Announcing Mumbrella Pro

Thanks for the comment. At Mumbrella events, whether it is Mumbrella360 or any other event, we specifically ask the speakers whether they are comfortable with us posting the content from their presentation online.

If they say no, we respect that entirely and will not do it. There is no pressure involved, as I am sure any of our speakers will tell you. It’s a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

Speakers are not forced to speak at Mumbrella events and are not forced to share the content from the events either. But of those that do speak and share, the feedback is more often than not that they and their businesses get a lot out of sharing it in terms of feedback, relationships and potential business opportunities.

Damian – Mumbrella

Hi TAOA,

Thanks for the feedback. Are you honestly sure your clients took you? And does that plural mean different clients took you more than once? Generally the dynamic would involve you taking your client, rather than clients taking you. Still, it’s your story so let’s go with it. I hope you sent them a thank you note.

However, as you’d be aware if you attend our events (which you obviously do, don’t you?), we constantly seek feedback through the day via the ratings system on our event app. As you’d no doubt know, what with you absolutely having been at our events, those scores are transparent to the attendees. And they’re almost always quite strong. We invest quite a lot of journalistic resource in trying to get the right speakers.

Given that you use the phrase “we” in connection with Mumbrella speakers, feel free to drop me a line, by the way, and I’ll tell you how you rated when you spoke, which I’m sure you did.

And if a session doesn’t work, our curators examine the reasons why, and if that means not inviting somebody back, then so be it. And no, sponsors don’t get to speak in our curated sessions. It would make our sales team’s job a lot easier if they could.

But on the wider issue. Let’s be clear. I suspect that most people who read Mumbrella work for businesses which seek to make profits. That’s how they continue to offer the service they do to the industry. If you do have an issue with capitalism, you may be in the wrong industry.

I see that in the past you’ve taken the opportunity to read our free content and comment on it. In Mumbrella’s case no single revenue stream pays for our journalism. We carry ads on the website and on our news emails; We organise conferences where people may buy tickets to attend or to sponsor; We organise the Mumbrella Awards (among others) that people pay to enter.

And yes, we invite people to subscribe to The Source, which has now been widened to Mumbrella Pro and expanded to carry content from our events. Our hope and belief is that the business benefit of subscribing will far outweigh the cost of doing so.

On the question of who gets paid at our events, there is often a value exchange. Those who we invite to speak (although often, they pitch Damian and his team rather than the other way round, by the way) do so because they see value in the opportunity to raise awareness of potential customers in their expertise. Showing that you know what you’re talking about in a public forum generates business. That’s why they do it.

Most of those speaking are doing it as part of their day job, and being paid by their employer to represent them, including in public.

But there have also been times when we’ve formed the view that a speaker (usually from overseas) who is independent will sell enough additional tickets to make it viable for us to pay her or him a fee and their travel costs.

But you know who gets paid every time? The people in the room doing the filming. The video editors. The people on the registration desk. The AV experts on the sound and video desks. The venue staff. The set builders. The curation team. The event management team. The team of researchers who update the Mumbrella pro database. Our marketing team. The web development team who built Mumbrella Pro.

Catchup content sitting behind a subscriber wall is also nothing new, by the way. The Cannes Lions and Advertising Week are among the other organisers who already do this.

I’ll be writing more about the story behind The Source and Mumbrella Pro in Best of the Week on Saturday. You’ll be able to read it by subscribing to that free email, or indeed to Mumbrella Pro.

In the meantime, if you’ve got the appetite for it, I wrote a piece six years ago on why I make no apologies for Mumbrella having a business model. You can read it here – https://mumbrella.com.au/why-i-make-no-apologies-for-having-a-business-model-167138

I stand by every word.

Cheers,

Tim – Mumbrella

Thanks for trialling The Source previously and it sounds like you’ve trialled Mumbrella Pro, so thanks for that as well.

You’re right – The Source was not updated as it should have been previously. If you read Tim’s Best of the Week tomorrow, it will give you some pretty interesting insight into The Source as a business and the thought process behind Mumbrella Pro.

It will respond to some of the points you have made.

With Mumbrella Pro, we are putting a lot of effort into taking what was The Source, making it more user-friendly and getting it right up-to-date.

Blanks will be filled and inaccuracies corrected. We’ve also put in a button for you to directly report any inaccuracies.

Thanks,

Damian – Mumbrella