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Happy Thursday, and welcome to another edition of AI, Tech & Money. I’m Kendra Barnett, ADWEEK’s senior tech reporter, in New York.
After a couple of months of standard post-Cannes quiet (well, maybe “quiet” isn’t the right word, but you get it), the event circuit is picking up again. This week, I popped into Smartly’s Advance event in lower Manhattan, where Horizon’s Bob Lord railed against the holdcos’ FTE-based pricing models. It felt somewhat pointed considering he shared a stage with a WPP executive, as the British holdco has said that labor-based compensation will remain key to its “mixed” model; Lord said he was “not picking on anyone.”
Also at the event: Timbaland. Yes, Timbaland the rapper, who spoke with Smartly CEO Laura Desmond about tastemaking and creativity in the AI era.
Missed it? Fear not! The event onslaught is only beginning. Next week, I’ll be in Miami for the inaugural IAB-backed Jupiter Festival. There, I’ll lead an onstage interview with Aaron Sisto and Scott Greenberg, the cofounders of Chronicle Media, an AI upstart automating audience discovery for creators, Hollywood studios, and brands. If you’re in Miami, drop me a line.
