Welcome to the 2019 NEXT Conference Series. Recorded live in Chicago, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Ray Fischer, CEO and Founding Partner of Aha! Online Research. Find Ray Online: LinkedIn Website: https://ahaonlineresearch.com [00:00] Aha! is the name of the company. We are live at the Insights Association’s NEXT Conference 2019 in Chicago. We are winding up Day 2. What time do you take off [00:15] I take off just after this interview. I’m going to head down to the train station, do the old school Amtrak back to Detroit. It’s going to be awesome. [00:21] Oh, that’s right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:22] Yeah, yeah. I take the train, get some work done, get to watch a little "Billions" on the way back. [00:25] How long does that take? [00:27] It’s about four and a half hours. [00:28] OK. That’s not bad. [00:29] I lose an hour going back. I go from the Central to the East time zone. It’s a little bit longer that way, but it’s a nice, comfortable, great way to go back, you know, Detroit to Chicago. [00:38] Totally. You don’t have like all the drama with air flight. [00:40] It is so simple. It’s incredible. I mean they don’t even check ID’s going on, which is weird to me, but... [00:45] I know. It is old school. [00:47] It’s that simple. It’s old school. It feels like a throw-back, 45, 50 years ago. [00:51] Yeah, it does, it does. I remember the old days of air traffic prior to 9/11. It’s like show up. Anybody who’s at the gate... [01:00] Right, the train is kind of like that now, but I will tell you they haven’t changed the cars in 45 or 50 years. A little dated, but it is kind of a cool, romantic sort of way to travel back and forth, when it’s not too far. [01:14] Is it packed? [01:14] It is usually pretty full, you know, because there’s a lot of, again, Detroiters coming to Chicago and back and forth, a lot of transplants both ways. [01:22] Yep, totally. So a highlight of the show? [00:25] Highlight of the show. I saw a couple of really good talks. I’d say the first highlight though... When I go to these shows, they become so fun. When I look back five or six years ago when we were just launching, I didn’t know anybody at the shows. So, it was basically me and my two partners, standing at our booth talking to each other, telling stories, trying to make it look like we’re having fruitful conversations at selling something. Now,
Welcome to the 2019 NEXT Conference Series. Recorded live in Chicago, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Ray Fischer, CEO and Founding Partner of Aha! Online Research.
Find Ray Online:
Website: https://ahaonlineresearch.com
[00:00]
Aha! is the name of the company. We are live at the Insights Association’s NEXT Conference 2019 in Chicago. We are winding up Day 2. What time do you take off
[00:15]
I take off just after this interview. I’m going to head down to the train station, do the old school Amtrak back to Detroit. It’s going to be awesome.
[00:21]
Oh, that’s right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:22]
Yeah, yeah. I take the train, get some work done, get to watch a little "Billions" on the way back.
[00:25]
How long does that take?
[00:27]
It’s about four and a half hours.
[00:28]
OK. That’s not bad.
[00:29]
I lose an hour going back. I go from the Central to the East time zone. It’s a little bit longer that way, but it’s a nice, comfortable, great way to go back, you know, Detroit to Chicago.
[00:38]
Totally. You don’t have like all the drama with air flight.
[00:40]
It is so simple. It’s incredible. I mean they don’t even check ID’s going on, which is weird to me, but...
[00:45]
I know. It is old school.
[00:47]
It’s that simple. It’s old school. It feels like a throw-back, 45, 50 years ago.
[00:51]
Yeah, it does, it does. I remember the old days of air traffic prior to 9/11. It’s like show up. Anybody who’s at the gate...
[01:00]
Right, the train is kind of like that now, but I will tell you they haven’t changed the cars in 45 or 50 years. A little dated, but it is kind of a cool, romantic sort of way to travel back and forth, when it’s not too far.
[01:14]
Is it packed?
[01:14]
It is usually pretty full, you know, because there’s a lot of, again, Detroiters coming to Chicago and back and forth, a lot of transplants both ways.
[01:22]
Yep, totally. So a highlight of the show?
[00:25]
Highlight of the show. I saw a couple of really good talks. I’d say the first highlight though... When I go to these shows, they become so fun. When I look back five or six years ago when we were just launching, I didn’t know anybody at the shows. So, it was basically me and my two partners, standing at our booth talking to each other, telling stories, trying to make it look like we’re having fruitful conversations at selling something. Now, I can go to the shows (we didn’t exhibit at this one), I’m just walking around; I see people like you; I see people like a lot of friends, vendors, prospects, clients, etc. I make new friends. It’s just a really, really fun way to immerse yourself more in the industry but, again, as time goes on, it just becomes kind of a community of friends.
[02:06]
ROI on shows. That’s interesting, right? I think about that a lot. Like how do I maximize my return on... It’s expensive: it’s $10,000; by the time you’re done, it’s $10,000. You’ve got a couple staff, and that doesn’t include the hard costs of time and money going into it.
[02:24]
No doubt, no doubt.
[02:25]
So, what do you think about that? Do you guys do much exhibiting?
[02:29]
You know, we do. We do about four conferences a year where we exhibit and I speak at several as well. So those definitely help ‘cause when you have the exhibit and the speaking engagement, as you know, that’s kind of a double whammy, double power-packed punch. You know where you got the ability to talk to people who come by your booth after they saw it. So you really max out, especially if you get an earlier time slot. If you’re the last guy on the last day, you don’t really get to maximize that.