• by Laurie Petersen , October 10, 2007

What a difference a year makes. Yahoo had a large footprint at last year's ANA Annual Conference, but it's Microsoft all over the place this year.

Friday's opening keynote comes from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, fresh off the $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive and a European tour where he stated the corporate intent of deriving 25% of revenues from advertising. His official topic: How technology is transforming the marketing landscape.

The Masters of Marketing gathering kicks off tonight in Phoenix with a welcoming reception sponsored by Facebook.

We'll be blogging with updates throughout the weekend at MediaPost Raw.