January 2025: Spotlight Interview with WAPOR Latinoamérica President Fabián Echegaray (Brazil)

From April 28 to 30, 2025, the Latin American Chapter of WAPOR will hold its 11^th regional conference in Florianópolis, Brazil. WAPOR’s Publications Committee (PC) interviewed Fabián Echegaray (FE) on the chapter’s past experiences and accomplishments, as well as ideas and expectations toward the upcoming conference. 

ON LOCATION CHOICES

PC: This is already your 11^th regional conference. The last one took place in Oaxaca in 2023. What makes this event and Florianópolis unique compared to previous WAPOR Latinoamerica conferences?

FE: During my tenure as President of WAPOR Latinoamerica, we expanded our reach within the broad universe of stakeholders (through alliance making), brought far more benefits and advantages to our members (through discounts with leading educational and training institutions), and developed an active agenda of knowledge sharing and integration of experts within the WAPOR LATAM agenda (such as topic-specific webinars, curation for public opinion postgrad studies offerings, and agreements with the news and opinion media platform Latinoamerica21).

One result of this is a far larger and qualified number of professionals and scholars who have become close to our Chapter, thus boosting the number of papers, special panels, and incentives to attend, such as qualified keynote speakers and free workshops for attendees. The XI WAPOR LATAM Congress stands out as the largest in its entire history, with over 230 approved papers and poster proposals (conditioned to one single paper per author) in addition to 33 special panels and roundtables that gather an additional 120 experts. Those panels were proposed by our allied associations, including the Brazilian Political Science Association, the Brazilian Electoral Polls Association, the Argentinean Market Research Association, and the Latin American Electoral Marketing Association. In total, we expect no less than 350 participants.

It’s a privilege to host this congress in Florianopolis, in the south of Brazil, not just because it is a spectacular destination full of lush beaches, amazing cliffs views, incredible gastronomy and cultural sites. Brazilian democracy has been tested numerous times in recent years – a result of the rise of the extreme right, elite-propelled polarization and populist authoritarianism, but also due to the omnipresence of misinformation campaigns, volatility in elections and a sequence of gaps between electoral forecasts by surveys and results that have fueled animosity against our industry. So all the core themes of the conference agenda are vividly experienced and debated among professionals, pollsters, scholars, political communicators, electoral marketers and consultants, all of which promises lively discussions and ideas exchanges.

PC: What communication channels have you used to raise awareness about the congress?

FE: Word-of-mouth is the main source of awareness about our congress, accounting for about half of all registrations. Next is our institutional website with around 20%, followed by our social media channels with around 10% of registered attendees getting their information that way. In other words, active communication and alliance-making are proving critical to the success of the conference.

PC: Which other conference locations do you envision for future chapter conferences?

FE: Conference locations are chosen by the elected president, so usually it is his or her city of residence, or some nearby location that can work well as a hosting site and have appeal for participants. After Florianópolis in Southern Brazil, it is the time of Lima, the capital of Perú.

ON ESTIMATED CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION/EXPECTATIONS

PC: How many people (approximately) from how many countries have submitted content for the conference? Can you tell us a little bit about their background (academia, industry, etc.) and how many of those were students or early-career researchers/professionals? 

FE: We will have no less than 18 different nations represented in the XI WAPOR LATAM Congress. Based on the panels and abstracts accepted, participants will represent primarily Brazil (47%), followed by Argentina, the U.S. and Mexico (8% each), Chile (7%), Uruguay and Spain (4% each), and Colombia (3%). The remainder comes from South and Central America, Canada, and a few other European countries.

More specific information will be available once everyone completes their registration but, generally speaking, WAPOR LATAM membership exhibits a healthy equilibrium in terms of origin, between universities and research centers (accounting for roughly 58% of our members), professional practice at the private and consultancy level (accounting for 39% of our members), with the remainder engaged in NGOs and the public sector (roughly 3%).

As of mid-January, we have registered participants working in academia (nearly two-thirds), engaged in private practice (roughly three in ten), with the rest working for media outlets, in the public sector or NGOs. So far, about half of our registered attendees from academia are students. Six out of ten conference attendees will be presenting a paper; one in twelve will be attending only; and the rest are guest panelists for special roundtables, with some of them also potentially delivering a paper.

Active WAPOR LATAM members account for over one fourth of all registered attendees so far. This also means that three in four who registered are newcomers to WAPOR LATAM, which is excellent for the renewal and pluralization of our membership base. Roughly one in seven attendees registered for the conference as a result of being members of one of our allied associations, which underscores the positive effects of the networking efforts through setting up alliances with major entities in the field across Latin America – and the need for sustaining this endeavor as part of institutional building. In sum, having so many new members registering for the congress also illustrates the favorable spill-over effects of mobilization to boost membership and awareness of WAPOR LATAM once the 2025 annual membership is included with registration.

PC: What message would you convey to early-career researchers or professionals with budget constraints who are considering attending this event?

FE: The XI WAPOR LATAM Congress is a major opportunity to learn what the leading scholars and practitioners in Latin America research and do, thus contributing to knowledge of society using polls and surveys. It is an incredible window to connect and amplify individual networking, as well as to show and leverage your own presentation skills. For the first time in WAPOR LATAM Congresses, we are offering 5 world-class, free workshops for registered attendees. A lot of students have taken advantage of the early bird rates at $50. This rate includes free attendance at any sessions, the congresses’ “attendee package”, numerous coffee breaks, cocktails – plus the annual chapter membership till the end of 2025.

ON CONFERENCE THEME/PROGRAM

PC: This year’s conference theme is “Public Opinion, Civic Spirit and Global Risks in Latin America.” What does ‘civic spirit’ (civismo) encompass from your point of view? Where do you see the greatest risks that affect Latin America? And what do you think is the most urgent priority for public opinion researchers in Latin America today?

 FE: We put a double emphasis on civicism/civic spirit and global risks to reflect the changing agenda that impacts on research and practice of public opinion.

The elite-led, social media-fed processes of polarization, erosion of trust in institutions and institutionalized politics, and enthroning of antipolitics and authoritarian populist leadership styles corrode the basis for public discussion, deliberation, pluralism and civic values. So, as a profession devoted to taking the pulse of social mood and warning against the threats and obstacles to the expression of public opinion in a fluid, democratic, pluralistic manner, it is paramount that risks hampering a continuous process of civic spirit in forming opinions and enacting behaviors are not neglected.

It is also our responsibility not to overlook the context that conditions the molding and resonance of public opinion where a diversity of forces and influences such as climate change, immigration, social exclusion, gender inequity, algorithmic manipulation and purposeful disinformation of society, and insecurity takes place. These global risks pose a challenge to citizens and decision-makers, the odds for sustained democratic governance and the chances of giving the public a voice to express and act upon their concerns, as much as they defy our research, data collection practices and interpretation of reality.

Both the rise in intolerance and un-civic culture, and the global risks conditioning the exercise of public opinion research profession, are urgent priorities for our industry. Calls for bans of polls to keep the public informed, threats to interviewers or citizens that want to provide their views on public matters, the erosion of trust in institutions and science which also affects survey research credibility, the uses and abuses of fake polls to feed denialism or conspiracy theories that ultimately turns banal the rigorous profession of surveying opinions are outcomes from those forces.

 PC: Can you already tell – based on the content of the submissions, panel suggestions and/or the preliminary conference program – which topics or sessions you would highlight as particularly innovative or impactful? 

FE: WAPOR LATAM conferences usually attract a lot more discussions on electoral behavior, performance of polls, and electoral marketing than WAPOR global conferences due to the fact that a larger share of its membership comes from the polling industry. So those topics are very much present. Additionally, support for democracy, political polarization, support for policy or the impact of policies on behaviors are also very much present.

In terms of innovating the agenda, the 2025 WAPOR LATAM will host a record number of papers using highly ingenuous experiments, comparing different data collection and design methods in responses, and scanning social media data to illustrate agenda-setting and top-down processes of opinion formation.

The conference is also hosting a record number of papers on climate change and environmental issues, including research that deepens our understanding on how non-state actors like corporations or NGOs behave.

PC: What outcomes or impacts do you hope this congress will have on the field of public opinion research in the region?

FE: As the 2025 WAPOR LATAM Congress projects a record number of participants, with nearly half being Master or PhD students, it will substantiate the role of the Chapter as a unique forum for serious and engaging empirical and conceptual debates on public opinion, political-electoral behavior and political communication studies in the long run. This approaching of WAPOR LATAM to newer generations of scholars and practitioners in such a large scale promises to build the basis for a renewed and expanded community of experts, likely to contribute to a better understanding of how our societies act and think.

PC: Which extracurricular, pre- or post-conference activities are you planning to support professional networking?

FE: The Congress starts with a day of free workshops, 5 in total, each registered participant having the right to choose a maximum of 2. This is the first of the eleven conferences run by WAPOR LATAM where such a substantive offer of free workshops is provided. At the moment, no other association-led networking occasions are being planned, except for regular social activities like coffee breaks, welcome and farewell drinks, and the gala dinner.

To leverage presenters’ resonance of their research and engage attendance interest we have planned contacts with paper presenters to submit a one-minute video summary of their research which will be uploaded to the conference website and later to WAPOR’s LATAM website. An illustration of how we proceeded after the last conference in Oaxaca, Mexico, can be found on our website.

This activity is scheduled for early February 2025 after all papers proposals have been evaluated and the approvals are identified. That extra time should allow presenters to complete their individual registration for onsite participation, as a reassurance of their actual commitment to completing the study and presenting the paper at the congress venue.

Additionally, all authors will be invited to contribute to the journalistic portal Latinoamerica21, one of the new allies of WAPOR LATAM since I began my tenure as president. Contributions consist of short opinion notes of 1,000-1,200 words on issues relevant to public opinion, sociopolitical behavior, and political communication. Since the launch of this partnership in May 2023, WAPOR LATAM members and conference attendees have contributed with over 40 notes. These can also be found on our website.

PC: Are there plans to release conference proceedings, a summary report or a compilation of conference contributions?

FE: We are partnering with three leading regional journals devoted to the fields of interest of WAPOR LATAM to select and publish articles submitted to the Conference. These are Revista Latinoamericana de Opinión Pública (RLOP), the official academic journal of WAPOR LATAM, Revista Mexicana de Opinión Pública (RMOP), and Revista de Comunicación Política (RCP). Complete papers can be submitted for consideration for publication by those three journals that plan to publish dossiers, special issues or single articles. These journals are, of course, free to select what they deem to be the best articles.

ON WAPOR SUPPORT AND JOINT EFFORTS

PC: What key initiatives or support from WAPOR have been most impactful in promoting and strengthening the work of your chapter? What can WAPOR do to better support and promote the work of your chapter?

FE: These past two years WAPOR helped us financially by covering part of our costs to run RLOP. WAPOR has also helped widening the dissemination of some of our Chapter’s initiatives like the webinars conducted in 2024 and the 2025 Congress, although its resonance remains underperforming in terms of bringing in a substantive number of attendees. Running joint webinars was a good idea but it didn’t sustain over time even though we actually have conducted a few of them in English. Hosting thematic webinars with experts from different contexts or belonging to different chapters could be one way to go. Enabling the usage of the WAPOR-paid Zoom platform so that chapters can run their own webinars using simultaneous translation resources is another way to go.

WAPOR could also encourage members of the global network who are based in the chapters’ area of reference – let’s say, Latin Americans who belong to WAPOR but are not chapter members – to support the chapters’ efforts by formally joining the ranks of members. WAPOR could also take a bolder stand requiring national representatives to join their regional chapter. It could also offer a lower membership fee for members who join both Global and Chapter to encourage a larger membership. Another way to go is for WAPOR to provide Chapters with a number of free registrations to WAPOR’s annual congress in order to encourage more regional members to attend.

In terms of the conference logistics, another valuable contribution from WAPOR Global would be sharing a proper, easy-to-navigate paper uploading platform for chapters’ congresses – in the spirit of scale gains and to avoid unnecessary duplication of costs across the board.

WAPOR could also emulate, at a larger scale, a successful chapter initiative aimed at approaching universities and offering them curatorship of their public opinion programs  in exchange for membership or joint activities. This will embolden the projection of the profession while bringing further benefits to the entire association.

PC: This sounds interesting and promising. Could you elaborate a bit on this last initiative?

FE: We did this in collaboration with the School of Communications at Universidad de Montevideo (Uruguay), which offered a special online course on environmental public opinion. WAPOR LATAM mobilized few lecturers, including myself, based on their applied case studies, in addition to providing curatorship for the content and literature references. The university entered with several paid full memberships which was used as a reward to professors and students. In addition, we promoted the course via social media, with a 25% discount to WAPOR LATAM members. By the way, the Universidad de Montevideo has just confirmed itself as our newest sponsor for the WAPOR LATAM Congress!

ON OTHER CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

PC: Are there any other upcoming regional events, webinars or trainings you would like to share? 

FE: Indeed, on February 20, we will stage our next webinar as a warm-up activity towards the XI WAPOR LATAM Congress entitled “Disinformation and Algorithms in Shaping Public Opinion.” We have 3 speakers confirmed: Prof. Ricardo Fabrino (UFMG/Brazil); Prof. Vania Balbi (ISCTE-Lisbon/Portugal), and Prof. Wladimir Gramacho (UnB; Brazil). All three speakers have published extensively on those topics.

The webinar aims at tackling the following questions:

First, how fake news, the consumption of disinformation and belief in conspiracy theories shape the formation and expression of public opinion? What recent changes and what continuities can be identified in these processes?

Second, to what extent do preference formation and decision-making processes anchored in algorithms affect perceptions of and trust in institutions such as democracy, political deliberation, adherence to civic norms, social capital and interpersonal trust?

Third, what is the contribution of experiments to detect the effect of disinformation on the perception of certain public policies?

This webinar will be in Portuguese. I know this narrows the scope of potential attendees. WAPOR LATAM made the effort to run English-language webinars to attract other WAPOR members from outside Latin America, but the attendance rate has been minimal.

PC: Thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions and sharing some insights about your upcoming conference!