The local Post-EPIC-Barcelona Meetup in Berlin last Friday drew roughly two types of people: quite a number of participants were entirely new to ethnography in business and were curious to learn more, others had some experience and were interested in discussing more specific issues, from new technology driven trends of data gathering to questions of how to make ethnography work best in client projects.
The meeting had been organized by Christoph Welter (Point-Blank International) and Fabian Klenk (USEEDS°) as the first attempt to organize a more local meeting after the Barcelona EPIC Europe Meeting. Thanks guys! About 25 people came on a nice and warm Berlin summer evening. As we had seen in Barcelona, people here too had diverse backgrounds (despite the fact that the event hadn’t been published very extensively – but twitter seems to be doing a good job of spreading the word): researchers working in market research and in user experience contexts, strategic consultants, designers and service designers, and a few academics and corporate employees.
A bit surprising was perhaps (again) the number of people who were quite new to EPIC and to ethnography in industry contexts overall, and were curious to learn more. The other roughly half of attendants had some experience with ethnography and wanted to discuss a range of topics, from new technological trends of data gathering, to how to explain the usefulness to ethnography, to the challenge of a targeted data analysis – to just give a couple of example.
The easiest common denominator turned out be talking about some of the basics: what are key defining characteristics of ethnography and what are its strengths in delivering insights for commercial projects. A date for a next meeting was not yet set but participants agreed to stay in touch through a mailing list for now.
In short, the event had a nice, positive and engaging atmosphere. It was interesting to see how many new and diverse people came. While understandably for a first meeting, a more in-depth discussion on an advanced topic did not come together, future events will hopefully find a way to both serve the newcomers’ need to learn what ethnography is all about, but also to address the others’ interest in more specific discussions.
To get on the mailing list email Christoph <Christoph Welter <christoph.welter @ point-blank-international.com> or Fabian <fabian.klenk @ useeds.de>.
Heinrich Schwarz
Epic Europe Network 