Ethnographic Practice in Industry

I have been looking for a group like this for a long time...and have just discovered it!  What am I talking about?  Well, Ethnographic Practice in Industry, what else? 

I am probably just about the last qualitative researcher on the block to figure out its existence (it was founded in 2005), but I am glad I finally caught up to it. 

Business is such a rich place for ethnographic inquiry right now.  Marketing is leaping full force into the use of qualitative research.  As I wrote in an earlier blog entry, The Qualitative Report has done a great service by making us qualitative researchers aware of the expansion into business. 

I was excited to read that they have an upcoming conference (10/14-17/2012 at Savannah College of Art and Design), but then saddened to realize I have conflict.  However, I am looking forward to trying to go to a future conference (they say they are now up to about 300 participants--not bad). 

To situate them, their web page says that: 

EPIC works in partnership with the American Anthropological Association (AAA) through the sub-section of the National Association of Practicing Anthropologists (NAPA).

This is definitely a trend that is not going away. 

I'll give the dog the last word on this.