Today was the first day of IIR‘s New Media Conference in Dubai, and I must say, for how new the industry is, and for how little information there is about online trends and demographics for the EMEA region, the gathering was certainly insightful.
There was an interesting mix of people: communication agencies, MEPRA, known local portals (Maktoob.com, MBC, MediaME, Zawya), interesting service providers (Effective Measures – can’t find link, Muxlim.com, Newsmakers), and corporate blogging expert Debbie Weil, to name a few. Most of the presentations spurred interesting comments and questions, many of which there were no answers to though.
This element of communication for brands is in its nascent stages, so we in the ME market have a lot to experiment before we can learn and get it right. This is mainly because of the lack of audited data, the fact that conventional advertising channels still dominate this market, and that the consumers in each of the 22 markets across the ME, Levant, and N.Africa are so different! So lots to explore, and I was happy to be part of a smart group of people that are going to try to make it happen here.
Anyway, will wrap here because I’m tired and want some ice-cream. I will leave you with notes from Robin at Cybersoc who diligently typed them all up during the conference and posted them; and here is a link to Debbie Weils presentation as well.
I’m going to be live-Tweeting what I can tomorrow AM, so follow me at @abhamalpani, if you want.
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