Ep. 431 – CRC 2021 Highlights: Ben Kappes, Account Executive at Focus Groups of America

Welcome to the CRC 2021 Highlights Series. Recorded live in Dallas, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors, speakers and attendees at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Ben Kappes, Account Executive at Focus Groups of America.  More about CRC 2021: https://www.insightsassociation.org/conference/crc-2021  Find Ben Online: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benkappesfga/   Website: https://focusgroupsofamerica.com/  Find Jamin Online: Email: [email protected]  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil  Find Us Online:  Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch  Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp  Website: www.happymr.com  Music:  “Clap Along” by Auditionauti: https://audionautix.com  [00:00:00] Jamin Brazil: Hey everybody. I’m Jamin. You're listening to the Happy Market Research Podcast live at CRC in Dallas, Texas. Ben Kappes – nailed it – account executive, Focus Groups of America is the name of the company. Ben, thank you so much for joining me on the Happy Market Research Podcast. [00:00:18] Ben Kappes: Thank you for having me on. [00:00:19] Jamin Brazil: All right, so here we are live in person. Tell me a little bit about your business. [00:00:24] Ben Kappes: Well I guess in short FGA is a full-service research supplier and we partner with market research teams and consultants by providing them with a turnkey solution or ala carte services to support their research. [00:00:37] Jamin Brazil: Got it. Give me an example. [00:00:39] Ben Kappes: Our main services are things like recruiting and videography, but we do a lot of facilitation services as well, whether it’s online or in person at a facility. [00:00:48] Jamin Brazil: Well given that you guys were predominately it sounds like in-person business pre-pandemic, the pandemic would have impacted you pretty dramatically. What do you think about getting back in person? How is that impacting you? [00:00:59] Ben Kappes: It’s pretty great to be back to in person. I mean the pandemic was certainly interesting. We took a pretty dramatic shift. I guess pre-pandemic the majority of our work, I’d say like 90 percent was in person. But throughout the pandemic we’ve been seeing nothing but online research, which I’m sure most people in the industry have been as well. But it’s certainly interesting getting back into in person but really I’m kind of indifferent one way or the other.