Keynote speaker for ad:tech Melbourne pulls out
The keynote speaker for this week’s ad:tech conference in Melbourne has pulled out.
Bonin Bough, global director of digital and social media at PepsiCo, will not be attending the event, to be held on Wednesday at the Hilton.
He will be addressing delegates by video link from the PepsiCo Auditorium in New York instead.
According to ad:tech, Bough withdrew due to internal changes at PepsiCo’s New York office, and informed event organisers on Saturday morning (AEDST) that he could no longer attend in person.
However, he will be taking questions from the audience, and will be assisted on site by PepsiCo Australia representatives.
Bough is credited with integrating digital into Pepsi’s overall brand strategy, and has worked on initiatives such as the Pepsi Refresh Project, Gatorade Mission Control, the PepsiCo 10 and the Women’s Inspiration Network.
The other three keynotes at ad:tech Melbourne include the founders of Spreets, Dean McEvoy and Justus Hammer, Haresh Khoobchandani, the chief marketing officer, consumer and online, Microsoft Asia Pacific, and the digital communications manager from Tate, UK, Jesse Ringham.
Consequently won’t be shaking his hand, but really looking forward to hearing him present and ask him questions nonetheless. I’ll be there Wednesday!
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Whilst it would have been great to have seen Bonin in person, it’s pleasing that he’ll be linking in to speak and take questions.
It’s certainly great to see more of these types of events servicing Melbourne’s digital marketing community.
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This is a shame but great that Bonin is still attending, albeit via video link up (how appropriate for an advertising technology conference).
He spoke at the Responsys conference in San Francisco and was fantastic.
We (Responsys) are the keynote sponsor for ad:tech and are looking forward to a great conference
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so he hasn’t pulled out then, just saving the environment and staying at home. will be quite cool beaming him in from america. maybe he should shout the audience free pepsi?
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I regret that I will not be able to attend ad:tech Melbourne in person this year due to unavoidable commitments on my calendar, but I’m looking forward to sharing my presentation and taking questions from conference-goers via live video link.
I was very excited about coming to Australia for the first time and I’m honored to have been asked to speak at ad:tech Melbourne’s inaugural event.
ad:tech and their parent company DMG mean so much to me and I hope to participate in many more of their events in the years to come.
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I met + saw Bonin present at SXSWi this year. He’s a great presenter with some great stories.
A shame you won’t get to experience him!
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Good to see he’s still making the effort to address the audience.
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Gosh. Isn’t everyone being positive?
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@ Ghost of Perry Kacker
Why wouldn’t everybody be positive mate? It’s sad that you’re surprised by this.
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“due to unavoidable commitments on my calendar…”
If the unavoidable commitments were in your calender… why did you agree to speak at adtech??
Personally i think the Bonin’s use of the words “commitments in my calender” is a tad oxymoronic.
Bonin, you mean “I had committed Adtech melbourne to my calender, knowing the organisers would sell tix based on this -but then something more important came up inside Pepsico. Soory”.
Reflects poorly on Pepsico – they clearly struggle with the meaning of “commitment”.
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@Ked Nelly Obviously Borin had other engagements but still able to use technology for the conference so no one will be missing out! Afterall it is a technological conference so why not use the technology that is available. Of course 20 years ago it would have just been on vhs cassette pre-recorded with no comments or questions available. He will be live wont he?
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@not what is said…
Really? In that case – why have a conference at all? Just have a webcast. If you think “no one is missing out” – try selling $1,500 tix to an adtech webcast. Good luck.
“In person” and on a screen just ain’t the same. It’s why airlines still have business class seats.
But you miss my point. I don’t give a toss whether he is there or not.
I just care about people side stepping promises. And I care about people redefining language to suite their purpose. In this case, the word “commitment”.
Bonin Bough and Pepsico did both.
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if anyone has seen the fall out for the supposedly successful pepsi refresh campaign i suspect this guy is getting his butt kicked back at head office while they madly call up the networks to re-book tv time to get pepsi back on track.
of course speaking at adtech would be a pleasant diversion for him at the moment given all the attendees would have partaken in the social media kool aid.
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Bummer if this is beyond your control…still looking forward to the presentation though! Heard great things about Sydney.
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