There are lots of comical ironies that came out of the summit, like this one: "No one really knows whether people who don't answer surveys are similar to those who do, because they don't answer surveys."

General Motors notes that while they may get the same results for two surveys, both the surveys could be wrong because it's the same narrow, unrepresentative group answering each time.

But just as often, two surveys on the same thing have been yielding totally different results.

What does the group of experts propose? Not surprisingly, one idea was to advertise the importance of participation in surveys. But, writes Jack Neff, it was a surprise that no one suggested more research:

"Ironically, no one in a roomful of market researchers suggested researching what might best persuade nonrespondents to participate, though Dennis Murphy, VP of the technology practice at Directions Research, said it's time to find out how different nonresponders really are from responders -- something largely neglected since the 1970s."