• by Masha Geller , December 5, 2001

The second day has come to an end and, as promised, here are some highlights.

Good news -- the exhibit floor finally opened today and it's a sight to see. It is really nice to see that there are hundreds of exhibitors at this conference unlike the several conferences of months past when all of them could have fit into 3 parking spaces.

Another encouraging sign is that there are several new companies in attendance - it shows not only that they are obviously fearless to launch at a time like this, but also that the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and kicking in this industry.

The morning keynote was given by DoubleClick's Kevin Ryan, who purposely stayed away from discussing problems the online industry is facing, but did touch on several positives: "More people are coming online every day. More people are shopping online every day. And more people are being influenced."

Speaking of DoubleClick, at the very end of the day, they announced that Dynamic Logic is assuming DoubleClick's ad effectiveness practice, which is part of the Diameter suite of services, and that Dynamic Logic has been selected as the preferred provider to DoubleClick clients who are interested in ad effectiveness and branding research. I'll get you more details on this tomorrow.

The last session of the day was lead by yours truly, and I asked Tom Hespos and Geoff Ramsey to join me in discussing the most somber of topics - the effects of September 11th on the online advertising industry. The bottom line? Ad spending did slow significantly in the last quarter of this year, but, as Tom pointed out, advertisers are spending money again. More importantly, he said there is now a certain sense of urgency in solving the many problems we're facing - advertisers and their support organizations have finally realized that the time has come to stop complaining and actually roll up their sleeves and do something!

Once again, stay tuned!