ACVB Posts 'Questionable' Survey

By Gary Reese

(4/21/08) A survey touted by the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau declaring “panhandling” to be the city’s biggest problem “might be correct” but is scientifically worthless in the opinion of InsiderAdvantage’s CEO Matt Towery.

“The survey has less than 200 interviews and therefore is statistically outside the range of a reasonable margin of error,” said Towery. “Personally I might agree and I certainly think it is a major concern,” the CEO of the nation’s best known polling firm observed. “But clearly this is much like the whitewash we saw from this same group when they said the World Congress Center had suffered no damage,” Towery continued. “They are well intended, but are using old PR tactics that experts can spot in a minute,” he said.

Polls and surveys have set statistical margins of error based on sample sizes. “We have never relied on any survey with less than 300 respondents which gives you the minimally accepted margin of error of plus or minus six percent. To suggest this is anything more than a stab in the dark would just be fooling the public, in my opinion,” Towery stated.

InsiderAdvantage represents both private and public entities but is non-partisan. It has polled the correct winner in 12 out of 13 presidential primaries and caucuses this year and is now considered among a handful of national pollsters and research companies reliable for major national surveys.

“I think that it’s great that this group is trying to use research as they have in the past,” said Towery. “But to play games with the public with a less than 200 sample set of interviews to justify any action on the part of elected officials or others is simply offensive to those who understand the real world of politics, community opinion, and valid research.”

Towery said that InsiderAdvantage would conduct later in the year “ a legitimate national survey of visitors to Atlanta, using the correct random sampling and the necessary sample size to have a valid result.” He added, “It will cost more, but it will provide leaders with a true and comprehensive look at the city, rather than an old fashioned and out of date PR stunt.”