Telemedia 360 Review

By Bob Bentz

Liverpool, England – There’s a brand new show on the European audiotext scene.

Almost 300, mostly British, members of the telemedia industry converged on Liverpool’s Albert Dock for the first annual Telemedia 360 on October 20-21, 2009. And, if the business done at this first ever Telemedia 360 is any indication, the show will be around for a long time.

The show was sponsored by the same folks who put on the annual show, World Telemedia, which has been held in fun places such as Malta, Budapest, Prague, Amsterdam, and London in recent years. Industry veterans Jarvis Todd and Annika Micheli were on hand to make sure that everything ran smoothly and that everybody had a good time and that the sponsors were pleased with their investments.

It was hard not to have a good time at Telemedia 360. The event got off to a quick start with a sponsored party at Alma de Cuba—a converted church that now makes a fun bar and restaurant. Lots of telemedia veterans were there early and did their part to show that the British are some of the hardiest drinkers in the world. The party didn’t close until after 2 am at which time some energetic, unnamed souls continued partying while watching native Liverpudlians dance in g-strings.

The crowd was mostly male and certainly showed an aging business population than was present at past Telemedia shows; 45 seemed to be the median age of attendees. Telemedia veterans continue to show that there is significant money to be made in pay per call and the vast breadth of billing mechanisms and exciting new mobile applications that were displayed. Nevertheless, it is clear that the industry could use some new and younger blood and some greater female participation.

The crowd arrived early the next morning and the trade show and presentations got under way at 9:30. Those who stayed out late the night before were there and ready to do business, as any professional would, although some ended up telling the same stories that they did the night before, thankfully at a lower volume.

Mark Challinor, European director of INMA, made the opening welcome address to the attendees. The presentations had two tracks representing moving the media to a cross-platform pay for content model and generating traffic for premium rate content across multiple platform. A total of 16 presentations were made with 64 industry leaders speaking.

The lone negative of the show was the complimentary lunch that was served which my British colleagues described as “rubbish.” Nevertheless, lunch time was a good way to meet others in the industry given the small second floor venue that hosted it. Certainly, nobody had to worry about the bad manners of talking with their mouths full.

Advanced Telecom Services’ president Bob Bentz was there along with the operating partners of the ATS-London service bureau, Ian Scott and Cindy Aspland.

Advanced Telecom Services presented the Canadian 900 number market as: “the best premium rate market in the world.” Advanced Telecom Services’ theme for the show was “Mount Your Next Program in Canada” with a sexy female Canadian Mountie as the mascot. Signage and the Telemedia 360 power point touted some of the features of the newly de-regulated Canadian premium rate market including lower fees, less content restrictions and an improved ability to control chargebacks that had previously plagued the Canadian 900 number industry.

In the afternoon, Toby Padgham of AIME spoke to us about the possibility that British Telecom will be raising its claw back on uncollectible billing. Currently, BT takes 3.04% for chargebacks from all service bureaus. This in itself seems unfair as some companies in the more liberal IVR categories are probably under-assessed based on this process. Padgham indicated that BT has talked about increasing its claw back to 9% and stressed the importance of the industry banding together to fight this unwarranted increase.

The conclusion of the show was highlighted by an auction of several autographed football items, including autographed jerseys of the Chelsea and Arsenal teams, donated by O-bit Telecom. Proceeds from the auction were donated to an organization that fights breast cancer, Her Breast Friends.

But, activity was not completed from Telemedia 360. An evening dinner at Pan Am on Albert Dock had outstanding food that redeemed the rubbish served at lunch. The final evening of musical entertainment from The Cheatles highlighted the Liverpool event. It was easy to find the few 20-somethings in the audience as they were the only ones not mouthing the words to the songs made famous by Liverpool’s and the world’s most famous band ever.

As the delegates began to say good-bye, many wondered where we’d see each other next as the location for World Telemedia 2010 has yet to be confirmed. A reliable source said that Copenhagen, Denmark had the inside track to hosting the April event.

Regardless of where World Telemedia is held, however, this group knows how to do business, yet also knows how to have a good time simultaneously.