• by Masha Geller , December 6, 2001

Well, the biggest show of the season has come to an end. Here's the final roundup. In my humble opinion, the content was strictly average save a few stellar presentations, the exhibit floor was lively and fully reflective of the industry's renewed faith in itself, and all the attendees I spoke with were generally satisfied with the experience.

That, of course, doesn't sound like a typical @d:Tech show of years past - compared to the usual glitz and glamour, this one was very sedate. However, we have to remember that we're in the middle of a serious recession and the online ad industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors of business.

Thus, the organizers, presenters, exhibitors and all others involved in producing the event should be extremely proud of themselves. Against all odds, they have delivered on the promise of being the one must-attend advertising trade show of the season.

Here are some final thoughts: judging by the many figures presented by eMarketer's Geoff Ramsey over the course of the show, we still have anywhere from 6 to 9 months to go before the online ad market picks up.

At the same time, as Jarvis Coffin, head of BURST! Media said in a Feedroom.com interview today, "the industry has bottomed out." From that we can only conclude that at this stage in the game, there's nowhere to go but up.

Bottom line? The Internet is still an infant medium, but from its infancy we've already learned what both its highs and its lows are like and we're better for it. So let's get to work.

And just to prove that I'm not being overly optimistic, Nielsen//NetRatings reported today that online shopping surged 59% last week, posting the biggest gain thus far for the holiday e-commerce season. And Lisa Strand, director and chief analyst at NetRatings, said that increase puts shopping activity "right on par with last year's results."