• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 23, 2016

If you've been to ad:tech any time in the past couple of years, you've likely noticed it's much smaller than it was in its earlier heyday. Attendance has shrunk. The exhibit hall is smaller. It's not at the top of the list of must-attend conferences anymore. But, the organization was recently scooped up by global event organizer Comexposium Group and is now overseen by Paran Johar, whose own Mobile Media Summit was also acquired by Comexposium. 

At the time of the acquisition, Johar said, "together, we will be one of the largest international digital media event platforms with exhibitions, conferences, one-to-one business meetings, and summits exploring the full spectrum of burning issues from mobile to programmatic and beyond. Globally, we bring together the top 100,000 brand, agency, digital, marketing, advertising, and tech executives at our events and activate a community of more than 1.5 million through our content platforms.” 

On the eve of the organization's fall event in New York, a new board of directors has been announced. Members include: 

Jonathan Adams, Maxus, chief digital officer

Tamara Alesi, MediaCom, managing partner

Brad Berens, Big Digital Idea, principal

Heidi Browning, NHL, CMO

Chris Copland, Yieldbot, president

Christopher Curtain, Visa, Chief Brand & Innovation Marketing Officer

Sarah Fay, Glasswing Ventures, Managing Director

Richy Glassberg, Medialets, CEO

Pamela Horan, Horan Media Tech, partner

Peter Horan, Horan Media Tech, founder

Keith Kaplan, King (a division of Activision/Blizzard), global president of sales

Steve Katelman, Omnicom Media Group, EVP Global Strategic Partners

Andrew Kraft, AppNexus, VP publisher, Strategy & Account Management

Carol Kruse, Cambia Health Solutions, CMO

Rich LeFurgy, Archer Advisors, Director

Nicholas Matarazzo, Hearst Autos (a division of Hearst), President

Scot McLernon, YuMe, Special Advisor

Gayle Meyers, Luma Partners, CMO

Lori H. Schwartz, StoryTech, Principal

David Smith, Mediasmith, CEO

Anis Uzzaman, Fenox Venture Capital, General Partner & CEO

David Veneski, Intel, Director, North America Consumer Marketing

Doug Weaver, Upstream Group, Founder & CEO 

Of the new board, ad:tech New York General Manager John Durham said, "We are very fortunate to have the input and insights from this august group of men and women, our Board of Governors, who know and have done their life’s work in our industry. Coming from all aspects of the business: brand, agency, publishing and all aspects of marketing technology, we are pleased that they are working with Comexposium and ad:tech in its 20th year—a very formative one. They have been exceptionally helpful to our team as we plan and re-imagine this event in New York in a few short weeks.” 

The board members comprise a cross section of industry veterans along with some folks who haven't been around so long and who may inject new ideas into the organizations. Time will tell. The next ad:tech will be in New York November 2-3. The west coast event -- which normally took place in San Francisco and moved to LA but never happened this year -- will take place in, according to the website, "Southern California" which can only mean LA or San Diego. 

Upon announcing the move to LA about a year ago, ad:tech made a big deal about how LA has become quite the tech center. At the time, the press release gushed, "Los Angeles is the fastest growing technology startup region in the United States, and is currently the third largest technology startup ecosystem in the nation. It’s also home to some of the biggest rising stars in the industry and is known for applying technology, which allows marketers and advertisers to further create synergies within the marketing and tech industries." 

While that may be true, LA is hardly San Francisco when it comes to marketing and ad tech. But hey, how many times can you go to Moscone before anywhere becomes a better place to hold a conference?  

Hopefully the LA event will actually happen this time around.