• by Masha Geller , November 21, 2002

One thing that struck me as a little odd at this week’s @d:Tech conference was that everyone was so surprised at the positive attitude of everyone else in attendance. Many people I talked to mentioned the “good mood” and the “enthusiasm” in the air, adding that it’s a little weird to see all that happiness considering everything the industry has been through.

Well, why shouldn’t we be positive? Why shouldn’t we be happy that we’ve made it through the tough times? We have every right to be thrilled!

As I see it, it’s pretty useless to compare this year’s mood to last year or the year before. As Scot McLernon wrote in his recent MediaDailyNews column, “Three short years ago … there was very little REAL money from REAL companies being spent on banners, buttons or text links. The real money was standing over on the sidelines quite bemused by it all, and telling the few of us who cared to listen that they'd be somewhat interested in our space if or when we got our act together.”

Then, last year, we were all too shell-shocked to do anything, and I agree with Scot that this summer was the turning point – those who cared enough to listen listened and we got our act together to a point where “real money” is actually considering the web for their plans. The web is not quite an integral component of every ad campaign yet (not that every medium should be on every plan), but at least “they” are not refusing to let us get our foot in the door. Just look at all the companies in OPA’s recent survey of online publishers, all of whom are doing quite well, thank you. As a result, to quote what John Durham said to me after the show, “I smelled real money, not this BS spiraling down of cheap stuff.”

Considering how hard everyone who’s still in this industry has worked over the last few years to stay in this industry, it’s time that work started paying off and the improved mood shouldn’t surprise anyone.

That said, let’s stop gloating and get to work. We’ve been allowed to enter the elevator and start the pitch – and rightly so - but there are more problems to be dealt with this coming year than we’ve thought of yet.