MRMW NA 2019 Conference Series – Courtney Akel - Georgia-Pacific

Welcome to the MRMW NA 2019 Conference Series. Recorded live in Cincinnati, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Courtney Akel, Associate Manager of Consumer Insight at Georgia-Pacific. Contact Courtney Online: LinkedIn Georgia-Pacific [00:00] Live at MRMW on the show floor, I have the honor of speaking with Courtney Akel, Georgia Pacific, a company all of us have heard from.  As an internal insights professional, she has seen a lot of transitions over the last few years in really two ways: one is the role of partnerships with her agency relationships, and then the  other is centric to just staying current on tools and systems and processes and technologies so that she’s operating with the sharpest tools or the best tools inside of her toolbox to deliver consistent insights for Georgia Pacific.  Hope you enjoy. [00:40]   Courtney Akel, Georgia Pacific.  Everybody’s heard of Georgia Pacific.  How are you? [00:46]   I’m good.  How are you? [00:47]   Good.  MRMW is coming to a close, I think.  What do you think about the show? [00:51]   It’s been a great event.  There’s been a lot talk on Big Data, which has been really interesting to me, being in the quant side of the industry.  And I’m learning a lot. [01:08] Oh, yeah.  What is your biggest takeaway so far? [01:11] My biggest takeaway is that primary research isn’t dying.  So that’s nice job security and that what I need to do to complement my skill sets currently is to do R.    [01:28] Oh, interesting.  So you’re thinking like a Python/R path for you?    [01:31] Yeah, yeah, I think I’m going to learn to start coding, to do more like visual things with my research and with the data. [01:43]   Are you thinking about Code Academy?  How are you going to go through that journey? [01:46] Huh, no, I’m going to go through a data camp.          [01:49] Oh, data camp, yeah, yeah.   [01:50] Yeah, going through data camp.  They have free courses. I just downloaded the app on my phone.  Learning that R code. We’ll see how it goes. Wish me luck. [laughter] [02:03] It’s no joke.  It’s no joke. I mean I think you’ll pick it up fast.  Have you done any programming in the past? [02:08] Yeah, so I can write SPSS and Syntax. [02:13]   Got it.  So you’re familiar already. [02:14] Yeah, I’m pretty familiar with like coding, but it’s just like a new language to learn.  They’re all slightly different. Like I’m familiar with Java Script. And so, they’re all like slightly different, but I found that, if you understand coding, you could just pick it up.