Letter to National European IAB Leaders

Dear Colleagues:

I enjoyed seeing you again in London. Let’s do it again, soon. Hopefully, somewhere else.

IAB European Council

I write to you with great excitement as I reflect on what I experienced at the IAB European Council meeting in London.

I thank you for your kind and enthusiastic reception of the IAB Romania team. Ana-Maria Ilie, Iulia Prioteasa and myself return from London to face our challenges and tasks with new excitement, new ideas and new aspirations. We will move mountains.

And we shall do so with the confidence of renewed friendship, inspiration and support. Your commitment to us strengthens our resolve to do amazing things. Reflecting on this new friendship and the inspiration of upir national successes, it is important for me to acknowledge your experience, ideas and accomplishments over the last year.

I am pleased that a conversation has begun between our IABs, and I have every confidence that our conversation shall bear much fruit for both. Better late than never!

IAB Romania is not alone in our endeavors to… drive the digital economy, bring industries together and accelerate the digital market.

Likewise, you are not alone in your same endeavors in your country and at the pan-European level. IAB Europe provides each of us with tremendous information, ideas, and opportunities to realize a common European and global mission and vision that each of us strive to effect.

What you may not realize is that our greatest resource is not IAB Europe and the politics of big businesses that desire to manipulate our national agendas according to their business plans. The greatest resource at IAB Europe is ourselves: the ideas, inspiration and support that we can offer to each other.

This is the IAB epiphany that we must remind ourselves with daily vigilance.

IAB Epiphany

If you agree with me that the IAB epiphany is… that our greatest resource, strength and inspiration is ourselves (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Romania, etc.), then…

You and I must make a break with the silent past and resist future temptations to underestimate what we can do for each other. Nor should we underestimate what others can do for us.

I believe this is our greatest challenge within IAB Europe. Yours, mine and the others. It is not a great challenge. It is all too easy to become entrenched in our individual challenges and aspirations and lose sight of…

+ Vision and mission of IAB
+ Common will and aspirations of IAB Europe’s Board of Directors
+ Successes, capabilities, competencies, insight and experience of each national IAB

Regardless of our distinct national challenges, I have every confidence that you, I and the other distinguished Members of the Board can see the bigger picture.

Nor should we underestimate what other National IABs and the IAB European Council can do for us.

Romania and Eastern Europe

Romania and Eastern Europe, for example, have a significant role in the digital economy at the European, American and global level. Two years ago, The Wall Street Journal listed Poland, The Czech Republic and Romania with India as the top five destinations for outsourcing, online creative production, software development and innovation. Today, I can confirm that Hungary, Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries are also in the top 20.

Regardless of the comparatively low level of domestic utilization of digital technologies in Romania, Romanian export of creative, technologies, and technical support may exceed your present estimations. Perhaps, it also exceeds the combined national digital exports of some Western European countries. The reasons are several: lower labor costs, lower operation costs, social and economic change, and foreign investment. Likewise, Western European national economies are enjoying the benefits of Romanian exports and reselling those exports at three to ten times the cost.

This may be a revelation or, perhaps, an old, unhealed grievance for your industry members. Beyond revelation or grievance, I believe that IAB Europe in Eastern Europe is in your best interest and, likewise, Europe’s best interest. I hope you will join us to resist any future programs that attempt to exclude Eastern Europe.

IAB Europe in Eastern Europe is an accomplishment and a triumph that we can all own. Take ownership of this success and help us make something that will serve our Pan-European, national and individual interests.

IAB Romania welcomes the renewal of your friendship, ideas, advice, and support with open minds, open hearts and open arms.

Thank you for your attention.

Best Regards,

Stan Faryna
January 31, 2007
Washington, D.C.

Recipients: Thomas Duhr (IAB Germany), Karin Hammer (IAB Austria), Patrick Marck (IAB Belgium), Birgitte Takala (IAB Finland), Antonio Traugott (IAB Spain), et al.

Note: Written permission to use this letter was provided to me by the distinguished Members of the Board for Interactive Advertising Bureau Romania (IAB Romania)

About Stan Faryna

Stan Faryna is a member of the IAB European Leadership Council and National Director of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Romania. He is the founder and co-founder of several technology, design and communication companies in the United States and Europe including Faryna & Associates, Inc., Halo Interactive, and others.

His political, scholarly, social and technical opinions have appeared in The Chicago Defender, Jurnalul National, The Washington Times, Sagar, Saptamana Financiara, Social Justice Review, and other publications.

Mr. Faryna is editor-in-chief of Black and Right (Praeger Press, 1996), a landmark collection of socio-political essays by important American thinkers including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Copyright

Copyright 1996 to 2008 by Stan Faryna.

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