Touted as the “world’s largest conference dedicated to educating marketers, publishers, agencies and technologies on the latest in programmatic,” AdExchanger’s October Programmatic I/O in NYC packed a ton of information into 2 days of presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and one-on-one talks.

Conference tracks were broken up by buy-side, sell-side, ad ops, TV/video, and even a “Programmatic 101” for newbies. The plenary program featured case studies, presentations, and discussion on how programmatic media is evolving.

We were onsite to better understand clients’ data needs. Some of the more popular topics were data aggregation strategies and solutions, supply path optimization, and how to find alignment with ad policies and data protection acts. It was also apparent that brands are continuing to bring activities, like creative and media buying, in house, which meant that many of them were also looking for insight on choosing a DSP. Combine the in-housing trend with the growing number of demand partners, platforms, and products, and it’s easy to understand why data fragmentation continues to haunt advertisers seeking to aggregate all their data.

The event closed out with a fireside chat with Martin Sorrell, the much talked about former head of WPP and current CEO of the new S4 capital. He shared that his new venture would focus on the industry’s growth areas: first-party data, content and digital media planning and buying.

The next Programmatic I/O is in San Francisco, April 29-30, will you be there? Contact us and let us know!