November is an intense month that sometimes resembles those football games in which the adjustments necessary to reach the desired results are achieved in the last minutes. Business events start to mix with holiday parties. Meetings start to smell like 2016. Some decisions are put on the backburner until next year, and others are made in advance.This is the situation we are as we approach the end of November, and here are a few of the month’s latest developments.
Movement in Chile – Part Two
A few weeks ago on LinkedIn I found out that Claudio Pérez (whom I used to see frequently on my trips to Chile for Havas) has moved to IMS, which is precisely the team that commercialized LinkedIn. I contacted him, and he commented that he moved over there to replace Alejandro Trujillo, who recently left the position to head over to TAPTAP Networks (in case you didn’t read my latest column, here it is).
Good luck, Clau! (I wonder who will be meeting me when I head over to Havas Chile?)
E-Commerce and Inspiration
I was in the first edition of the Mercado Libre Talks, an event (from what I can tell) with similar characteristics to TED, but with a local focus on global tendencies in innovation and technology as applied to business.
As much as these talks were done by professionals and entrepreneurs of the likes of Marcos Galperín (founder and CEO of Mercado Libre), Roby Souvirón (founder and CEO of Despegar.com), Federico Procaccini (country manager for Google Argentina), Daniel Rabinovich (CTO of Mercado Libre) and Alejandro Zuzenberg (director of Facebook Argentina), I believe that the best part of the event featured the three “best vendors” on Mercado Libre, who were recognized with the award for the best success case.
The competition consisted in a series of interviews with vendors that were pre-selected by Mercado Libre with a focus on the importance that the platform has for their business. These interviews and presentations (which were shown at the end of the event) had been recorded and edited into a “reality show”style video.
I think we all found the stories to be fun and memorable (and emotional), as some of them remembered their off-line business failures, and that thanks to the digital platform created by Mercado Libre, they were able to revive their businesses and improve their and their families lives in different ways.
It was a nice way to close the event.
Audio.ad Incorporates New Media
I spoke to Gonzalo Alonso, the managing director of Audio.ad, 
who told me that their office in Colombia is about to close down as a new agreement is signed with some of the most important music streaming services in Europe. Apparently, the platform (whose catalogue contains 35 million songs and is available in 182 countries) will be operating out of Brazil, with a central office in Paris.
Intriguing, Gonzalo!
Digital Talents Are Produced (And For Sale)
Lorena Amarante, one of the pioneers of the Argentine digital 
industry and co-founder of OM Latin America, commented that (on top of continuing with different capacitations in digital marketing) they have just launched a talent search and selection service for the digital industry.
As of now, businesses that are interested in incorporating specialized professionals can trust the expert eyes of the team behind OM Latin America.
For more information, visit: www.omlatam.com
What a great project, Lore!
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Event
Juan Göldy (the fabulous president of the MMA) and Soledad Moll (the general manager of the MMA) invited me to the MMA Forum Argentina 2015, an event dedicated to thinking about mobile marketing from the inside.
It was a full-house (which is no small feat on a day that threatened to bring torrential rain to Buenos Aires).
The organization didn’t leave anything to chance: from relevant presenters (providers of mobile solutions, brands and agencies) to the impeccable catering.
When’s the next one?
Headway Digital Gets Ready to Party
In the last column, we had commented that headway (MediaMath‘s exclusive partner) is turning five years-old. The moment to celebrate has arrived: On November 25, there will be a cheers at a well-known bar in Buenos Aires. Of course, I’ll be there, listening for any new developments.
See you in December!
