An Open Letter to IAB Canada
By Keith Bilous
I recently attended the IAB MIXX Canada Conference in Montreal but it didn't really go all that well. Read on to see what happened with this open letter to the IAB that i recently sent to them.
Stay tuned for a response from the IAB (I hope)
Dear IAB Canada
I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know how disappointed I was with the latest Mixx Canada Conference that recently wrapped up in Montreal on October 6th.
Imagine how startled I was when I sat down Monday morning to hear Michelle Leblanc deliver her presentation in French - and I don't speak or understand French? As the day went on it didn't get any better. As a result, I never stayed past lunch.
The simple question I have is this - why didn't the IAB publish on the MIXX Canada website that the Montreal conference was going to be 90% in French? If I knew the conference was going to be delivered in French, I would never have attended the event in Montreal. As a result, I wasted money on a hotel room, meals and a conference ticket that was of no value to me.
In speaking with others at the conference and thru Twitter, it appears I was not the only one who was surprised this conference was delivered in French.
My question to the IAB is this, will you compensate me with a return on my conference ticket?
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Keith
Keith Bilous | President & Founder | ICUC Moderation Services Inc. | P: 204.955.6666 | E: keith@icucmoderation.com | Follow me on Twitter @k3ith
1 Response to An Open Letter to IAB Canada
Hi Keith!
I've already sent this to you, but thougt I'd just respond here as well, in case others experienced the same problem.
We will definitely fully refund your ticket for the Montreal MIXX conference. As well, I will give you free entrance to the Toronto MIXX event in March 2009, should you decide to come.
I’m so sorry that this caused you such an inconvenience.
We will definitely highlight the language that presentations will be given in, for ALL conferences/events that we do in the future.
After 5 years of doing our yearly conference in the Montreal market, we assumed everyone was aware of this, but forgot that as we're growing, we're reaching lots of people who are really only experiencing our events for the first time -- so, they actually would not know this.
Really appreciate you giving us the heads up on this issue.
Alternately, we will also explore doing the Montreal MIXX event entirely in English in the future -- as a large percentage of the people involved in Interactive Marketing would most likely be bi-lingual, and getting more English-only Advertisers, Agencies and Publishers in the room would also help us spread the learning further. This would also allow English speakers from across Canada, the US, the UK, etc. to present in Montreal.
Again, my sincere apologies, and hope to see you at MIXX Canada in the future.
Sincerely,
Paula Gignac
President, Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada
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