Ad:Tech NYC - Final Recap

Written by Shannon Clark - November 11, 2007

Allen's note: A big thank you to Shannon Clark for covering FOWD. Awesome coverage of the event!

All ad:tech NYC posts:

AdTech NYC was a great event for me, in four busy days I had the opportunity to get a good sense of the current state of the online, digital advertising industry. The combination of the overly packed exhibit halls, the standing room only lobbies, and after Monday they almost always full keynotes and panel discussions offered a great mix of opportunities to hear from both small, newly launched firms and some of the leaders of the largest digital agencies and advertising firms.

As I learned from talking with people over the course of the event in addition to the discussions in the public spaces of the sessions, exhibition hall, and lobbies, countless other meetings took place over the past week. In fact most of the CEO's and senior salespeople I spoke with talked of having 6 or more meetings every day while at the show. Little time for much else besides meetings which would start with early breakfast and end late into the evening.

Official numbers will likely be available early next week but here are a few early numbers from the last conversations I had with the AdTech staff:

pre-registrations (mostly for free expo pass) - ~13,800+ people
full conference registrations - ~1300 people
media - more than expected, likely over 100 press passes issued
speakers - over 100 different speakers during the course of the conference
actual attendees vs. registrations - estimated between 9000-10,000 for exhibition days (Mon & Tues) and about 1500 (including media, speakers and event staff) for the full conference
as many as 10 or more parties on any given night, with at least 4-6 parties most evenings

Stories from AdTech NYC 2007 made the NY Times and many other major newspapers and the media coverage both old and new was extensive. One thing I have to applaud AdTech for they supported the media extremely well. The press room was conveniently located was also the speakers lounge and included beyond computers, dedicated wifi, coffee, and ample piles of press materials from exhibiting firms, free massages for speakers and the press (which after picking up materials from over 100 of the exhibiting firms was sorely needed the next day).

Combining the speakers and press rooms worked extremely well, while sitting in the press room I was often able to get a few minutes (or in some cases much more than a few minutes) conversation with speakers. The AdTech staff also arranged for speakers to be available to the press before or after some of their sessions, though I was too busy at other sessions to take full advantage of these more formal opportunities.

As I looked over the conference materials and watched many of the sessions I was struck by a few of the many differences between AdTech NYC and more "pure" tech industry conferences and shows. Unlike the majority of tech industry events, AdTech had a highly diverse group of speakers - with a large percentage of senior industry leaders who happened to also be female speaking. The diversity was not just on a male/female line. Speakers were drawn from a wide range of ages, races, countries and types of firms. I personally would have like to hear even more from speakers directly at the advertiser side of the industry but there are many from both digital technology firms and agencies - from both the technology and creative sides of the business.

It is a welcome reminder that not all industries are as myopic as the tech industry often appears if you only went by the speakers at major tech conferences.

The crowd at AdTech was relatively young, though again attendees were quite diverse and above all very actively engaged in talking with each other. I missed most of the major AdTech parties but seeing photos from some of the other media covering the conference, the parties were serious parties. In many ways the Hilton was and is a tough venue for a large, major industry show. But on the otherhand the very tightness of the venue lent itself to people connecting and talking. If you knew just a few people at the show (more than the less than a dozen I knew from before I attended) you could have easily sat in one of the two main bars in the lobby and waited as the conference flowed past you.

And while I made fun, to a degree, of some of the more outrageous ways people promoted their booths in the exhibit hall, for the most part the booths were manned by actual employees of the firms who were actively engaged in conversations with attendees on serious matters. Whenever I stopped and had a conversation I generally fell into an interesting discussion of the industry as well as that particular firm's offerings.

I would like to thank Allen for the opportunity to report on AdTech NYC 2007. Watch for my ad network to launch in 2008!