Hello,
I’m Paul, and I work as a Community Manager with VERBI, the company that develops and distributes MAXQDA. Together with Leopold, I am in charge of MAXDAYS and today, I’d like to give you a look behind the scenes of this conference.
MAXDAYS 2025 marks the fifth edition of this virtual conference and the fifth one that I have helped shape. Originally, MAXDAYS were planned as an alternative to the MQIC, a conference in Berlin that we used to host annually before Covid. However, we quickly realized that the online format allowed us to reach out to a much wider audience of MAXQDA users worldwide, and we decided to continue hosting the annual online conference, even after travel restrictions had been lifted. The growing number of participants proves us right: in 2024, around 3,800 MAXQDA Users registered to attend MAXDAYS. Thank you, dear MAXQDA community, for making this possible.
Last year’s opening speech
We have decided to stick to the core structure of the conference: a mix of function-, method-, and application-oriented sessions. The program, however, differs from last year, and we have developed a lot of new content to make it worthwhile, even if you attended MAXQDAYS last year. As always, there will be spotlight sessions for MAXQDA Newcomers, and we have introduced many new topics, especially for advanced users. Our main idea was to explore different methodological approaches to MAXQDA in more depth. So, in addition to a session on Grounded Theory, we will also offer sessions on Thematic Analysis, Discourse Analysis, and Ethnography with MAXQDA this year. Furthermore, Dr. Stefan Rädiker will introduce our newest AI product, MAXQDA Tailwind.
A real highlight awaits you on Day 2—one that I am particularly excited about: Dr. John W. Creswell, Senior Research Scientist at the Mixed Methods Research Program at the University of Michigan, will give a keynote on the latest trends in mixed methods research. He was our guest speaker before: his speech on MQIC 2020 in Berlin served as an inspiration to the audience and myself. I am thrilled that we could win him to lecture in front of this large audience.
One conference module that we received very positive user feedback on is the real-world applications of MAXQDA. Many of you were fascinated by the broad range of use cases of MAXQDA, that’s why we are offering more of these sessions this year. Alongside several academic researchers, who present how they use MAXQDA in their academic work, several experts from companies, government institutions, and non-governmental organizations will also present their use cases, some of which I personally find particularly interesting. I am especially looking forward to hearing how the Court of Auditors of the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Canadian plastic pipe manufacturer IPEX Inc. use MAXQDA in their daily work.
Check out the conference schedule!
Despite the extensive program, you don’t have to worry about the conference running longer. Leo and I got an eye on the clock during the whole conference and make sure we will stick to the schedule. And if you’re worried about missing a session you’re interested in—don’t be! We will once again use Zoom’s conference platform, where you can watch recordings of each session for up to two months after the event. Additionally, every session will have subtitles available in your preferred language.
MAXDAYS are just around the corner, and every day, I’m getting more excited to experience the conference with all of you. In fact, the first thing I’m doing every morning at the office is check how many new participants have signed up—and every day, that number keeps growing
For us, now it’s time to wrap up the final preparations, keep you updated on social media, and get our internal task force ready to ensure that this year’s MAXDAYS will be just as successful as last year. If you have any ideas for the conference, feel free to share them with us—we will take them into account for future editions. You are also more than welcome to invite your colleagues and friends – everyone is welcome at MAXDAYS!
The MAXQDAS 2024 Conference Team
I’m very much looking forward to seeing you all on MAXDAYS!
About the author
Paul Wehrle is community manager at VERBI Software GmbH
Paul is currently working on MAXDAYS and the further educational offerings of the MAXQDA Academy.
If you’d like to speak with Paul about the MAXDAYS or the MAXQDA Academy, you can reach Paul via email: paul.wehrle@maxqda.de; check out the website of the MAXQDA Academy.
