This month we attended Dmexco (Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference) in Cologne, Germany and Ad:Tech London – two of the digital marketing/advertising industry’s top shows for the European and global markets.
We also attended two pre-Dmexco events in Cologne – UBERCLOUD, an international creative summit meeting, and OpsEurope, an AdMonsters conference on the future of advertising.
Irene and the King of Hohoe, |
UBERCLOUD was billed as “The visible mass of digital creativity…where the crucial top creatives, leaders, talents and digital rock stars will be presenting and discussing the new dimensions of the digital creative business.” Topics covered included branding in the digital age, data visualization and the convergence of media and creativity. We also had an opportunity to meet the King of Traditional Ghana.
In terms of content, there wasn’t anything earth-shattering or hugely forward-thinking at UBERCLOUD. Much of what was discussed was covered more in-depth at The Future of Web Design (London) conference I attended back in May.
Kia networking at OpsEurope |
OpsEurope was a great networking event for publishers and agencies. It was a small and intimate event, with industry veterans offering their insights on the the future of digital display in the European market. The theme of the day was premium advertising, which drives about 80% of all online ad revenue. Topics covered included brand-consumer interaction, agency strategies, real-time bidding and social media.
Whenever I go to Europe, I always find inspiration from the artistic endeavors there. Dmexco was an impressive show from a design standpoint. Booth exhibits in this industry can be pretty conservative, boring and predictable. For the most part, the booths at Dmexco were anything but: almost every booth had a café (with baristas!), a bar (with bartenders!) and a huge lounge where attendees could sit and have a comfortable meeting with exhibitors. One booth even had an aquarium, and another award-winning space was set up like a park, complete with picnic tables, real trees and plants. (See the gallery for photos from the show) This sort of thing is not the norm at North American digital marketing or search trade shows.
Ad:Tech London was not so impressive art-wise. It was also much smaller in scale than Dmexco and seemed like it lost a lot of attendees and exhibitors to Dmexco, since both were held on the exact same days. While the show was much smaller than previous years, there were plenty of attendees who were there looking to grow their business within the UK market.
Overall, our Euro whirlwind tradeshow trip was very productive. We made new key contacts in the display space, and got some valuable face-time with our existing clients and colleagues.
We’re looking to attend some different shows next year…any suggestions?
