• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 11, 2023

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one confused about all the "fronts" leading into next week's Upfront Week. It seems the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is too.

At least that's how the first 12 minutes of the IAB Podcast Upfront started off this morning, with a screen labeled "Podcast Upfront," but showing recordings of last week's newfront presentations.

Either that, or the IAB was giving some ADUs to GSTV, Meta and YouTube, whose presentations began this morning's streaming event.

I wasn't the only one confused.

"I am seeing NewFront 2023," Katie Steffen said in the event's chat window.

"Should we be seeing a presentation about Meta now?," added Katherine Benson.

By 9:13, the technical problem was resolved and Dorotea Lechuga celebrated by posting a "refreshing" glass of lemonade in the chat window.

Then IAB President David Cohen took the stage and kicked things off and the rest of the day morning ran pretty smoothly.