This week's show was a shadow of its former self. What's gone wrong?
Did you enjoy MEM this week?
I'm guessing not – for two reasons. The first? It wasn't very good.
The second is statistical. There are 13,800 people signed up to receive these ME flashes, and I'm guessing fewer than 100 signed up for MEM. Even fewer if you discount the MEF team and the speakers.
So, by my back of a fag packet calculation, there is less than a one per cent chance you were at the Victoria Park Hotel this week.
What's gone wrong with this show, which used to be so important to the mobile content business in Europe and beyond?
Article continues belowAdvertisement
This year was the tenth MEM, and I've been to every one. Fact is, there were probably about the same number of attendees at the first MEM at Euro Disney as there were this year.
The difference is that in 2000, the industry barely existed; now it's exploding. Back then, Digital Bridges was desperately touting around SMS versions of FIFA Football, whereas in 2010 Apple is celebrating five billion app downloads.
Even the infamous Monte Carlo show in 2007, which was perceived to be such a disaster, attracted more people than London 2010.
It's not easy writing this. Over the years, I've got to know the MEF very well. They're hardworking, care deeply about the industry and do lots of valuable work. I know they toil for months on MEM.
But, let's be honest guys, it ain't working.
Two days of panel sessions feels so old-school, and many of the panellists were people we've all seen before.
That includes me.
Even I'm sick of me.
Where were Tapulous? Ngmoco? Foursquare? These companies are making mainstream media headlines all over the world – and they 'belong' to us. If they couldn't make the event, there are plenty of experts around who could have at least explained the impact they're making.
I also suspect it's too ambitious to attempt to cover all corners of the biz across two days. It just dilutes the audience interest too much. Instead of 100 people listening in to any one session, there are 25 – with the rest in the bar.
All this suggests to me that rather than fight against this desire to talk rather than listen, the MEF should be cultivating it.
I understand that its first 'CEO Summit' went very well (I plan to become the 'CEO of off the record comments' and sneak in next year). Maybe this, in tandem with regular webinars on smart enablers, regulation and all the other useful stuff that MEF does so well, is the future for MEF's event strategy.
As I left MEM at the end of day two, I met Flirtomatic's Mark Curtis who told me that he'd just returned from Silicon Valley and that 'the centre of the business has moved irrevocably to California'.
Maybe.
I hope there's a MEM 2011. Just not like the one I went to this week.
MEF team, if you're reading, write in and tell me I'm wrong.
