We'll kick off with a quick wrap of Day 1 and preview what's in store for Day 2.

From the ad spend slowdown to the surge in WFH traffic, the pandemic has changed the revenue structure of the publishing business. Will display advertising be enough to bring about recovery? Revenue diversification should be your answer to future success. How can legacy media brands innovate and evolve to grow their media business?

While keeping up with numerous global privacy regulations can be overwhelming, businesses also face the challenge of meeting consumer's expectations around privacy, transparency and trust. In order to maintain opt-ins, personalization, and ad delivery, publishers must configure consent management platforms (CMP) that strike a balance between compliance and UX. Hear from OneTrust PreferenceChoice to learn the following:

• Why consent rates lead to trust, revenue and overall business value
• Strategies to optimize consent rates and fuel trust
• Ways to fuse compliance and UX together to deliver the right CMP to the right audience

Phew—going to need a minute to get ready for the next round!

Audience tracking on the open web is in a state of flux as privacy regulations and technology changes give consumers more control over their data. In this complex world, publishers are pitted against walled gardens, where audience targeting works amazingly well. Are publishers going to wait until cookies disappear before realizing they need to create a targeting alternative that will achieve similar results? More nuanced contextual targeting is definitely an important option to consider. 

For programmatic sellers, DSP demand can be a black box. Do DSPs really reward high-efficiency supply paths? How do DSPs treat reselling? Is demand moving out of the open auction? Join Jounce Media founder Chris Kane for a data-driven view into the key themes that will shape programmatic demand in the year ahead.

There’s a digital media transformation afoot. As damaging as COVID-19 has been to publishers’ revenues, it has presented them with an opportunity to rethink their business models with a focus on building their first-party data strategies. Publishers are finding themselves in a new world that’s been accelerated by the pandemic, as well as privacy regulations granting consumers more control over their data—and the deprecation of the third-party cookie and IDFA.

In 2020, there was a lot of tension over brand safety, viewability, and invalid traffic measurement—the key elements of media quality. Can publishers find better avenues to communicate brand safety best practices to advertisers, as well as tools to manage fragmented data coming in from a host of media quality vendors?

In 2020, America faced a racial reckoning. We saw publishers, brands, agencies, and ad tech companies all make commitments to improve their diversity and inclusion practices. Has it all been merely lip service and performance marketing? Are we any better off in 2021? Join Ad Tech Collective for a discussion with digital media and advertising diversity champions as they explore all of this and more.

A quick summary of the morning's developments and preview of the afternoon.

Grab your drink of preference or take your bathroom break, but be sure you come back for the afternoon f-f-f-fun.

As pubs struggle to diversify revenue in the age of Coronavirus and the demise of the third-party cookie is ever nigh, they’ve turned to paywalls as a source of incremental revenue, as well as to build out their first-party data strategies. How do pubs determine the ROI of paywalls? How can they use paywalls to improve their relationship with visitors and the overall customer journey? 

There are a lot of options on the table for what comes after the cookie's demise. How do publishers know which ones to put more stock into? And will advertisers follow?

The idea of blockchain as a panacea for all of advertising’s woes has definitely become the stuff of legend. Those theoretical ideas are more naturally being replaced with tried and true solutions that solve for efficiency, transparency and tackling fraud. And applications that solve for identity are becoming more real every day.

Visit the sponsor booths in the exhibit hall to learn about the most cutting edge tech in advertising... and to become eligible for AWESOME PRIZES!

A bunch of promising media upstarts are deprioritizing advertising revenue in exchange for paid subscriptions or maybe even just email addresses. How can they compete with the open web that still mostly provides content for free?

All right, kids—what did we learn today?

It's time to stretch your legs, have a cup of Joe or a proper cup of tea and don't forget that bathroom break. But don't forget to come back for the F-F-Fun!

We'll kick off with a quick wrap of Day 2 and preview what's in store for Day 3.

Video streaming continues to gain momentum, accelerated in part through Covid-19 as viewers seek new entertainment from the comfort and safety of their homes. For video publishers and TV programmers, ad-supported video offers new revenue streams and opportunities to monetize their premium content. Hear from Google Ad Manager product experts, Peentoo Patel and Carolyn Ganon, on advanced TV trends and best practices to protect your ad-supported connected TV inventory. This webinar will highlight a variety of new Ad Manager insights—covering Covid-19 monetization impact, CTV transaction trends, global viewership insights, and live streaming performance—and help you understand how you can grow your video business. 

Following the Pandemic-driven viewership push, advertisers are clamoring to lay down wads of cash on CTV. Harnessing the power of CTV offers publishers an opportunity to scale revenue and marketers an opportunity to get their messages in front of the right audience on the big screen. Yet even with its growth, CTV is still an evolving technology with challenges like fraud and fragmentation. This panel will explore both the opportunities and challenges, as well as the full potential of CTV for publishers and marketers.