Unleashing Growth Across the Open Web
How signals, systems, and scale actually drive growth
The programmatic playbook is getting rewritten in real time.
Signals are replacing identity as the foundation of targeting.
AI isn’t just assisting anymore—it’s making decisions.
CTV is finally behaving like a performance channel (sort of).
And commerce data is showing up everywhere—whether you planned for it or not.
Meanwhile, teams are being asked to do more than optimize.
They’re being asked to prove growth.
Programmatic I/O is where that conversation gets real.
This is where brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms compare notes on what’s actually working—and what’s not—across a media system that’s more connected, more automated, and more accountable than ever.
Key Themes
Programmatic I/O New York returns this fall at a defining moment for digital advertising: what we’re calling The Operational Era of Programmatic.
AI is making decisions. Signals are reshaping targeting. And performance expectations are higher than ever. This year’s event explores how teams are executing across a more automated, interoperable ecosystem—covering AI-driven workflows, signal strategy, cross-channel orchestration, and measurement that proves real business outcomes.
Here’s a preview of the content we’re building for New York:
Content Highlights
Speakers
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Fabian Brunner
Senior Director, Digital Marketing & MarketplacesHEYDUDE
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Chris Kane
Founder and PresidentJounce Media
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Shweta Khajuria
Managing DirectorWolfe Research
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Andrea Kwiatek
Director, Strategic PartnershipsGoodway Group
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Bob Lord
PresidentHorizon Media
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Michael Peralta
Chief Revenue OfficerFuture
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Julian Runge
Assistant Professor of MarketingNorthwestern University’s Medill School
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John T Shea
Head of CommercePMG
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Sisi Zhang
Chief Data & Analytics OfficerRazorfish
AGENDA
Monday - September 28, 2026
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Registration Open — Badge Pickup, Welcome Coffee
7:00am – 9:15amBadge Pickup, Welcome Coffee -
Live Exchange Open — Grab & Go Breakfast (6th Floor)
8:00am – 8:50amGrab your breakfast and network in the Live Exchange before the program kicks off (6th Floor)
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Building a Commerce Data Stack that Actually Works
9:00am – 9:20amFirst‑party commerce signals are finally flowing offsite into the open web, CTV, and programmatic, but most data and media stacks weren’t built to handle them. In this session, brands, agencies, and publishers unpack how they’re wiring signal infrastructure that turns retail and commerce intent into better planning, smarter optimization, and clearer measurement. YYou’ll leave with a simple picture of what a commerce‑ready stack looks like and the key questions to ask your internal teams, platforms, and partners.
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Opening Keynote: The Open Web's Last Advantage
9:20am – 9:55amThe media ecosystem is being reinvented simultaneously by AI answer engines and commerce data — and the window for the open web to claim its structural advantage is now. This opening keynote sets the frame for two days of working conversations: why the click-based model that funded the open web for 25 years is collapsing, what replaces it, and which players are positioned to lead. This won't be a trend report. It's the starting gun.
AgencyBrandPublisher -
How Publishers and CTV Platforms Are Rebuilding the Open Web for Commerce
9:55am – 10:15amProgrammatic was built for cookies and cheap impressions, not AI answers, shoppable video, and commerce signals. Publishers and CTV platforms now sit on the strongest intent data in the game — but only if the pipes can keep up. In this session, learn how leading publishers are using curated marketplaces, clean rooms, and commerce‑ready CTV to turn those signals into premium demand across the open web.
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Networking Break
10:05am – 11:10amCatch up with fellow attendees over some refreshments and explore our Live Exchange partners.
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The Next Generation Of SPO
10:15am – 10:35amAs retail media budgets increasingly flow offsite and AI agents begin to influence media planning and investment decisions, the quality and transparency of the supply path have never been more important. In this session, hear from Goodway Group's Andrea Kwiatek and Jounce Media's Chris Kane on the ways in which industry transparency initiatives, improved ad tech tooling, and seller-led media planning enable the most sophisticated buyers to deploy programmatic investments with confidence. Leave with a better understanding of how SPO is shaping the programmatic bidstream, driving marketing outcomes, and building buyer confidence in the open internet.
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Chris Kane
Founder and President // Jounce Media -
Andrea Kwiatek
Director, Strategic Partnerships // Goodway Group
Agency -
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Earning Visibility Before the Visit
11:10am – 11:35amConsumers are delegating product discovery to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — and arriving at purchase decisions before they ever reach a brand or publisher page. The question isn't whether this changes media strategy. It's whether your brand shows up in that research layer at all. This session gets specific about what it takes to earn visibility in AI—mediated discovery: what signals matter, where the open web has a real edge, and what the infrastructure gaps still are. -
Incrementality at Scale
11:35am – 11:55amAttribution models tell you who was there. Incrementality tells you whether you made a difference. In this session, learn how brands are making incrementality the organizing principle of their measurement practice, as well as the infrastructure and partnerships that make it possible at scale. -
Lies, Damn Lies, and Attribution
11:55am – 12:20pmMost marketers don't trust their own measurement — and budget flows to whoever tells the best story. This session unocvers where attribution actually breaks down (view—through overclaiming, post—cookie blind spots, cross—channel KPI wars_, what's replacing it (incrementality testing, MMM, privacy—first frameworks), and what a measurement practice built for post—click reality looks like in practice. -
One Plan, Every Screen
12:20pm – 12:35pmWhy are you still planning TV in silos, treating linear as brand and CTV as performance? Don't you know that Convergent TV lets marketers plan, buy, and measure linear, streaming, and online video in a single system? Learn how leading brands and agencies use unified TV buying, geo-based incrementality tests, and outcome-based attribution to make TV a true performance channel. You’ll see what it takes to run one plan across every screen, compare TV directly to search and social on CAC and ROAS, and prove which impressions actually moved the needle instead of just showing up for the sale.
AgencyBrand -
Networking Lunch
12:35pm – 1:35pmGood food. Good company. No agenda. Recharge with fellow attendees over lunch before we head into the afternoon. Compare notes, make new connections, or just decompress. The best conversations at #PROGIONY don't always happen on stage.
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Whose Campaign is it Anyway?
1:35pm – 2:00pmCross—channel orchestration fails before technology enters the equation. Different teams own search, social, CTV, and programmatic, all optimizing against different KPIs, using different measurement standards, answering to different leadership. Learn which structural fixes — from shared KPI frameworks to consolidated ownership models — actually move the needle, and which ones are still works in progress. -
Who's Running Your Campaign?
2:00pm – 2:20pmAI is no longer just optimizing bids. It's making targeting decisions, adjusting creative, pacing budget, and flagging anomalies. This session teaches agencies and brand leaders which tasks AI is handling better than humans where oversight still matters, and how your team's roles become more strategic when the algorithm is running the campaign.
AgencyBrand -
After the Traffic Collapse
2:30pm – 2:55pmGoogle AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are rerouting the discovery journeys that used to land on publisher pages. Referral traffic is down. The click model is weakening. How are publishers rebuilding monetization in a zero—click, AI—answer world — and which revenue models are showing real signal? This session brings publisher revenue leaders together to compare notes on what's actually working.Publisher -
Networking BreaK
2:55pm – 3:30pmCatch up with fellow attendees over some refreshments and have another opportunity to meet with our Live Exchange partners.
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Building the Open Web's Trust Layer
3:30pm – 3:45pmMachine‑driven buying is now default, but on its own it can’t tell high‑quality, brand‑safe attention from cheap, risky inventory. In this session, we'll dive into how to build a trust layer for the open web using verification, suitability, and attention signals as hard constraints on your media. You’ll walk away knowing which signals actually move outcomes and how to wire them into your buying and selling so they’re always on, not optional. -
Regulating an AI-And-Commerce Web We Didn't Plan For.
3:45pm – 4:10pmPrivacy law was written for cookies and third‑party trackers, not answer engines, clean rooms, and commerce media stitched across a dozen platforms. Hear regulators and policy experts talk candidly about how they’re reading AI‑mediated discovery, offsite commerce signals, and cross‑platform identity through today’s laws. They’ll lay out where the biggest gaps are, what kinds of cases are coming next, and how brands, agencies, and publishers can stay on the right side of the line while the rulebook catches up. -
Welcome Reception — Live Exchange Area (6th Floor)
4:50pm – 6:00pmPublishers join main floor · Open bar · Light bites
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AdExchanger Awards Party Check-In (Separate Ticket Required)
6:30pm – 7:00pm -
AdExchanger Awards Party
7:00pm – 8:30pmThe digital marketing industry’s biggest night! Join us as we crown this year’s AdExchanger Awards winners live on stage. See who takes home the gold, toast the industry, and be inspired. Ticket includes three course, sit-down dinner, open bar, and a guaranteed good time!
Note: Admission not included with conference registration pass, however bundles are available to combine a Programmatic I/O ticket with your AdExchanger Awards ticket at a reduced rate. See options and purchase tickets here.
Tuesday - September 29, 2026
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REGISTRATION OPEN (6th Floor)
7:30am – 8:00am -
Grab & Go Breakfast — Live Exchange (6th Floor)
8:00am – 9:00am -
The Clean Room Payoff
9:00am – 9:30amClean rooms were supposed to solve data collaboration. Many who built them are still waiting for the return. This session moves past the architecture conversation to examine what clean room deployments are actually delivering, which use cases are generating measurable lift, which are still theoretical, and what separates working implementations from the ones collecting dust. -
Can Curated Deals Replace the Open Exchange?
9:00am – 9:30amCurated deals are no longer experimental — leading agency and brand teams are now structuring them as a core part of their programmatic strategy. But does that shift signal the end of open exchange buying, or just a smarter way to use it?AgencyBrandPublisher -
From Campaign Manager to Outcome Architect
9:00am – 9:30amAI is taking over execution — bidding, targeting, scheduling, pacing. What's left for human strategists? This workshop is a working session for agency and brand media teams to examine which functions are automating, where human judgment still creates value, and how to restructure team roles and incentives around outcome architecture rather than campaign mechanics. -
Extending Retail Signals Across the Open Web: A Commerce Media Playbook
9:40am – 10:05amRetail media networks generate some of the strongest purchase‑intent signals in the market — but most of that signal never leaves the retailer’s own properties. This session shows how leading brands and their agency partners work with data collaboration platforms to extend commerce signals into open web, CTV, and programmatic buys, with closed‑loop measurement that proves what actually drove the sale.
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Intent is the New Audience
9:40am – 10:05amDemographics and third‑party look‑alikes aren’t enough when AI is mediating discovery and cookies are collapsing. This session gets specific about how intent and behavioral signals are being rebuilt for the open web: what goes into high‑quality intent data now, how it’s activated across display, video, and CTV, and where privacy and consent redraw the line. You’ll walk away with a clearer sense of which intent signals actually scale in 2026, which are just rebranded third‑party data, and what to ask any partner who claims to “know what your customers are about to do.” -
Your First-Party Data Is the Product
9:40am – 10:05amLogged—in audiences, declared intent, and behavioral signals are the open web's answer to walled garden data. This workshop helps publisher revenue and data teams build a practical roadmap for activating first—party audience data as a commerce signal — what to prioritize, how to structure deals, and where clean room infrastructure fits.
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Networking Break
10:05am – 10:45amCatch up with fellow attendees over some refreshments and have another opportunity to meet with our Live Exchange partners.
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Contextual Intelligence at Scale
10:45am – 11:15amCTV is finally behaving like a performance channel — and the brands closing the loop between streaming exposure and purchase conversion are the ones connecting CTV delivery to commerce signal infrastructure. This session examines the data partnerships, measurement frameworks, and creative approaches making CTV+commerce work, with results from campaigns that ran this year. -
Privacy as a Performance Advantage
10:45am – 11:15amConsent—first infrastructure isn't just a compliance requirement — it's increasingly a signal quality advantage. Audiences that have given explicit consent to data use generate more reliable signals, face less measurement degradation from privacy enforcement, and are more valuable in clean room environments. This session examines how brands and publishers are turning privacy infrastructure into a commercial edge. -
$200 Billion and Still Broken
10:45am – 11:15amProgrammatic is the industry's default infrastructure — and it still underperforms where it matters most. Why? This workshop examines the structural inefficiencies that survive even after years of SPO, curation, and clean room adoption: bid duplication, signal loss, measurement fragmentation, and the misaligned incentives baked into the stack. Not a lament — a diagnostic, with fixes.AgencyPublisher -
Creative in a Zero-Click, Commerce-Frist World
11:25am – 11:50amProduct discovery is already happening inside AI answers and commerce feeds, not on your landing page. This interactive demo shows how a modern creative system turns those moments into media: pulling in product and pricing data, reacting to inventory and shopper signals, and assembling ads on the fly for open‑web display and CTV. Watch a single intent signal go from answer engine query to dynamic creative in real inventory, with performance judged on adds‑to‑cart and orders instead of clicks. -
Identity After Cookies
11:25am – 11:50amThird‑party cookies are still fading, but the need to recognize people and households across devices isn’t going anywhere. Let's gets real about what durable identity looks like now on the open web — from privacy‑safe IDs to household graphs and intent signals — and where those signals actually improve reach, frequency, and outcomes. You’ll leave knowing which identity signals are still worth betting on, how they show up in CTV and programmatic, and what to ask any partner who says they’ve solved identity. -
Turning TV Viewers Into Known Shoppers
11:25am – 11:50amMMM Meets Programmatic: Connecting Spend to Business Outcomes in Real Time
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Networking Lunch
11:50am – 12:50pmGood food. Good company. No agenda. Recharge with fellow attendees over lunch before we head into the afternoon — compare notes, make new connections, or just decompress. The best conversations at #PROGIONY don't always happen on stage.
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Leading Through the AI Transition
12:55pm – 1:40pmHow Agentic AI Is Collapsing the Purchase Funnel & What Marketers Must Build for AI is restructuring media roles faster than most organizations are prepared for. This deep dive is for leaders grappling with the human side of that shift: how to develop the next generation of strategists when execution is increasingly automated, how to retain talent whose jobs are changing rapidly, and how to move quickly without losing the institutional knowledge that makes teams work. Come ready to work through real scenarios with peers navigating the same pressure.
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Architecting Your Stack for Commerce Media
12:55pm – 1:40pmCommerce media strategy is only as good as the infrastructure behind it. This deep dive is for senior practitioners making real decisions about data partnerships, clean room investments, signal activation, and tech stack architecture in 2026. Bring your current setup and your open questions. The session is structured around peer problem-solving: what's working, what's broken, and how the room's collective experience can sharpen your next move.
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The Measurement Conversation No One Wants to Have
12:55pm – 1:40pmMost measurement problems aren't technical — they're organizational. The data exists. The tools exist. What breaks down is getting finance, brand, and media teams aligned on what success looks like before a campaign launches, not after. This deep dive works through the structural and political challenges of building a measurement practice with real authority: how to set standards, arbitrate attribution disputes, and make measurement a strategic input rather than a post-mortem.AgencyBrand -
Does Your Ad Deserve Attention?
1:45pm – 2:10pmAttention is replacing viewability as the performance standard that actually predicts outcomes — and the gap between 'was the ad visible?' and 'did someone look at it?' matters enormously. This workshop examines how attention signals are being integrated into planning and optimization, and what changes for creative and media strategy when you're buying for genuine engagement instead of served impressions. -
Who's Accountable When the Algorithm Gets it Wrong?
1:45pm – 2:10pmAI-managed campaigns on the open web are making more decisions, faster, with less human review. When placements are brand-unsafe, budgets misallocate, or outcomes miss — who owns it? This workshop maps the governance models emerging across agencies, brands, and platforms, and gives teams a framework for building accountability into AI-managed workflows before the next audit.AgencyBrand -
Outcome-Based Selling
1:45pm – 2:10pmBuyers are walking into RFPs asking for incrementality guarantees. Publishers who can demonstrate — not just assert — that their inventory drives incremental outcomes are closing deals that others lose on price alone. This workshop helps publisher sales and data teams build the measurement narrative and infrastructure to compete on outcomes.
Publisher -
Commerce Media 101: From Retail to Programmatic Signals
2:10pm – 2:40pmRetail media has its own set of rules. Different objectives, different data, and different buying mechanics than programmatic. And now those signals are moving offsite through curated deal structures that are reshaping the entire supply chain. This interactive fundamentals session covers both sides of that equation: how retail media networks like Walmart Connect, Instacart, and Kroger actually work, and how curated deal IDs are packaging and pricing those signals for open web and CTV inventory. You'll leave with a practical framework for activating retail first-party data, avoiding the most common curation pitfalls, and understanding how the two systems connect.
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Connecting Long-Run Attribution t Campaign Decisions
2:10pm – 2:40pmMarketing mix modeling is having a renaissance — and the best implementations are closing the loop between long-run channel attribution and near-real-time campaign decisioning. This session examines how brands are integrating MMM outputs into programmatic planning and optimization, and what the infrastructure between your MTA stack and your media agency actually needs to look like. -
A Live Attribution Audit
2:10pm – 2:40pmMost marketers are making investment decisions based on platform-reported numbers that flatly contradict each other. This live demo pulls back the curtain on what causal attribution actually looks like in practice. Watch an attribution analyst and a brand marketer work through actual campaign data together. We'll see where platform stories fall apart, what causal models surface that last-click and view-through miss, and how the findings change where budget goes next. You'll leave knowing what to ask for — and what to be skeptical of — the next time a platform tells you it drove the sale. -
Live Demos
2:45pm – 3:10pmLive Demos pull back the curtain on what today's leading platforms can actually do — live, in-product, no slides. In this hands-on demo format, participating companies walk through real workflows, answer real questions, and show you exactly what's possible inside their platform. If you've ever wondered what the technology looks like when it's actually running your campaigns, optimizing your inventory, or measuring what matters — this is your chance.
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Connecting Long-Run Attribution to Campaign Decisions
2:45pm – 3:10pmMarketing mix modeling is having a renaissance — and the best implementations are closing the loop between long-run channel attribution and near-real-time campaign decisioning. This session examines how brands are integrating MMM outputs into programmatic planning and optimization, and what the infrastructure between your MTA stack and your media agency actually needs to look like.
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Evaluating Your Data Partnerships
2:45pm – 3:10pmNot all signals are created equal — and in a market full of clean room pitches and data partnership proposals, the ability to evaluate signal quality is a competitive advantage. This workshop gives agency and brand data teams a framework for assessing signal provenance, freshness, scale, and predictive value, with worked examples from media planning and optimization use cases. -
The Big Story Live
3:20pm – 3:55pmLet’s bring it home. After two days of learning at Programmatic IO, the AdExchanger editorial team will recap the most newsworthy moments and memorable takeways from the event during a live podcast recording of The Big Story. With their signature insights and thought-provoking commentary, they will summarize the highlights from this year’s big event. -
Networking Unleashed: Wrap Party
3:55pm – 5:00pmYour last time to reconnect with friends and colleagues and make new connections. Drinks and appetizers will be served a plenty, and we a few new surprises you won't want to miss!
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Reserved for qualified brand marketers, publishers and agency executives. Includes reserved seating, VIP Suite access, and exclusive giveaways. Must agree to four 10-minute hosted meetings onsite. Optional: On-site five-minute interview with AdExchanger or AdMonsters Editorial staff with complimentary recording provided to your marketing team for promotional use. (By application only, limited quantity available.)
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New York Marriott Marquis
New York Marriott Marquis
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New York, NY 10036
For the best prices, book your hotel stay in our room block. These low rates are available until September 1, 2026 or until Sold Out, whichever comes first. Availability is limited and rooms are filling fast, so don’t delay – reserve today!
Note: To maintain a reservation on this hotel block, you must be registered to attend Programmatic I/O. Non-registrant bookings will be released by September 1, 2026 so please be sure to register for your Programmatic I/O badge when booking a room.
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For sponsorship inquiries, please contact:
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Program
For information on programming and speakers, please contact:
Lynne d Johnson
lynne@admonsters.com