Category Archives: Events

Highlights of Pangborn 2015

Pangborn 2015The international sensory symposium of the year, Pangborn 2015 has come to an end, leaving sensory and consumer researchers with a lot to think about.  I just wanted to share the highlights and three key themes of the conference here to get us all thinking about what the next two years may hold in product-based research.

 

Global research – The whole world is conducting sensory and consumer science, and Pangborn 2015 really opened up the world to all the possible insights, from Australia to China, from the US to Thailand.  Delegates learnt about the opportunities and challenges working across international markets and languages.

Speedy sensory – Rapid techniques in product evaluation, such as Mapping, Sorting and Check-All-That Apply (CATA) were put under the microscope at Pangborn, both for general research, and for assessments with specific target consumers.  As expected all rapid methods offer a trade off between speed, efficiency and the level of detail achieved.  As presented by Tracey Hollowood, and something I’ve personally embraced in my own publications, are the opportunities offered by hierarchical sorting approaches to gain fantastic sensory differences and product insight efficiently, while offering the closest option to profiling.  I’d be happy to share my thoughts and ideas on this as well as my paper for anyone interested!

Controlled context – Sensory scientists are always seeking to control all factors of product assessment, from sample preparation and presentation to the surrounding environment and even lighting. However, more consumer researchers are interested in assessing products within the context of where and when they would typically be used.   This is particularly interesting for consumer Central Location Testing (CLT) to determine whether a product fits the context and environment that it would usually be used in.  Therefore finding the ideal trade off between controlled, strict and accurate product testing, to more ‘in-the-moment’ assessments in context is still heavily under debate.

As expected, Pangborn 2015 was a fantastic mix of current research developments, intriguing novel applications for testing techniques as well as branching into newer unchartered territories of mobile apps, global consumer understanding and more implicit methodologies.

Pangborn Banner 2

11th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Gothenburg, Sweden

Sunday is the start of Pangborn 2015, a key conference in the diary of Sensory Scientists across the world!  This year the Swedish Institute of Food and Biotechnology are hosting the five day event, bringing together sensory and consumer researchers, businesses and academic institutes from across the globe.

I’m very excited to be attending a few days of Pangborn this year, as the 2015 conference is focussing on a wide range of topic areas from fundamental sensory research to more broad scoping global approaches.  The cross-cultural context is particularly interesting as more and more global businesses are looking to develop products for different consumers and markets.  When I’m not on the MMR stand, I look forward to learning from speakers and poster presentations across a wide range of fields, although some have particularly piqued my interest.  I’m fascinated by sensory-driven product design to make better products for consumers, as well as learning about current innovations and advances in sensory and consumer methodologies to develop the best ways to test products, and this can help us all learn new and interesting approaches.

I’m eager to hear from leading experts in sensory and consumer science, and following my recent blog on fat perception, a keynote presentation from Professor Richard Mattes is high on my list!  As is the role of media in consumer and sensory testing to be discussed by Dr Dag Piper, which sounds very interesting and particularly relevant in today’s media centric society.  I’m sure the vast array of talks and posters will give all of us delegates and researchers a lot of food for thought!

Pangborn is a fantastic opportunity to learn, swap ideas, meet new people and build steps for innovation.

I hope to see you there!