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Step aside, Lester Wunderman, Bill Jayme and David Ogilvy. The direct marketing industry has three new heroes, and they are Ted Leonsis, vice chairman emeritus of AOL; David Sable, COO of marketing agency Wunderman; and Tom Goosmann, founder and chief creative officer of True North Inc.

I am bestowing this accolade upon them not because of their career accomplishments (all three are quite distinguished, and don’t need me to confirm that) but rather for their valor. They all spoke at the recently concluded DM Days New York Conference and Expo under unnecessarily adverse conditions.

Let me set the stage, because that’s more than the Direct Marketing Association, which sponsored the event, did. Rather than speaking in a forum conducive to giving a presentation, two of these keynoters were obliged to hold forth in the back of the exhibit hall.

Now, the Jacob K. Javits exhibit hall has the approximate décor of a heavily trafficked airline hangar, without an airline hangar's innate charm. It is cavernous, overly lit, and its acoustics, which cause sounds to careen off the exposed ducts, are best suited for Olympic belching contests.

The sound system ranged from un- to over modulated. Speakers’ words were often challenged by the unamplified (or perhaps a better word is un-artificially amplified) activities of Javits Center workers, who were clanging a seemingly endless series of metal rods on the exhibit hall’s concrete floor.

Both Sable and Leonsis, who gamely gave their presentations, commented on the background noise. Leonsis remarked that it was like giving a talk in a subway station, while Sable, whose opening remarks were overshadowed by high-decibel Javits employee hijinks, waxed for a moment about the joys of union membership.

The Javits Center engineers didn’t get the exhibit hall sound system right until the third day’s morning keynote, which was an infomercial for IBM “How Green Was My Company” services. Sad that the one truly audible keynote was also the most self-promotional.

The sound system was only marginally better for the one non-exhibit-hall keynote, a lunchtime multimedia presentation by Tom Goosmann, which was held in the dining room. Goosmann’s firm, True North, had won the DMA’s 2007 International Echo Digital Award for several Disney marketing campaigns it created.

Alas, apparently nobody had tested audio levels before Goosmann’s presentation. This room's sound system made sushi out of the wailings and moans that account for a good chunk of the “Finding Nemo” clips Goosmann showcased.

Goosmann also demonstrated a computer program that allowed Disney enthusiasts to turn their cursors into Tinkerbell, who giggles and spreads pixie dust whenever people used their mouse. Alas, thanks to the audio levels, every time the "fwing!" sound effect that accompanied Tinkerbell's pixie dust spreading played, it was as if Walt Disney himself were taking a drill bit to audience members' eardrums.

The DMA, as a host, owed its featured keynote presenters better. Next year, Ivanka Trump (who is best known for being Donald Trump’s daughter, as opposed to any direct marketing activity) will be following in Goosmann’s, Sable’s, and Leonsis’s footsteps. Given that plans call for a similarly asinine setup for next year’s DMDNY keynotes, it’s nice to know the DMA is not subjecting another direct marketer to these conditions.

To respond to the opinions in this column, please contact richard.levey@penton.com.