Day 2 and a huge amount of folks show up who are not officially registered, they’re here because it’s the place to be, or so they think so.  I think so!  Attended the Banking on Big Brands/Celebs for the Web panel in the morning and was surprised by what I took away.  Surprise 1: agencies are increasingly looking for unscripted, talent heavy ideas to match up with brands – this because if the brand messaging is baked into the content there is less flexibility if ROI (conversions, negative user feedback, et al) is not realized.  Having the celebrity guarantees a certain level of exposer for the content but keeping it loose is more important to protect one’s rear.  Surprise 2: the young male audience is less effected by celebrity and there’s a lot more money pursuing other audiences (women, boomers, et al) – not sure I agree, based up the competition my company experiences within our peer group for advertising dollars and the influx of celebrity heavy content targeted to young males.  Surprise 3: when I cut through the buzz/key words, the panel participants were big supporters of the traditional media business model.  Surprising because there’s a lot of opportunity with developing models.  But not surprising because the money is still in the pockets of traditional media business.  Later on in the evening I met four M.I.T. students who needed help gaining access to a party.  I made them my instant entourage!  They’re the founding group behind Ethertunes. Once inside I was able to introduce them to Scott Perry who runs Sperry Media, I’m excited to see what happens next.  Stay close.