Are you a Sell Side Summit rookie? Do you know what you've gotten yourself into? Come down and get the prep you need to conquer the conference. And meet some fellow greenhorns and our event speakers.

Meet your fellow attendees in this fun and friendly session that sets the stage for the rest of the event! Grab a drink as we break you up into small workgroups and complete a (fun, we swear!) tech-focused icebreaker activity that will inform the agenda and discussion over the coming days.

We kick off Sell Side Summit with a good, old-fashioned party! All attendees come together to eat, drink, and get to know each other.

Enjoy a hearty breakfast to fuel your mind for a day of learning ahead!

A big welcome from AdMonsters Content Director Lynne d Johnson and our Sell Side Summit host, Scott Messer, who will share the house rules, introduce the AdMonsters team, and provide an overview of the next few days.

The browser was the front door. Now, attention arrives through memes, group chats, AI prompts, and smart TVs. As signal loss grows and AI eats everything, Stephanie Layser, Global Head of Publisher Ad Tech Solutions at AWS, says it’s time for publishers to act more like DTC brands—owning data, deepening loyalty, and monetizing users on their terms. This keynote outlines how to transition from a CPM mindset to a lifetime value strategy, personalize the monetization experience, and develop differentiated products that thrive in a crowded media ecosystem. 

COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITY: After the keynote, let’s get hands-on. Join small group discussions to surface your biggest monetization challenges and co-develop solutions with your peers. From navigating data ownership to rethinking how you transition from CPM to LTV thinking, this interactive session will equip you with ideas you can apply and test.

What if the fastest way to grow ad revenue is not more ads, but revenue operations itself? This session takes you behind the scenes of how Media Owners are using automation to bring order and consistency to the full Order to Cash (OTC) process, including presales. Get inspired by what high-functioning Ad Rev Ops really looks like and walk away with a roadmap to get there. In this session, we’ll explore how teams are using automation to bring structure, speed, and sa nity to presales. From cleaner handoffs to smarter templates and fewer manual back-and-forths, it’s time to fix the part of the workflow that sets everything else in motion.

These ad ops wizards and revenue rockstars represent the Dream Team AdMonsters would hire if we were launching an ad ops team. They have earned their positions among the best of the best, redefining the boundaries of possibility in the dynamic world of ad tech. Check out the AdMonsters Dream Team site for more info about each honoree and their Dream Team position.

Grab your coffee and a snack to get geared up for the breakout sessions!

After a busy morning of content, we bet you could use a bite!

Browsers keep tightening the screws, and AI crawlers are raiding your content, too. As signal loss speeds up and zero-click search steals your traffic, IAB Tech Lab offers a new path forward. This session takes a deep dive into two critical initiatives—Trusted Server and the new LLM Content Ingestion API—built to help publishers lock down control, safeguard data, and set the terms for how your content fuels AI. From server-side monetization to forming a publisher coalition, this session lays out what’s live now and how to plug into the work that’s happening before Q4.

In a world where clients are looking beyond viewability and CTR, Dow Jones has embraced attention and what it can tell you about a campaign. This session dives into how the publisher has strengthened its suite of metrics to track engagement signals that mean the most to clients, all while shedding the myth that news platforms are risky bets. Find out how attention data is helping Dow Jones turn moments of focus into monetization wins.

Ok, monsters. Let's review what we learned today and get ready for the fun ahead!

Get ready for your offsite activities with a bit of fuel in your tank!

Your brain needs a little break after all this thinking! Attendees get to select from a variety of local experiences while making new connections. Choose an activity that sparks joy, from active adventures in the Nashville landscape to relaxing poolside with great people; there is something for you! See the full activity description here.

Ready to sip, snack, and stumble upon the next big thing in ad tech? Join our Tech Crawl—a choose-your-own adventure through our sponsor tech stations where you'll get the inside scoop on the tools changing the digital advertising game. Chat with vendors, collect insights (and maybe a drink or two), and check in at each stop. Hit our magic number and you’ll be in the running for a serious prize ($$$) during dinner. Think of it as networking, but with way better snacks—and a lot less awkward.

An awesome meal enjoyed by attendees and sponsoring tech providers together, accompanied by music and... surprises?

Enjoy a hearty breakfast to fuel your mind for the day ahead!

A big hello from AdMonsters Content Director Lynne d Johnson and Sell Side Summit Host Scott Messer, who will share insights from Day 1 and an overview of Day 2.

Publishers are chasing yield in a zero-click world, but Apartment Therapy Media is proving that the answer isn’t just more distribution—it’s building destinations worth coming back to. In his keynote, Jeff Olson, SVP of Revenue Operations, shares how his team is combining AI-powered utilities, first-party data, and life-stage insights to drive deeper engagement, attract non-endemic advertisers, and turn casual visitors into loyal, monetizable audiences. From sponsorable features to data-driven audience strategies, Jeff will unpack how product thinking and data strategy intersect to unlock new revenue streams—and why engagement, not just impressions, is the real metric of the future.

COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITY: After the keynote, join small group discussions to map a “sticky feature” your brand might launch. Working with your peers, you’ll connect the dots between product ideas, first-party data capture, and monetization potential—leaving with a shortlist of experiments to test back at the office.

Digital publishers are sitting on untapped value — their websites, emails, apps, and user data are rich assets that could power full-scale advertising ecosystems. But most still rent out those surfaces to third-party platforms. This session explores how shifting from “just impressions” to owned infrastructure allows publishers to create transparent, flexible monetization engines that drive long-term growth.

Grab some coffee and snacks—Tactical and Strategic Sessions are coming up fast!

After a busy morning of content, we bet you could use a bite!

Join us for a fast-paced, interactive game show where members of the Dream Team put their ad ops and rev ops expertise to the test! In What’s My Stack?, a panel of Dream Team members will take turns as the “mystery stack owner,” while the rest of the panel—and the audience—ask yes/no questions to uncover the tools, platforms, and workflows that make up their unique tech stack. Expect friendly competition, knowledge sharing, and plenty of laughs as we reveal the stacks powering our Dream Team.

Learn all about the Wonderful World of Workshops from AdMonsters community OGs.

Grab your coffee and a snack to get geared up for the workshops!

Engage in dynamic small group discussions to learn from the collective wisdom of your peers. This is your opportunity to discover new audience strategies, learn how to boost your career journey, and make improvements with other challenges you encounter every day, as shared by your peers who are working through the same experiences. Our attendees design these workshops to learn from one another.

This is where peer-to-peer learnings really shine. Now it’s time to report in about all of your newly discovered strategies that you can immediately put into practice when you return to work. We’ll go around the room and share from each workshop, digging deeper, so that we can all reap the benefits of your new learnings.

Don't miss Monsters Night Out, where you’ll be excited and delighted with a private party that is not your father’s stuffy conference wrap-up party. Our private Tuesday party is always full of fun and surprises! We’ll head over to 6th & Peabody, the home of Ole Smoky Distillery & Yee-Haw Brewing in the heart of Downtown Nashville, where we’ll enjoy a night of local flavor, cold brews, and live music. And yes, there might just be a little whiskey tasting in store.