Last week, on February 26-27, this year’s GOR – General Online Research Conference – took place at the Rheinische Hochschule Köln. Over 240 international participants from academia and industry came together to share and discuss scientific findings related to online market research.
horizoom was active with four colleagues on site and as a sponsor, poster award sponsor (with Leonard Mach as a jury member), and as a nominee for the GOR Impact & Innovation Award 2026.
For the study “Scaling Qualitative Depth: A Large-Scale Validation Study Comparing AI-Moderated Interviews and Conventional Surveys in OTC Pharma Research,” horizooms Jonathan Heinemann and Leonard Mach collaborated with Klosterfrau, xelper, and Q | Agentur für Forschung to compare AI-moderated interviews and classic online quantitative surveys in one of the largest known validation studies of its kind. The results, presented on stage by Oliver Tabino (Q | Agency for Research) and Sarah Goto (Klosterfrau), clearly impressed the jury, which included Yannick Rieder (Janssen Cilag GmbH), Dr. Tabea Tesch (Royal Canin), Sebastian Verfürth (SNIPES), and Holger Geißler (marktforschung.de | succeet GmbH). We are proud and grateful to receive this renowned and prestigious GOR Impact & Innovation Award 2026, and we would also like to thank the other high-quality submissions. In addition to the award and trophy, the prize also includes a workshop place at succeet26.
Congratulations also to the winners of the other awards:
- GOR Thesis Award Master: @Anna Fuchs (LMU)
- GOR Thesis Award PhD: Leah von der Heye (LMU)
- DGOF Best Paper Award: Jan Simson (LMU)
- Best of FAMS: Olivia Hetterich, Florian Moog, Leon Urban, Maximilian Aulbach
Furthermore, Leonard Mach, as a member of the jury, played a key role in the poster award sponsored by horizoom with prize money of €500. Our warmest congratulations go to Emma Fössing, Lukas Olbrich, Stefan Zins, and Jörg Drechsler from the IAB and LMU Munich for their contribution “Comparing Probability and Nonprobability Online Surveys: Data Quality and Fieldwork Processes.”
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the DGOF – German Society for Online Research – and the Rheinische Hochschule Köln for organizing the event – see you next year!
In the video, from left to right: Jonathan Heinemann (horizoom), Oliver Tabino (Q | Agency for Research), Sarah Goto (Klosterfrau), David Ranftler & Paul Wesendonk (xelper)
Leonard Mach (horizoom) with Tobias Rettig (GESIS) and Emma Fössing (IAB, LMU) representing the poster award-winning team
