So with a weekend to catch my breath, sleep, and catch up on some web designing I’m finally going to finish my thoughts on Ad:Tech NYC. So if you missed my last post here are the top

1. Online Advertising is alive and kicking! - This was perhaps the biggest turnout ever and so many new companies were emerging that there is definitely some belief that the wave of economic mana is still there.

2. Friendster has indeed fallen - I’m not going to lie when you see (what used to be) a major social network displaying a booth, wait not even a booth but a table, that can’t be a good sign.

3. The Bar is Oh-so-Low - What I mean by this is that with only $6000 you can get a booth at Ad:Tech NYC and display as if you were a big boy like Quinstreet, Datran, or the other staunch incumbents. Main point being, with the bar being a bit financially you saw a lot of “very very small” companies.

4. The parties are still crazy - Put together Open Bar, a bunch of young people, and NYC and you get a mix that is ready to get down get down (pictures later). I went to the Datran Party at pressure and saw acrobats and girls in bikinis to start the night. As usual Datran did things proper with all top shelf alcohol and took care of all attendees real nice. Then to end the night I went to the Crobar where a mass of 4000 Ad:Tech’d exhibitors and attendees got their drink on. By then I was telling I could run their $15 mortgage offer that included SSN, mother’s maiden name, and bank account number. =). For more info on parties check out the full party list here.
5. Continuing with the Alcohol theme - Kegs are still allowed on the show floor. I personally visited Friendster serving cold Fosters, and adknowledge serving budlight. In fact I remember sitting at the adknowledge booth waiting for the keg to be refilled, there was an awkward moment there while I pretended to be interested in what they do while the bartender tapped the keg.

6. Online Lead Generation is growing - The lesser known online advertising industry and bastard little brother of Google’s adsense online lead generation is finally getting some airtime. I met with more companies that were getting into online lead generation or wanted to know what it was all about than any other type of advertising at ad:tech.

7. Booth duty is tiring - and the concrete is not any softer than last year.

8. Ray’s pizza - around the corner from the Hilton where ad:tech was being held is some of the best slices you can get in NYC. I must of tried 10 different places and I always found myself taking the subway back to Ray’s.

9. The Gyro cart - on the corner of the Hilton’s curb is possibly the best late night food on the planet. At 11pm after ad:tech there must have been a line 40 people deep, in the rain, waiting for a Gyro from this cart.

10. I still don’t know what iMedia direct does - every year they are front and center on the ad:tech floor right by the registration booth and every year I never stop by. If you aren’t sure who they are, they have those 5 asian girls dressed in red t-shirts that hand out rulers (seriously?) and some wierd calendar thingy. Whoever their VP of marketing is should really invest in some different freebies.

Want more on the ad:tech experience? Here are some other articles to check out:

ad:tech virgin - First hand what it’s like to be a conference rookie
And that was my Top 10 Things of Note from Ad:tech. Signing off, well not really because I don’t really sign off that much.

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