European Chapter Chair, Marianne Morgan, and Vice Chair, Simon Gebauer share what inspired them to join the Board, how they are adapting to working life in lockdown and their aspirations for the European Chapter in 2020.

Hello. Let’s start at the beginning. What made you want to join the AMEC Board?

Marianne: I’ve been a member of AMEC for a few years and gained so much from the experience. Despite being a global trade body, I think AMEC has a really nice family feel. Most of the members I meet are happy to share ideas and best-practice and they genuinely care about raising quality standards for all. I wanted to ‘pass it on’ by helping others have the same positive experience of AMEC. In particular, I’m keen to introduce more, smaller businesses like mine to AMEC and to encourage more people to consider a career in measurement.

Simon: Observer has always been an active part of the AMEC community. However it is only since last year that we joined as an official full member. It was a logical next step to show commitment, take responsibility and support AMEC’s mission by applying for the Board. I was convinced that as an AMEC board member I could make a significant contribution towards furthering AMECs mission and strategy – especially in terms of heightening the awareness of AMEC in the German-speaking world and reaching out to a wide array of professionals in the industry – especially the young generation of communication professionals. It was a close campaign and when Johna Burke informed me about the results I just felt really happy and thankful for all the support.

The first part of this year has brought unprecedented changes across world and our region. How has this changed your aspirations for AMEC in Europe?

Marianne: I think recent events have made measurement more important than ever – both for planning and for evaluating comms. So, my desire to build a European community that can support each other by sharing best practice and problem-solving together is still very strong. But how we facilitate that may need to change. At the start of the year, we asked European members how they would like us to communicate with them. As a direct result, we have launched a regular email newsletter for European members. But we have also launched an online forum on Basecamp – a website that facilitates collaboration. The idea is to make communicating with peers across Europe faster and more direct – if you need a case study or to crowd-source ideas to go into a presentation, you can post on the group and (hopefully) get some pretty instant responses from Europe’s brightest measurement minds. It’s a new channel so I hope members will bear with us while we find our feet and, most importantly, that they join the discussions.

Simon: When entering the board it was one of my priorities to promote and represent AMEC in the course of the preparations for the AMEC Summit 2020 that would have taken place in Vienna in June. A lot of work was on underway when the covid-pandemic hit us and messed up all plans. It still feels a bit unreal to see all my original calendar entries for this week. Even more I am looking forward to welcoming all members and attendees of the congress in Vienna next year. I can promise we will make that a very special comeback.

In general I think in that in times of crisis associations like AMEC need to be observant and, more than ever, prove their value to their members. I can assure that AMEC will be taking a very active role in that respect, delivering value to the members and providing them with information and new services.

What is your day job?

Simon: I am CCO at Observer, a Vienna based media intelligence provider. In this role I am responsible for the commercial strategy as well as for the development of the company. I especially enjoy opening up new opportunities and the quite frequent business travels. That is also the one thing I miss the most in the current situation.

Marianne: I am Director of Research and Analytics for UK PR agency Citypress. I oversee all of our reporting (making sure it meets AMEC best-practice, of course!) and the research-led insight gathering for our comms campaigns. It’s a varied role so you’ll find me doing everything from analysing campaign results to developing new products and training teams. I love that no two days are the same.

Where are you working from these days?

Simon: Most of our employees worked from home and still do. However someone had to “hold the fort” and my family situation allowed me to commute even when public life including schools was shut down. With my fiancée in our home office and me in the company we could at least prevent quarrels about the better domestic workplace.

Marianne: I’m in the UK, which is only just beginning to emerge from lockdown so I am mostly working from my home office. I’m lucky as my husband used to work from home anyway, so we have a pretty good set-up. The big challenge is childcare as both my children are off school at the moment so I’m a part-time media analyst and part-time teacher.

And finally, tell us an interesting fact about yourself.

Simon: I have working at Observer for more than 10 years now. A fact that a lot of people react to with amazement in this world of so many job opportunities and space for self-fulfillment. However it gave me the possibility to gather substantial experience in the Media Intelligence industry acting in various roles, such as a media analyst, key accountant, sales representative and most of all as a strategic consultant to clients from the industry. And all that with the possibility to help shaping the future of the organization.

Marianne: I’m half Swedish. My Dad is originally from Stockholm and we try to visit every couple of years. Sadly, I never learnt to speak the language. I’ve been using lockdown to begin learning the basics but I think it will be a while before I can impress any of our Swedish members!