The agenda is designed to foster thought-provoking conversations, meaningful connections, and critical deal-making. In addition to curated networking sessions, here is a preview of what we’re planning for this fall.

Registration & Light Refreshments 

Time: 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM

Arrive, reset, and connect over light bites and refreshments as founders, investors, and industry leaders gather to set the tone for an energizing afternoon. This opening hour provides space for introductions, investor conversations, and pre-pitch momentum-building. Expect a packed room and high energy right from the beginning.

Kickoff Session & Investor Presentation 

Time: 1:15 PM – 1:20 PM

Rob and Tom open Day 1 by welcoming attendees and setting the tone for two days focused on the financial, technological, and structural forces reshaping advertising. They’ll outline the goals of AdEF, highlight the significance of the Founder & Investor Pitch, and preview how today’s discussions feed directly into the broader themes explored on Day 2.

Time: 1:20 PM – 1:45PM

Tom takes the stage to provide a concise, insight-driven overview of the economic and technological shifts shaping the advertising landscape. His remarks set the strategic foundation for Day 1, giving attendees the context they need for the pitches and discussions ahead.

Founder Pitches

Time: 1:45 PM – 2:45 PM

We will have our first four 15-minute pitches where each company presents a tightly constructed thesis to our voting audience. The first two minutes of each pitch start with the audience getting a chance to read a 2-page Bezos-style memo about the company (think condensed pitch deck). Each founder will have 8 minutes to pitch our audience and esteemed investor panel, consisting of ~20 venture capitalists and corporate development investors. The investor panel will then have 5 minutes of fast-paced Q&A to pressure-test assumptions and evaluate commercial promise.

Break

Time: 2:45 PM – 3:15 PM

A moment to decompress, recalibrate, and continue conversations sparked by the first round of pitches. Investors and founders are encouraged to use this time to deepen dialogue, exchange early reactions, and refuel before the second half of the competition.

Company Pitches

Time: 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM

After the break, the format continues with another round of four fast-paced, founder pitches mirroring the structure from earlier in the day.

Keynote Wrap-Up & Audience Voting, and Award Ceremony

Time: 4:15 PM – 4:45PM

When it’s all said and done, the audience has voted, we’ll announce the AdEF pitch winner and award the AdEF Charging Bull. Let the bragging rights begin!

Networking Reception

Time: 4:45 PM – 5:45 PM

Close out the day with an elevated reception sponsored by Revving and designed for investor-founder matchmaking and deal-flow momentum. Continue the debates, unpack the insights, and connect with the people shaping the next wave of industry innovation.

Registration & Breakfast Reception
Time: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Start the day with coffee, conversations, and connections, sponsored by [TBD]. Meet fellow industry leaders and get ready for a deep dive into the economic and financial forces shaping the future of adtech.

Opening & Welcoming Remarks
Time: 9:00 AM – 9:10 AM
A brief introduction to set the stage for the day’s discussions, highlighting key themes and what’s at stake for the industry, along with a few housekeeping items to keep a jam-packed day moving along. Tom, Rob, and Brian will also highlight what happened at our Day 1 Founder Pitches at Horizon Media.  

Present & Future According to Rishad Tobaccowala
Time: 9:10 AM – 9:20 AM
Rishad opens Day 2 with a clear-eyed assessment of what has changed, what has not, and what leaders still misunderstand. Rather than prediction, Rishad focuses on pattern recognition.  How are work, organizations, media, and leadership being reshaped, and how should advertising executives respond?

The Venture Capital Lens, Investing in the Agentic Era
Time: 9:20 AM – 9:50 AM
Our opening chapter sets the early-stage “origin story” of tomorrow’s advertising ecosystem. Where is venture capital flowing in the agentic era? How is AI changing the cost structure and use of funds between development and sales/marketing success?  What categories are overbuilt vs. under-invested? This discussion also tackles a provocative question raised last year: What does the future of “the website” actually look like?

The Attention Economy
Time: 9:50 AM – 10:15 AM
In our inaugural Advertising Economic Forum in 2024, we had an amazing 1-on-1 to get inside the mind of Joe Marchese. Joe is returning to the stage this year to talk about the attention economy. His new book is on that very subject. Attention is the scarce resource that connects media, creative, pricing, and outcomes, yet it remains inconsistently defined and measured. This session examines how attention is evolving from a conceptual framework into an economic input, how it reshapes planning and buying decisions, and what it means for valuation across channels.

Venture Capital,  Limited Partners and Long-Term Bets
Time: 10:15 AM – 10:45 AM
The conversation behind the checkbook. Before products scale, before platforms consolidate, and before public markets assign multiples, capital makes a choice. This session examines the earliest decision in the venture-backed advertising economy. Unlike founder-centric conversations, this chapter pulls back the curtain on the capital stack to reveal how GPs and LPs evaluate risk, conviction, time horizons, and structural change in an era when AI and agentic systems are redefining how media and creative work is done.

Morning Networking Break: Refuel, Converse, and Charge Up
Time: 10:45 AM – 11:20 AM
We got off to a great start. We are on the path to enlightenment. That’s our economic unit of production at the Advertising Economic Forum. Now it’s time to connect, collaborate, and caffeinate. Grab a treat, and engage in high-value conversations.  

Moving Up the Investor Continuum: Private Equity
Time: 11:20 AM – 11:50 AM
As advertising companies across the supply chain evolve and mature, private equity becomes a critical part of the capital continuum. This session examines the private equity thesis on investing in the advertising space and how private equity firms evaluate management teams, operational leverage, margin expansion, and exit optionality. For our management executives in the audience, you will gain total clarity on what makes your company “PE-ready.”

Public Market, 7 Companies Up or Down? Winning or Losing in 2026?
Time: 11:50 AM – 12:25 PM
Now we go from the private company world to the public markets. Our equity analysts will pace through five publicly traded advertising companies shaping the advertising ecosystem. The goal is not prediction; it’s disciplined comparison aimed at providing insight for our audience.

Agentic Commerce: What Will and Won’t Be?
Time: 12:25 PM – 12:55 PM
1-to-1 interview with Michael Komasinski, CEO of Criteo. As AI agents increasingly guide discovery, comparison, and purchase decisions, commerce advertising is entering a new structural phase. This session explores agentic systems as an emerging demand channel, how product discovery is being re-architected, and what this shift means for retail media, search, performance buying, and the future flow of advertising capital.

Full Wait Staff Lunch, Followed by Espresso and NYC’s Finest French Chocolates
Time: 12:55 PM – 1:55 PM
Enjoy a full-service, seated lunch designed for uninterrupted conversation and relationship-building. Following lunch, enjoy espresso and the very best French chocolates, a small detail that reflects the forum’s commitment to curated quality at every level.

Coffee/Chocolates
Time: 1:55 PM – 2:10 PM
Espresso, Coffee, and Chocolates Sponsored by Index Exchange.

As the Advertising World Turns. Quo Vadis (where are we headed)? 
Time: 2:10 PM – 2:40 PM
Has the “Oppenheimer moment” for AI already passed? Governments may now struggle to control big tech’s influence, which already owns ~70% of digital ad spend. Old interpretations no longer hold: Sorrell has challenged traditional economic signals derived from advertising, arguing the industry is now bifurcated between fast-growing digital media and declining traditional spend.

M&A: The Corporate Development Perspective
Time: 2:40 PM – 3:10 PM
This session goes inside how corporate development teams evaluate and prioritize acquisitions, from strategic roadmap fit to opportunistic plays; assessing valuation tactics to understanding competitive market dynamics; and managing integration risk and long-term optionality. Whether you’re building, buying, or advising, this is a clear view into how real M&A decisions get made.

Media Money Flows: Where Money Goes Today, Where it is Heading From and to This Year and Next Year. 
Time: 3:10 PM – 3:45 PM
This session synthesizes everything discussed so far into one essential question: Where does advertising money actually flow today, how is that changing, and how quickly or slowly is it happening? This chapter examines shifts across channels, platforms, and business models and what those shifts signal about winners, losers, and emerging constraints.

Afternoon Networking Break: Refuel, Converse, and Charge Up
Time: 3:45 PM – 4:10 PM
Refuel, Converse, and Charge Up. Stretch your legs, get a refreshment, reconnect, and prepare for the final chapters of the day.

Financing Working Capital Along a Very Long Value Chain in Waiting
Time: 4:10 PM – 4:35 PM
Advertising operates across a long value chain, subject to working capital pressures and inherent timing mismatches. This session explores how working capital is financed, where stress accumulates, and why the conversation of payment terms, credit, and liquidity is having a coming-of-age moment.

The Founder Winners From Our Day 1 Go Deeper
Time: 4:35 PM – 4:55 PM
Back to where it all begins with founders, venture capital, and outsourced innovation. We’ll recap our Day 1 founder pitch competition, where eight founders presented bold theses across agentic commerce, creative, and agency models to a panel of investors, competing for the highly coveted Advertising Economic Forum Charging Bull Award.

Keynote Wrap-Up: Reflections from Rishad’s Leather-Bound Book of Wisdom
Time: 4:55 PM – 5:15 PM
That’s a wrap. After a day full of eye-opening content, smart conversations, new connections, and green shoots of fruitful collaboration, you have gained nirvana-like enlightenment. You’ve heard diverse points of view, debates, and deep dives into adtech economics, finance, and money flow. Rishad Tobaccowala will distill all of it into the present.

Closing Remarks & The AdTech Charging Bull Award
Time: 5:15 PM – 5:25 PM
A final thank you to our speakers and attendees, plus the Charging Bull Award for the influencer who made the biggest impact.

AdTech Economic Forum Cocktail Mixer: High Spirits & High Standards
Time: 5:25 PM – 6:55 PM
Raise a glass and celebrate an incredible day with premium cocktails, wine, craft beer, and gourmet snacks. Deals aren’t just made in the boardroom—they’re sealed at the bar.