The Consumer and Shopper Insights Applied Educational (AE) Alliance’s 2013 Assembly will take place August 14-16, 2013 at the University of Michigan.

The three-day event is an opportunity for marketers to learn powerful behavioral science-based insights to produce sales-optimizing consumer and shopper buying behavior. It is titled – Exposing and Leveraging Hidden Forces Along the Path to Purchase: Applying State-of-the Art Learning and Direction from the Behavioral Sciences.

“Hidden forces” drive consumer and shopper decisions, in ways that are either not known, not admitted to, or don’t seem rational. Prominent sources of hidden forces are the subconscious, emotions, incidental cues, and non-rational thinking.

“The Assembly is not a traditional conference. There won’t be a mad rush to attend myriad sessions occurring in multiple locations. It’s designed to be a small, intimate gathering so that participants can become connected with the leaders and other attendees,” said Paul Conner, co-founder, AE Alliance, and CEO of Emotive Analytics.

“The goal of the Assembly is for insights and marketing professionals to glean insights from cutting edge behavioral science research and adapt these insights to their current business challenges. They’ll learn unbiased truths from neuroscience and behavioral economics experts, without the marketing spin. They won’t be ‘sold to’ as is common at so many conferences, and they’ll emerge as thought leaders within their companies,” said Liz Boyd, co-founder, AE Alliance, and president of LB Insights, a shopper insights consultancy.

The Assembly is sponsored by Emotive Analytics, LB Insights, and Sentient Decision Science in collaboration with behavioral scientists from Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and The University of North Carolina’s Implicit Social Cognition Labs.