Beyond the booth babes and parties, the CEOs that look like they can’t be a day over 15 and the endless parade of panelists and superpanelists, there is a steady drumbeat here at ad:tech that’s being led by the same four-syllable word…

Integration.

Between clients and agencies.  Between sites and ad networks. (You can’t throw an iPhone more than 5 feet here without hitting at least 10 reps from different ones, by the way.)  Between media professionals and creative professionals.  And the list goes on and on.

For an interactive guy on the account side from the midwest, the experience so far has been humbling, frustrating and exhilarating.  There have already been at least three occasions where I’ve wished that I could magically and instantaneously transport some of my colleagues here to take part in the discussions, absorb the info and draw into sharp focus so much of what is making the current sea change of technology and its role in advertising such an amazing opportunity for our profession.  Bringing the branches and twigs of information that I’ve picked up here back to the nest is going to be interesting, but is not the biggest concern I have. 

How to find a way to effectively evangelize those that need to hear this new gospel is going to be the real challenge.