• by May 5, 2004

There were some interesting discussions at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Leadership Forum yesterday.

The event was well attended, sold out in fact, according to the IAB. The Forum was populated with media agency types, marketers of all stripes, ad-serving and interactive technology providers, and other industry supporters and hangers-on. There was, I thought, a healthy buzz and productive networking. Of course The Minute always finds corridor talk more useful--and speaking of that, Scot McClernon, executive-vice president, sales and marketing, CBSMarketWatch.com, said he just finished a grueling tour of duty supporting the IAB's Rich Media Task Force.

The IAB yesterday issued a call for feedback on the proposed guidelines for rich media ad formats. It's a critical step in the process toward standardization and one we hope doesn't squelch creativity. People have 60 days to comment on the guidelines which, by all accounts, the Task Force worked very hard to come up with. The feedback survey can be found here.

McLernon also told me about an exciting networking group that he helped launch on the West Coast where he's based--the Bay Area Interactive Group. The concept, similar to the New York metro area's 212 (launched in January), will plan programming and networking events for interactive media, marketing, and creative professionals and hopefully, will nurture up-and-comers.

And speaking of 212--Ian Ross, senior sales director at Disney Online--reminded me that the group is holding an event tomorrow night. The "Dialed In" event, part of 212's educational series, will focus on emerging advertising platforms and includes speakers from Electronic Arts Online Publishing, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, OpenTV, and TiVo. I'm told only those who have RSVPed will be allowed in.