“SIME is like Christmas for the Nordic digital industry” – Johan Siwers

Below is a guest post by Johan Siwers who makes a recollection with a trip down memory lane from the time of ‘SIME Genesis’ to today. Johan is one of the online industry veterans, former MD of Match.com in the Nordics, and has over the past 15 years been involved in breaking ground for a wide range of media and online media ventures within companies like Kinnevik, Spray, Shibsted and InterActive Corp (IAC). And most importantly a credited SIME Junkie. He is one of our favorite writers at the blog with some of his previous posts here and here

Finally it is SIME time again. For anyone involved in the online scene, this is our Christmas, our time to celebrate the great industry we are representing. It is now 15 years since SIME kick started the Scandinavian industry around the Internet by putting the people, the companies and the ideas in the limelight.

Some of us recall where things stood back then. There was the report made by the agency Projektor, predicting that in 1997 online advertising would reach 300 million SEK in turn over, receiving nothing but laughter in response. Earlier this year IRM announced that the online media is the second largest media in Sweden, reaching a turnover of 5,7 billion SEK in 2010.

There was Spray challenging the traditional players proclaiming that the online media was superior to more or less anything else. But the early products such as the Citinavigator, the citiguide Rival or the directory/search service punkt.se did not have any material impact on the world outside of the core online community. This fall Google received the award for “best media in Sweden”, taking over the spot TV4 has subscribed to for some years.

There was SIME being bold and brave when setting up – and filling up – SIME at the classic location Cirkus at Djurgården. When SIME now some years later returns to Cirkus, it is to confirm it’s position as a grown up industry. Still yet being a teenager with passion, ambitions and adventures at the horizon.

Over the years SIME has always been there, bringing the world to Scandinavia – and Scandinavia to the world. The list of influential people that has been visiting – and returning year after year – is nothing less than impressive. SIME has been inspiring us all by sharing stories about success as well as lessons to be learnt by failure. The SIME co-founders, Ola and Christoffer, have raised the bar – in more than one sense – and become a symbol for the passion many of us feel about the industry we are in.

In my role as the Chairman of IAB Sweden, the global industry organization for the online industry, I am happy to be a supporting partner of SIME this year. The members behind IAB are long time visitors at SIME, and we see SIME as a platform for a dialog with You and the rest of the industry. We are passionate about strengthening the online industry and to grow the share of the online media in the eyes of advertisers, agencies and media owners.

IAB, just like SIME, relies on the trust we can get from the industry. We believe the challenges ahead in an ever changing industry calls for a strong industry organization. That is why we are taking the lead in important questions for us all, for example:

1. Our task forces within Mobile, Legal or Search
2. Establishing a framework for the cookie regulation debate,
3. Industry research, with reports like AdEx2011, covering the development in 25+ markets in Europe
4. And ongoing seminars within areas such as search, mobile and social media