Publisher Forum US VII

August 25, 2002

AdMonsters has matured significantly in the three years since we held our first meeting. Our membership is stronger than ever, our organization has solidified, and we have regular, cohesive, and highly productive conferences. AdMonsters is widely recognized and, increasingly, seen as a resource within the industry. While we’re still the grassroots organization that has its origins in a few phone calls back in 1999, we’ve emerged as a leading organization within the online advertising industry.

AdMonsters VII, our seventh bi-annual conference, was held August 25-28, 2002 in Park City Utah. By many measures this was our most successful conference to date: we had our largest turnout: 40 member attendees from 20 companies, including new members from CFO.com, MSN, and Tribune Interactive, as well as a very strong agenda, excellent sponsorship, and very solid logistics (thanks to Andy Meltz and Karen Gunther at Epic International). 

Agenda

We had a very solid member agenda, including a number of case studies and round-table discussions, including

  • An introduction to sales operations at MSN
  • CheckM8 case study
  • At-Work Brand Network case study
  • Review of ad targeting and inventory management technology and practices at Yahoo
  • Case study of Time of Day sales models at ESPN
  • Best practices in managing the user experience with pop-up ads (Disney)
  • Best practices in revenue recognition for online advertising (Weather.com)

Highlights

  • On site presentations and participation by Gold Sponsors (DoubleClick, Solbright, Tacoda Systems)
  • Vendor Round Table on Ad Serving Technology with 24/7-RealMedia, Accucast, Advertising.com, Almondnet, ClickAction, DoubleClick, Mediaplex, Thruport,  and Zedo.
  • Monday night dinner with sponsor and vendor guests
  • Rafting on Tuesday afternoon
  • Tuesday night dinner at Zoom in Park City
  • The hot tub!

Outcomes

  • Elected formal steering committee.
  • Introduced Platinum sponsorship concept for future conferences.
  • Agreed to work with the IAB Rich Media Guidelines Task Force to review and vet the forthcoming Rich Media Guidelines, including the Flash Tracking Kit. 
  • Agreed to pursue an AdMonsters Europe, likely around the time of AdMonsters VIII in the U.S.