll wind up staying for the amazing culture, cuisine and climate!

And speaking of great presentations, the team is pulling out all the stops to make sure that market insights (MI) professionals are ready for the next digital decade. Tamara Barber will set the stage with an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing MI professionals in the era of the Splinternet. Jackie Anderson has put together a great panel to give you a 360-degree understanding of doing research in the high-growth youth market and Roxana Strohmenger will take you to the cutting edge of emerging and innovative research methods.

Finally, I have the honor of closing out the market insights track sessions with a mandate to translate insights into actions. No small feat given the challenges created by the perfect storm of technological, social and economic changes. As we could spend many weeks covering everything needed to help MI professionals face the challenges of this socially-connected, fast-changing, consumer-powered, global marketplace, I’m going to take some of Reineke’s advice on prioritizing work and focus on 4 high-value information areas: product, price, place and promotion.

Yes, the Marketing 4Ps, that relic of JFK-era advertising on black-and-white TVs and big glossy magazines. It still lives but, in the internet age, it’s changed a lot. This ‘New Marketing’ also requires MI professionals to change as well. During the session, we’ll go through the 4Ps, talk about how the world has changed them and what tools, strategies and processes MI professionals can implement now to meet 4P information demands for the coming years.

I look forward to meeting many of you face-to-face for the first time and discussing the challenges you are facing and how you are adapting to change. For those who cannot make it, we definitely welcome your input and questions:

Do you feel ready to handle the information demands of this decade? What changes are you seeing in requests around the 4Ps? How are you adapting to the perfect storm of change?