AD:TECH 2005 Gets underway

I arrived in San Francisco this morning to attend the AD:TECH conference. My initial impressions were WOW, there are a lot of people here. The keynote was pretty much standing room only, and I thought it was very well done. John Costello, Executive VP of Mechandising and Marketing for The Home Depot gave an inspiring case study complete with sample creative, describing how they further penetrated the womens market using a combination of media. Then Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley stepped in and gave a rousing prospectus on the state of the internet economy. The key take-away for me is that combined, the largest 5 internet companies are now worth more than they were at the height of the boom in 2000.