The DMA business meeting was held on Sunday in San Diego.
They moved the meeting to a much larger room because everybody wanted to attend to see what a proxy vote shoot-out between Gerry Pike and the Board looks like.
I don't know how many proxy votes Gerry picked up with his campaign, but it must have been a lot. When I got there the word was that Gerry and the board had gone late into the night to come to a settlement.
By the time we showed up, it was a love fest. With the board announcing that Gerry had been reinstated for a second term and Gerry telling us what a great bunch of people were on the board. In addition to Gerry being back on the board, he gets to nominate three more board members.
I'll add to the love fest by saying that there are a lot of smart cookies on the DMA board and I hope they figure it out. If not, I think a lot of members will vote with their feet in 2010.
I went to the Electronic Retail Association (ERA) party Monday night and had a good time. It reminded me of the dot.com explosion back in the late 90's. Lots of good contacts, lots of booze. Lots of people wearing all black. Back in those days you could walk into a party and by the time you got to the bar, you had been offered at least $20 million by three different venture capital groups.
No matter how dumb your idea was.
Jon
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
DMA Conference-DMEF Awards Dinner
Direct is alive and kicking!
I attended the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) Awards Dinner last night. Close to 300 marketers from all over the country gathered to honor Beth Smith, http://sbdirect.net/ with the Edward Mayer Award. Beth is a super lady who over her career has taught so many people direct advertising that she probably has had a direct affect on the country's GNP.
For the past three years the DMEF has asked me to do the auction part of the evening. That's because I'm a shameless ham who has absolutely no problem asking people for money in public. Some day, I will probably have a very successful career as a homeless person.
I must admit that with the economy the way it is, I did not have great expectations to raise a lot of money, in fact, I had decided to go easy on the crowd and not shake them down for their last penny like I usually do.
Well let me tell you something, when it comes to a good cause like the DMEF, direct marketers step up, no matter how bad the economy is!
In about 30 minutes, I think we raised over $150,000.00, I haven't heard the official count yet, it might be more.
I must admit that putting me on "before" dinner was served was a brilliant strategy and I apologize to everyone for threatening to not feed anybody until they gave me all their money.
Hey, it was for a very good cause.
Today is the DMA board meeting and they have moved it to a much larger room so that we can all come to see what a proxy fight is all about! (see my previous post). Everybody is talking about it and excited about the changes that could take place.
I'll fill you in on what happens.
Jon
I attended the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) Awards Dinner last night. Close to 300 marketers from all over the country gathered to honor Beth Smith, http://sbdirect.net/ with the Edward Mayer Award. Beth is a super lady who over her career has taught so many people direct advertising that she probably has had a direct affect on the country's GNP.
For the past three years the DMEF has asked me to do the auction part of the evening. That's because I'm a shameless ham who has absolutely no problem asking people for money in public. Some day, I will probably have a very successful career as a homeless person.
I must admit that with the economy the way it is, I did not have great expectations to raise a lot of money, in fact, I had decided to go easy on the crowd and not shake them down for their last penny like I usually do.
Well let me tell you something, when it comes to a good cause like the DMEF, direct marketers step up, no matter how bad the economy is!
In about 30 minutes, I think we raised over $150,000.00, I haven't heard the official count yet, it might be more.
I must admit that putting me on "before" dinner was served was a brilliant strategy and I apologize to everyone for threatening to not feed anybody until they gave me all their money.
Hey, it was for a very good cause.
Today is the DMA board meeting and they have moved it to a much larger room so that we can all come to see what a proxy fight is all about! (see my previous post). Everybody is talking about it and excited about the changes that could take place.
I'll fill you in on what happens.
Jon
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