NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> Wrap up - _at_d:tech New York - 10/30/98
ONLINE-ADS>> Wrap up - _at_d:tech New York - 10/30/98
richard_at_tenagra.com
Sat, 31 Oct 1998 09:48:22 -0600 (CST)
Below is a special mailing to The Online Advertising Discussion
List about the _at_d:tech New York conference, written by
Andy Bourland, publisher of The ClickZ Network. You will
receive these reports in addition to your normal Online Ads
posts/digests.
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_at_d:tech New York:
Wrap Up
by Andy Bourland
Publisher
ClickZ Network
http://www.clickz.com/
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ClickZ wasn't even intending to be present at _at_d:tech. I
recalled the less than satisfying "B_at_d:Tech: LA" from a
while back. I wasn't thrilled with _at_d:tech's Chicago
conference last May. And I figured this would be more of the
same ol', same ol'....
Well, when I am wrong, I am usually the first to admit it.
And folks..._at_d:tech proved me dead wrong.
What made _at_d:Tech sing wasn't so much the content, it was
that they made it a not-to-be-missed "Event." Everybody who
is anybody in the industry was there. And when that is the
case, you can't stay home...at least, I can't.
The seeds of success for _at_d:Tech NY were planted last May in
Chicago when Denis Beausejour of Proctor & Gamble turned his
keynote address into the launch of the
FastSummit/FastForward process. Not coincidentally, the
FastForward timetable for reporting on milestones and
progress in the process was neatly timed for _at_d:Tech
conferences.
So if you are one of the 600+ committee/subcommittee members
of FastForward, you better be in NYC in October. And oh,
Rich LeFurgy, simultaneously heading up IAB and FastForward,
most likely found it pretty convenient to hold the IAB
meeting at _at_d:Tech as long as he was handling FastForward.
So here's a conference that starts with a FastForward
meeting and wraps up with an IAB meeting. Panelists in all
the presentations had forearm tattoos from the IAB,
FastForward, or both. Same with the keynoters. There were
few exceptions, it seemed.
The Upshot
The result was that all the players were there in a big way.
If you provide any sort of product or service to the online
ad industry,here you had a pretty good shot at getting in
front of a few BigNames strolling the aisles. No coincidence
then, that the vendor area was packed to the gills.
And if you are looking for information and content, you
would be attracted to the BigNames that were on the docket
to speak.
And if you knew that all your colleagues, vendors,
competitors and clients were going to be there, you'd best
get your butt over to _at_d:Tech NY, lest those competitors
start getting a little cozy with your clients and/or vendors
while the cat's away.
In short, it was a major schmoozefest. Networking nirvana.
Connections city.
But what about content? What about those six seminar tracks?
How about all those keynoters? Must have been plenty good,
huh?
Well...that was a mixed bag, to be honest.
Michael Bloomberg, who whined and moaned about the
proliferation of internet advertising and Times Square
billboards, pointed out numerous shortcomings and pitfalls
but offered no solutions. Then we heard from John Sculley,
who has a tendency to lose his audiences in a sea of words.
Finally came Bob Schmetterer of EuroRCSG, who gave a GREAT
speech... if you are an out-of-touch Fortune 500 CEO who
wants to catch the "Vision of the Internet." In this case,
he was preaching to the choir.
Then there were the panels. Most of them were drop-dead
boring. Few speakers used their laptops to effectively point
out good examples of the kind of work they were referring to
in their brief remarks.
And with the panelists, _at_d:tech clearly took the inclusive
approach of the more, the merrier. Well...maybe. Except if
you were in the audience. Several panels I attended had no
less than SEVEN panelists.
And it was still a snoozer. Nobody was able to make the
point they wanted. But maybe it didn't matter, as it turned
into a great opportunity for the audience to catch up on
lost sleep from the parties the night before.
When the moderator (I'm thinking Michael Tchong here) is far
more interesting in his questions than the panelists are in
their answers...you KNOW you have a problem.
Exceptions to the Rule
But there were exceptions... Chuck Martin is one hell of an
interesting host and moderator. You gotta love the guy.
>From his bright and cheery "Good Morning!"s to the way he
bounced on his toes successively when he's excited about
something, he's FUN to watch. His way of handling his
panelists paralleled that of a good talk show host. I found
myself thinking of parallels to Howard Stern, Geraldo and
Oprah in Chuck's ability to banter with his guests and
generate good response from them, all while keeping the
audience entertained.
My favorite panel was Online Communities, where Chuck had
the CEOs of GeoCities, TalkCity, Tripod, The Mining Company
and theglobe.com. He handled the panelists well, sparking a
little heat between Scott Kurnit of Mining Companies (whom I
agreed with) and the CEOs of GeoCities and Tripod. Then he
wisely sat back and let it happen.
That panel was followed by the FastForward update panel.
Frankly, what amazed me here was how little the group could
say in 1 1/2 hours. I came away totally unclear on what
progress had been made. Perhaps a slide or two with some
charts detailing what milestones they accomplished thus far
would have helped me along... I desperately needed a visual.
(If any FastForward member wants to tell me what is REALLY
going on, please email me (MAILTO:andy_at_clickz.com) so I can
pass it along to our audience.)
Housekeeping Issues
_at_d:Tech overlooked the fact that people do like to eat. In
fact, they NEED to.
Organizers completely missed an opportunity (read: LUNCH!)
to help people connect. Not only through no planned meals,
but through the lack of a coffee table, or for juice, soda,
maybe some fruit, between sessions. Isn't that what sponsors
are for?
Let's talk multi-tracks. Six is ridiculous. Generally, there
were two track sessions that were busy, the rest were
sparsely attended. Drop it to two, offering more
concentrated content than the leading brand and less
confusion for attendees.
One Suggestion
There are good, working examples out there for eliciting
good information from one or more individuals that might be
of use to others. They are called talk shows.
Forrester uses this model to the hilt. Forrester had
speakers come out and say their piece for 30 minutes.
Analyst Mary Modahl would then come out and ask a great set
of follow up questions for another 15, then open it up to
the audience for Q&A. It works. It flows. It's fun.
So use the TalkMeister Chuck Martin more effectively. Have
him handle the individual and panel discussions for one
track. Limit panels to 2 or 4, with even numbers on each
side of an issue. Do the talk show format to elicit good
info from each panelist. Spark a little interaction among
them. Some heat.And then open it to the crowd. We all know
how to play that game.
If _at_d:Tech is obsessed with multiple tracks, have some
interesting moderators up there to handle the others. Get
Tchong up there for a day. Or port Mary Modahl over from
Forrester. Better yet, Evan Neufeld from Jupiter. Let them
loose and you'll have a REAL fun and informative day where
anything could happen.
So what's the final grade?
Here goes. For networking and schmoozing: A+.
For content: C, perhaps a C+.
Would I go again? Damn straight! Would I suggest you do?
Only if you want to do business...and I assume you do.
*********************************************************************
Copyright (C) 1998 ClickZ Corporation. All rights reserved. May
be reproduced in any medium for noncommercial purposes as long as
attribution is given.
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