Humber's Research Analyst Graduate Certificate Program is pleased to invite you to its annual research event, the RAP Research Forum, happening on Friday, March 28 from 10:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the North Campus and online on MS Teams. The event will feature a panel presentation and demo of AI applications in research, a display of student MRP projects, and a networking session with research industry guests. Please register in advance as seats are limited.
Technological Trends in Research: AI Revisited
The theme of the 2024 RAP Research Forum was AI in Research: Convergence Points, which focused on a theoretical discussion of how generative AI was impacting stages of the research process. Given the speed of change in AI development and use, the 2025 version of the Research Forum would like to revisit the theme of AI, but through the lens of real-world applications in marketing or social research, coupled with a discussion about the type of AI specific skills that emerging research analysts will need to be career-ready.
Panel Speakers
Kevin Hare, Executive Vice-President, Dig Insights
Kevin is an Executive Vice-President with Dig Insights. He leads a group of client-facing research teams that design custom research for clients across a range of industries including financial services, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications and food and beverage manufacturers. Prior to joining Dig, he led research for Rogers Communications including Insights for the communications, enterprise and media business units. He has been a featured presenter at numerous conferences including Quirks, MRIA National Conference, Association for Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), and as a guest speaker for Special Olympics Canada.
Kevin will be sharing Dig’s perspective on AI called Building for the Future: Unlocking AI’s Potential. His talk will explore how AI is being integrated into the research process, highlighting key areas of impact and sharing practical examples of AI tools currently in use at Dig that will include part of a case study of Dig’s work with Labatt.
Scott Boyer, Executive Vice-President and Partner, BrandSpark International
Scott Boyer is the EVP and Partner at BrandSpark International, a Toronto-based research and consulting firm. Scott is also partner with Best New Product Awards Inc. He is a seasoned market research professional and entrepreneur with over 25 years in consumer insights, trust research, and strategic brand positioning. As the managing director of the research division at BrandSpark Inc, he specializes in uncovering actionable insights to help clients build and maintain consumer trust, optimize brand strategies, and drive measurable growth.
Scott’s interest in AI lies in gathering meaningful insights efficiently while streamlining the research end to end process and actively integrating AI into his workflow to quickly explore new analytical angles, for strategic brainstorming and creative problem-solving.
Felicia Colasanto, Director of Research, BrandSpark
Felicia Colasanto is a Research Director at BrandSpark International. Felicia has over six years of experience leading qualitative and quantitative market research, focused on helping brands grow their market share via strategic brand differentiation and consumer-centric communication. Felicia’s expertise in messaging optimization and brand strategy empowers brands to connect more effectively with their audiences and enhance growth.
Felicia’s interest in AI lies in streamlining day to day research tasks efficiently, to free up time for insight and storytelling development.
Scott and Felicia's presentation will focus on AI in survey analysis and a live demonstration of an application of a GPT assistant.
