Arriving back in Brooklyn, NY, late last night, I fell on my bed, stared at the ceiling and tried to digest all that occurred during AdMonster’s Publisher Forum in Oxford this last week.
I had a great deal to roll over in my mind from those intense few days, including striking keynotes about the mobile revolution, the microeconomics of display advertising and fostering innovation from within a division. Discussions revolving around the growing role of the ad ops team stretched into charming evening events, such as a dinner at Exeter College within the grand and legendary Oxford University.
But it wasn’t all weighty debate and dialogue: as you can tell from the photo stream below, there were plenty of good times to be had, with attendees (and sponsors) waxing business and personal lines while sipping on (or gulping down) pints.
Coming to my first AdMonsters EU event after serving as Senior Editor for U.S.-focused Adotas.com, I was met by a host of publishers I’d never heard of before such as Bauer Media, IPC Media and ITV (The Guardian, on the other hand, is one of my favorite newspapers/news sites). Although the names were new, many of the issues at hand sounded extremely familiar: Do you go with multiple ad vendors for multiple channels, or a sturdy one-stop shop? Are the exchanges a worthwhile enterprise and just how do you work with them? Am I doing this mobile thing right? And what on earth is going on with online privacy regulation?
For those who couldn’t attend, I hope the live blogging by the new Content team — Assistant Editor Maria Tucker, UK Editor Guatam Srivastava and US Editor Gavin Dunaway (that’s my name, don’t wear it out) — gives you a taste of what the Oxford Pub Forum was all about, but it’s nothing compared to actually being there.
However, you’re in luck as registration has just opened for the Vienna Publisher Forum from June 17 to 20 has just opened. Sure, that may seem far away, but buying a spot now will run you $599, a $600 discount (we can literally tell you it’s more than half off — if just barely). And many of those hotly debated issues at Oxford — mobile, juggling ad servers, privacy issues — will not only be top of mind, but will have likely become more complex…