Erich Buxbaum: Closing Speech

As you probably have read in the Summit leaftlet the IAA Romanian chapter was founded in 93 and enjoyed a rather quiet life till 2003. In 2004 I visited the first time Bucharest and met with the chapter board to discuss the future development of the chapter.

The results of this discussion are astonishing: Over the last three years the chapter has developed rapidly, both in membership and in terms of deliveries to the market, like events, education, etc. Under the present leadership of Felix Tataru the chapter has become one of the most dynamic chapters in Europe, if not of the whole world.

When the IAA Romania applied last year in Dubai to hold the first European Summit I found this decision very brave for a young chapter. Now here we are. Holding the 1st IAA European Advertising Summit. And I have to say I am proud what the chapter has been able to put together. I am sure you are joining me in saying:
- this was an interesting summit with excellent speakers
- it was worth to come for us all
- and you will go home with a number of insights and ideas for the future.

So let me first of all thank a few people:
- the Romanian chapter under the leadership of Felix Tătaru
- and the organising committee, particularly Diana Flutur, Răzvan Gavrilescu, Victor Dobre and Irina Iliescu, for organising this summit and making it a success.

Let’s give them a hand of applause....Now let me wrap up the last one and a half days, where we had the opportunity to listen to three modules:

The module “Self regulation”, although having had only a lower presence than the others, is a very important issue and the people present at the speeches and the panel discussion were participating very actively.

I want to stress that it is very important to develop a full functional Self Regulation System in every single European Country. If only one country is unfit and fails, we are running the risk, that the Commission in Brussels is unhappy with the European situation at large. This could then end up with a wave of unnecessary legislation, which will make the life of advertisers, agencies and media much more complicated as it is already. I urge you all to participate and involve yourself in the further development of Self Regulation in your country.

In the second module “Corporate Social Responsibility” we saw
- the actions of many leading companies
- great examples of ongoing activities and
- many insights from experts around the world

But we were given also a few clear messages:
- Change is not easy to achieve
- Trust is very important but needs a lot of energy and time to build
- CSR is not a self-fulfilling prophecy or l’art pour l’art, and you need to build always a clear business case
- and CSR is certainly not a “trendy” add-on in the company’s processes, but need to be an integral part of the normal business agenda.

Let’s be the pioneers of change in this area. As you all know it is always better to lead the change than to be driven by it.

The third module “Communications Planning” gave us many examples of the future of the media landscape and the potential changes of the related processes. When I am asked about the future of advertising I always say: “The future of communication is very bright , however it will be very different from yesterday, and different from today.” We need to see these changes, we need to recognise them, and we need to understand them. And we will need to draw the right conclusions. But the most important thing will be to cope with the ever accelerating speed of change.

We will need new capabilities in recognising real changes, to filter the important information from the unimportant, and to develop organisations and processes which will satisfy the changing environment. Just think about the ongoing discussions where communications planning should be done. Today it is done in companies, in the creative agencies, and also in the media agencies, and everybody believes they have the only real solution to the problem. Here we will see a lot of development in the next years with many more models coming up.

Here again let’s be the pioneer of change!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure you join me to say that this summit has given us many ideas and insights. If you only take one idea or insight from this summit and make it work in your company, it was already worth to come. I thank you all to have come to this summit and I wish you all the best in your role to be pioneer of change.