EPIC 2006
by Todd WilkensI’m freshly back from EPIC 2006 and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. As you can tell from the esoteric name (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference), this event grew out of a small community of anthropology Ph.D.s working in industrial settings — primarily large corporations. This influenced the feeling last year that the conference was overly academic and a bit exclusionary. But it was clear that they made a concerted effort to broaden the audience this year. I think the formal conference content was still a bit difficult for folks without a solid social science background to really get a lot out of but the many opportunities to talk more casually with tons of smart people made it worthwhile for most attendees. Some major themes that I found particularly relevant:
- Developing a clear understanding of different approaches to research on the continuum from more tactical, evaluative to more rigorous, theory-driven and strategic.
- Understanding the difference in perspective and skillset between corporate researchers and those who work in services firms. The different organizational contexts can make it difficult for the two groups to speak directly to each other.
Next year’s conference should be even better. Rick Robinson (bio from another conference) of Luth Research (and formerly of E-Lab) will be one of the organizers. Rick is neither an anthropologist nor a corporate researcher — though he does have a Ph.D. He is also by far one of the smartest folks working in the field.
EPIC also makes a nice counterpoint to About, With, and For, the design research conference at the Institute of Design that approaches some of the same issues from the design perspective. If you’re attending AWF, you might consider stopping by my talk about ethnography and methods.
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