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OPINION: Talking to yourself. Is that so very wrong?
Tim Green May 15 2008, 5:44pm
So MEM’s continental adventure is finally over and the UK is to have a trade show again...
Good. I say that not just as a myopic Englander (and I can only see out of one eye, so I really do have an exceptionally narrow range of vision), but because London has more mobile/entertainment companies in it than any other European city. It deserves a proper trade event.
And how many does it currently have? Er, the Symbian Smartphone show. Last year, that slightly geeky event – in the relatively remote Excel centre – was absolutely packed. To me, that’s proof of the pent-up demand for a summit of some sort in the capital. So the MEF’s and Informa’s decision to bring MEM back to London in 2009, and in the nicely central QEII centre too, is to be warmly welcomed.
The way I see it, the organisers must now recognise MEM for what it is: a small but significant gathering of the world’s key content execs. All those public pronouncements about bringing in CEOs from Hollywood, TV and advertising should be quietly abandoned. We’re just fooling ourselves if we think they’re going to arrive en masse. They’re not.
Of course, some progress has been made here. The MEF has execs on its board from Sony Pictures and Publicis now. But let’s not delude ourselves.
MEM 08 was about the same size as MEM 01. Sad but true. We’re mostly talking to ourselves. But then so what’s so wrong with that? A good trade event should be about sharing wisdom and experience with our counterparts, getting pissed and making deals.
MEM 08 did this pretty well, even if the numbers were slightly depressing. The slimmed down conference stream was an improvement on MEM 07 and the venue was more conducive to networking. I’m sure London 09 will build on this. And if the pricing is right and the promotion good, maybe those film and ad industry execs will amble down from Soho to take a closer look at this mobile thing. Actually, it's a 20 min walk so they'll be in taxis.
Here’s an idea. What about the MEF and the Mobile Marketing Association pooling resources to put on MEM together? The idea of merging the two bodies was mooted many times last week – not just in private, but on panel sessions. It’s not so outlandish.
MEF and MMA used to be quite distinct in remit, but now that ad-funding is such a hot topic they seem to overlap a lot. I won’t hold my breath.
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