I have finally found the time to write about the Marketing Live conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. I was really impressed by both the organisation and line up of speakers. Slovakia are EU members and have the Euro, however I felt that when it came to digital marketing, the Slovkians saw themselves as less sophisticated than their western European colleagues. I didn’t feel that was the case and the presentations showed that digital media is alive and progressing in Slovakia. The greatest difference was probably more market size: Slovakia is a small country of 5 million people and has a developing economy. It means that their home market has fewer people and less disposable income than other countries. Even then, the differences didn’t appear to be that vast.
One thing that was clear from going to the conference is that our needs, wants and aspirations are largely the same around the world. Regardless of governments or even culture, we are all driven by roughly the same things. Given that digital marketing is essentially about understanding these issues and our relationships to the technology, it means that things are similar the world over.
My mobile marketing presentation seemed to be well received (or maybe they were being polite) and I met some interesting people from the area. It was a pleasure to meet social media guru Chris Abrahams and enjoyed a couple of good nights out in Bratislava with him. His blog on the conference is here.
My thanks also have to go to the conference organisers for putting on a great event and making me feel extremely welcome.