This year the media conference business has been witnessing a 20% drop in attendance across the board. That’s about what NAB, CES and the Cable Show all saw. So when I heard from Ad:Tech that it’s just-concluded Ad:Tech San Francisco conference defied the trend and only saw a 10% dip in attendance, I was delighted and also wanted to know the reasons why.
The show ran earlier this week in San Francisco and featured keynoters such as Jason Kilar of Hulu, Kevin Rose of Diggnation and Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. (And me as a moderator, but we know I’m not the reason for the good turnout!)
“We certainly did some discounting which was necessary and I think it’s fair to say helped stimulate the demand. I would also say that our content was as strong as ever,” said Drew Ianni, the chair of programming for Ad:Tech.
Big discounts can shave the revenue more than the attendance. Even so, you need to be innovative in these tougher times and find creative ways to win customers, clients and attendees, even if that means lowering your prices. Who isn’t offering a recession special these days? And if by offering lowering rates, you can beat the market — with a 10% rather than 20% dip — all the better.
“In addition to six strong keynotes including keynotes from Jimmy Wales, Hulu CEO, Jason Kilar, Digg founder Kevin Rose, and Ogilvy Vice-Chairman, Steve Hayden, we really packed it in over the three days,” Ianni said. “We partnered with Danny Sullivan for our Search content and launched two new mini-shows within ad:tech San Francisco including ADSPACE which focused on SME publishers and sellers and Mobile Mix which consolidated our mobile programming to focus exclusively on mobile. We think all of this combined contributed to the strong turnout.”
Did you make it to the show? If so, what did you think?
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It would be a real shame if Ad Tech SF were to have dipped as much as the rest. After all, Ad Tech is all about being better at engaging audiences better than those to whom they sell their methods (including NAB, CES and the Cable Show). Superior methodology, development, and execution in attendance engineering has paid off for Ad Tech SF, which is in and of itself, the best general testament for the services of the sponsors, speakers, panelists, and the exhibitors.
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