850 Interactive Advertising Industry Leaders Convene for the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting

PHOENIX --(Business Wire)--

Today, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) kicked off its Annual Leadership Meeting at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, gathering together 850 digital industry leaders to share insights and debate the event's theme for 2013: "Big Data & Big Ideas: Friends, Enemies or Frenemies " Sold out for the sixth year in a row, the prestigious conference will explore the interplay between the "science" of big data and the "art" of big ideas, and delve into how they are disrupting the advertising sector and creating new opportunities.

The conference will feature several keynote presentations from digital marketing and media heavyweights:

•		Mike Abbott, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
•		Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AOL (News - Alert)
•		Henrique De Castro, Chief Operating Officer, Yahoo!
•		Scott Howe, President and Chief Executive Officer, Acxiom
•		Nate Silver, Author, Statistician and Founder, FiveThirtyEight.com
•		Jim Speros, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Fidelity Investments
•		Susan Wojcicki, Senior Vice President of Advertising, Google
•		Michael Wolf, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Activate

"Our industry is at a crossroads, and it is imperative for the digital advertising community to come together to better understand how marrying big ideas with big data can achieve tremendous results for advertisers," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. "Those descending upon Phoenix for this three-day event will not only learn about how content, data and creative are blending to drive highly effective, real-time and, in some cases, hyper-local digital marketing, but will play a key role in defining the best practices that will nurture future success for the interactive sector."

Industry pioneers and influencers set to present and lead discussions at the Annual Leadership Meeting include:

•		Mike Abbott, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
•		John Battelle, Founder and Executive Chairman, Federated Media Publishing
•		Cyrus Beagley, Senior Vice President and Group General Manager, Advertising Sales and Marketing, Time Inc. (News - Alert)
•		Tom Chavez, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Krux
•		Greg Coleman (News - Alert), President, Criteo
•		Chris Cunningham, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Appssavvy
•		Anil Dash, Co-Founder, Activate and Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ThinkUp
•		Pam Dixon, Executive Director, World Privacy Forum
•		Andrew Essex, Chief Executive Officer, Droga5
•		John Frelinghuysen, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy, AOL
•		Marc Groman, Executive Director and General Counsel, NAI
•		Curt Hecht, Global Chief Revenue Officer, The Weather Company
•		Kate Kaye, Data Reporter, Advertising Age (News - Alert)
•		David Kenny, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Weather Company
•		Chris LaSala, Director, Americas, Publisher Product Sales and Commercialization, Google
•		Meredith Kopit Levien, Group Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer, Forbes Media
•		Peter Naylor (News - Alert), Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, NBC News Digital and Chairman, IAB Board of Directors
•		Jonah Peretti, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, BuzzFeed
•		Amit Seth, Executive Vice President of Global Media Products, Nielsen
•		John M. Simpson, Consumer Advocate, Consumer Watchdog
•		Cary Tilds, Chief Innovation Officer, GroupM
•		Mark Zagorski, Chief Executive Officer, eXelate

For all those not able to attend this sold-out event, IAB will post videos of highlights from onstage presentations throughout the conference. Please visit www.iab.net for more information.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive's share of total marketing spend, and of its members' share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.