• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, May 3, 2019

Introducing the panel on Data ROI: Bean-counting The Data Rush, Ashley Evenson, Director, Ciceron Digital Media Group, turned to Ahmed Al-Waili, Director, Programmatic, Data & Insights, Active International, on her left and said there is a story here.

"Programmatic is like fishing," said Ahmed. "You try to find audiences, it's like the ocean, there are so many fish out there. If you're re-targeting, you're fishing in a small pond."

Ashley reminded him that there was a story to tell (apparently related to tarpon fishing offered by the South Seas Resort, where everyone is staying and where the conference is taking place). He demurred, saying that probably many people hadn't heard about it yet (me included).

Then it was the turn of Pietro Bartoli, VP/Director of Programmatic, Digitas, to introduce himself. "It can be deflating to follow a legendary nautical adventurer," he said, leading to laughter among the cognoscenti

And here it is! Ahmed caught a monster tarpon! The proof: