I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at the introduction of this year´s Peer Awards in Barcelona.
I hope it´s not to precocious to post the conent of a three minute speech! As it happened I deviated a fair deal, but the spirit was about right. 🙂
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Hello Barcelona. And welcome to you all.
We have an amazing afternoon ahead of ourselves. An amazing venue. An amazing city. An amazing organisation team, and of course amazing people. You know, this is not Mobile Monday Barcelona. This is Mobile Monday The World.
I feel honoured to have the chance to welcome you all today. To see such a talented collection of individuals in one room together – all under the banner of mobility – is truly exciting to me. Somehow I feel we are coming of age.
It is so easy to forget what the mobile industry is all about. Yes, its economics are very enticing. Yes, its trade shows are awe-inspiring. And of course the technology is always mind-blowing!
But it’s not really about any of those things. Our industry is about something else. About communication. And communication is about people, human beings. You might call them “users”, “subscribers”, “audiences”, or “eyeballs”. But they are human beings.
In fact you could say that the mobile world is the ultimate social network. One day it will be the size of the entire species. A vast and intelligent network of human beings. Our fellow human beings, wherever in the world they are.
And I have no doubt that that mobile environment must be used for good.
It is the human beings in this room that are making that happen. You, your friends and your colleagues around the world, are
the creative, disruptive, and pioneering force that must lie behind the grand mobile ambition.
All I am going to say about dotMobi is that we are here for no other reason that to help you realise that ambition.
What I see in front of me today is not a safe and lazy industry. You are not faceless brands, multi-national monopolies, or sanitised and defensive incumbents of some dull grey ecosystem.
No. You are the mobile mammals. You are the individuals, the entrepreneurs, the artists, the merchants, the craftsmen and women, the smart, ambitious, bright young things of all our mobile tomorrows.
So. The next time you are rewriting your business plan again or pitching your startup to yet another jaded investor, the next time you are up at three in the morning writing software to launch the following day, the next time you are in a sales meeting, telling sceptical potential customers that you have what it takes – I’ll be there with you. We’ll all be there with you. We’re a community. The Mobile Monday community.
And we have got what it takes.
And you do know that we are doing something quite special, don’t you? Nothing less than the formation and refinement of an entirely new medium. The reinvention of communication for the whole human species. Somebody in this room might be doing something that can change the human race, and that can change the world to make it somehow a better place.
That is a huge privilege and a huge responsibility. I trust we all take it very seriously.
Nevertheless, that is why this afternoon’s competitions are going to be very exciting. Good luck to you all and thank you!