Here in Budapest, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has been holding a 2 day mobile marketing forum.
I was fortunate to have been asked to give a presentation on the morning of the first day, thanks to Roland Tauchner from DIMOCO who was the one actually scheduled to present.
At dinner in downtown Budapest on the night before the conference with a number of the delegates, Roland and I got talking about the role of educating the whole industry (including brands and agencies) about what exactly mobile marketing/advertising is.
Roland is also the Chair of the Austrian branch of the MMA and has given the same presentation a number of times. In our discussion he asked me if I would be prepared to deliver his presentation, and over a few glasses of fine Hungarian red wine a plan was hatched.
Half thinking that Roland was actually joking, I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my mobile to see the message he sent me straight after dinner:
“Andrew, if you’d like to do the speech tomorrow I’m prepared to show you my ppt during breakfast at 8. Speech is at 9:30. Regards Roland”.
We duly met for breakfast at 8am and he showed me the slides on mobile marketing basics, and a little over an hour later I took to the stage to present the slides. It was a great honour, and wonderful experience to step in at the last minute and deliver the great deck Roland had prepared on mobile marketing basics.
I hope the audience didn’t mind the sudden change of presenters because I am really passionate about both mobile and advertising, and I hope I was able to inject some of my own experiences into the presentation.
It shows you that if you are really passionate about a subject, you don’t need to learn the content by heart, you just speak from the heart and the rest will follow.
Thanks again to Roland for giving me the opportunity to address the MMA audience of around 100 peers, and thanks also to Paul Berney, EMEA MD of the MMA, and Russell Buckley, Global MMA Chair for letting Roland do this. It shows the MMA is forward thinking, and is keen to leverage skills across the entire industry.
As many London Calling readers know, I am a frequent presenter at conferences – have a look at my upcoming speaking engagements in November and into 2009.
If you are a conference presenter arranging a conference on mobile advertising, marketing or location, I can provide you and your audience with a dynamic and insightful 40 minute presentation so please do get in touch.
I’m also a useful panel member, and have been known in the past to stand in for scheduled presenters at the last minute as well as provide keynote speeches.