Continuing on from Yesterdays blog post covering ExchangeWires Data Economy here is Part Two to complete the day.

After Jay Stevens next up was the publisher panel, chaired by ExchangeWire's Editor-In-Chief Ciaran O'Kane. The panel consisted of speakers from the The Guardian, Leiki, Admeld, Adatus and Burt and mostly centred around publishers’ usage of data. Ben Barokas spoke in-depth about strategies and ideas that Admeld  employ to help publishers make sense of the data they sit on daily. Tim Gentry from The Guardian said the newspaper group is seriously considering a data trading model, with testing planned within the next year. This certainly ties in with a recent presentation given here in Manchester from The Guardian which discussed their uptake of the technology and how this relates to their audience. Perhaps the most outspoken member of the panel was Gustav Von Sydow from Burt , who took the conversation away from using data to inform targeting towards a debate around data as a starting point for building engaging content, websites and other creative materials - a refreshing and thought-provoking comment for the day. Recently interviewed by ExchangeWire here .

Stuart Colman from Audience Science  and his presentation on ‘Inconvenient Truths’ within our industry caused fierce debate among audience members, with many industry heads engaging each other in ‘friendly’ banter. However, the real firestarter of the presentation was real-time bidding. Vivaki Nerve Center’s Managing Director Marco Bertozzi - which provides the buyside platform within Starcom Mediavest - made it known that payments through RTB are substantially higher, but added he is happy to pay when relevancy and propensity became more condensed. The conversation stayed around this area for a good portion of Colman’s presentation, moving on only when everyone realised there were only five minutes left to cover four further points. Alas, it was not meant to be, as discussion around the value of 3rd party led to debate around making advertisers more data-savvy. On the whole, the presentation was a real eye-opener and conversation starter. Colman said at the beginning of his talk that he would mix things up - and he certainly did that.

The Buyside Panel gave the last piece of the data space perspective, chaired by Paul Silver AD of SMG Performance and including speakers from Weborama, iProspect, Criteo and AppNexus. The main conclusion of this particular panel is that it is essential to have reliable measurement in place. Cross-channel attribution is something that has yet to take the market in the full force, but it was suggested there was scope for the industry to allow it the chance to grow and develop. Players in this area can all offer proprietary technology and a seamless interface, but questions have been asked as to why uptake has been so slow. The panel agreed these abilities need to be in place long before the market steps into the dataspace and Louisa Wong spoke personally of her frustration with a lack of agreement on good measurement and the value of data as a whole. As many blog posts recording the day’s events will note, perhaps the most the shocking comment of the day was when Paul Silver asked Mike Nolet from AppNexus  if we’re in a data bubble/hype without real potential. Nolet answered "yes" without any deliberation – leaving Silver to quickly respond by thanking everyone for their time. It was a quip that raised some hearty laughs from the crowd and provided a high upon which to finish the day. However, the crowd undoubtedly took away some things to consider seriously on the matter of the viability of this space and how better they can be understood.

Finally, Nick Stringer from the IAB gave a presentation on privacy and updated the audience as to the group’s efforts in ensuring our industry remains self-regulated. Of course, he noted this "can of worms" is often opened by people not working within the sector, but added that this is an issue that is unlikely to go away. It is now down to us, Stringer concluded, to form an agreement on how this is all finalised and the floor was then thrown open to the audience, with attendees from all levels speaking their mind on where the responsibility of implementation lies. Unfortunately, it was only agreed that while a decision must be made within the next three months, this would be no easy task.

MEC Opinion: Not only is the data space an exciting field, it also has a massive amount of potential. However, with industry resources not currently equipped to understand it, more could be done to encourage its importance in the market. Appreciation of 1st party data needs to be more prominent and less reliance should be placed on 3rd party data. Infrastructure will also prove key to the creation of a data offering that can function and deliver in the way the data space promises.

The event as a whole was a fantastic opportunity for face-to-face conversations – rather than the usual Twitter and comment-based debates – with some like-minded people from across the industry. The general consensus was that while this is a field that is still viable, education, investment and testing are all things that need attention. Our stateside sister companies could provide the answer (as they now take up such a sizeable chunk of the industry) in providing us the inspirational moment which gave them the confidence to gain such traction and growth within the space. One thing is certain, only time, the right people and an understanding of the sector, will tell.