UPDATED: Mark Walker (IPG Mediabrands) joins the line-up of speakers at ICEEfest

(Update 09.06 – adds info on Mark’s presentation & a statement related to Romanian market)

Mark Walker, SVP MAP World Markets at IPG Mediabrands, joins the line-up of speakers to be present in Bucharest, on June 11-12, at this year’s edition of ICEEfest.

At this year’s edition of ICEEfest, the organizers expect over 70 speakers and at least 2,500 participants in public from 20 countries for the 2 days of festival, scheduled to take place at Grand Cinema & More in Baneasa Shopping City (Bucharest).

Mark Walker is an expert in the areas of digital marketing and new media with a career that spans over 15 years working alongside some of the world’s leading advertisers. From his early beginnings in his native South Africa, Mark was always passionate about digital innovation and the use of data and technology to drive efficiency across all sides of business.

Mark Walker, Senior Vice-President – MAP World Markets, will have, at ICEEfest 2015, a presentation about “Emerging Programmatic Ecosystems” and will analyze, as part of The Programmatic Revolution: Are you ready? panel, how ready is the market in CEE to integrate and use to the max the potential programatic buying is offering.

Romania is one of the most important markets when it comes of programmatic buying’s development in CEE and I am happy to have the opportunity to interact with the most relevant actors of the media industry in the region. At ICEEfest, I will share with the public the experience accumulated by implementing programmatic buying in over 25 countries globally and I will highlight the importance which education of the market has in its success

Mark Walker,

Senior Vice-President – MAP World Markets, IPG Mediabrands.

Walker started his marketing career in the creative agency world at BBDO in South Africa, but he quickly found his passion for digital as one of the key players in the establishment of Africa’s first online media group, Metropolis Transactive where he specialized in the development of B2B and B2C online marketplaces and the monetization of online communities.

An entrepreneur at heart, Mark later successfully co-founded Trainiac, a 25-people communication consulting firm in South Africa.  During his tenure, the firm built an impressive portfolio of global clients that included SABMiller, SAP, GM, and Shell among others, and reached annual revenues of over USD $6mm.

In 2008, a transatlantic opportunity came knocking at his door and Mark moved to San Francisco, California joining the leading digital agency Organic Inc. Here he led Intel’s Global Content Syndication and Shopper Marketing Programs and directed an expert team of project managers, creative professionals, designers, engineers and media strategist, that generated over USD $7mm in annual revenue for the agency.

Mark joined the IPG Mediabrands family of agencies in 2011 as VP of Programmatic Strategy at Cadreon (Mediabrands Agency Trading Desk) with the main responsibility of deploying programmatic media buying capabilities across North American offices in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and San Francisco. He was in charge of driving programmatic media strategy and capabilities across Mediabrands’ three leading media agencies UM, Initiative and BPN, and devising best-in-class programmatic solutions for clients like Burberry, Hyundai-Kia and MasterCard.

In 2014, Mark was tasked with deploying strategic digital capabilities across the World Markets cluster in Mediabrands, which comprises more than 50 emerging market across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. As SVP, MAP, World Markets, Mark brings his expertise in digital media, technology, data and business development to lead the delivery and evolution of specialized digital media capabilities.

Walker graduated from the AAA School of Marketing and Advertising in Cape Town, South Africa with a degree in Marketing and Media Strategy and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Business Management from WITS University.

He currently lives in London and loves keeping an active athletic life whether it’s cycling, swimming or running marathons. His greatest personal achievement has been riding his bike across Colorado and the Pyrenees, and he is an aspiring yogi.

ICEEfest – Interactive Central and Eastern Europe Festival – attracts thousands of marketers, agency people & online media enthusiasts from all over Europe since 2008. The CE Europe’s premium Digital Marketing event takes place in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

This year’s ICEEfest will include, besides inspirational presentations and applied workshops, 2 distinct satellite-events, namely Viral Music Night on June 11th and Viral Movie Night on 12th. Also, “200 Seconds of Fame” start-up competition will continue during this year’s festival. In the same time, in the context of the festival, there will take place the Romanian edition of IAB MIXX awards.

The MC of the festival will be the British actor and comedian Jeff Leach.

ICEEfest is organized by Think Digital Group with support from IAB Europe and tickets are available on event’s official website, www.ICEEfest.com.