Five things I learnt at WAPOR

I had the chance to attend the World Association for Public Opinion Research’s 75th annual conference in Dubai last week, the association’s first in-person conference since the 72nd held in Toronto in 2019, and my first time attending it. WAPOR’s mission is to promote high standards for polling worldwide. These are my reflections. 

The more things change the more they stay the same; as a milestone conference there was naturally a reflection on the past, and it was perhaps reassuring that the topic list from the first conference in 1947 had a familiar feel, focused at that time on the ‘new’ discipline of survey methods which we continue to use today. Why reassuring? As it demonstrates the robustness of survey methods to solve today’s challenges. But it was also clear that a lot has changed, mainly related to technology. As one speaker put it the evolution of survey research shows its adaptability. 

A reminder of the value of meeting in person after the pandemic years. It’s good to be back! I was apprehensive about travelling so far to a conference, and after the pandemic years it may be tempting to think we can do conferences online. But I was reminded of the enormous value of networking, something that the online conferences never managed to replicate, and will look to attend selectively in future. Conferences present the opportunity to see what others have been doing but more importantly dig into the detail via side conversations and make connections that help our work. I was impressed by the presentations from the International Social Survey Programme among others and the diversity of work from commercial companies including D3 Systems, Gallup, Sample Solutions, GDCC, GeoPoll, etc. 

WAPOR is a proper ‘academic’ conference where delegates present both successes and failures, without too much commercial gloss. I found the quality of the content to be high, perhaps as the conference is quite compact, certainly compared to the enormous event that ESRA (the biennial European conference) has become. There was a good blend of practitioner (‘pollsters’) and academic presenters and of methodological and substantive research, which made the conference informative and engaging throughout.  

The importance of research has never been clearer, highlighted by talks on recent research in Russia and Ukraine and the clever ways colleagues have worked to deliver public opinion data that is accurate and reliable in challenging circumstances. In an increasingly polarised world, knowing what others are really thinking has never been more important. 

Finally, the defence of probability methods is as strong as ever, with those in the room reassuringly in favour even when many outside of it have abandoned them. It is essential to our industry’s credibility that we continue to shine a light on what the evidence shows, while being open minded to new methods if the evidence and/or situation calls for it.