The ANA Annual Conference was a couple of weeks ago in Orlando and was celebrating its 100th year.  From the attendance, the celebrity performances and the speaker line-up, it seemed to be a success.  Here is my question – Is this really a valuable forum for marketers?  Or are there too many agencies and suppliers?

Let’s look at it from the marketer’s perspective.  The agenda is highly informative, especially to small to mid-size companies that look up to what the P&G’s of the world are doing.  It is a great venue for them to network among themselves.  But how do they feel about the 1,000 or so agency representatives that are in attendance?

How about those agencies?  They are there either to support their clients that are speaking or to network and prospect.  Do you think any real business or concrete leads are ever a result of being in attendance?

And then there are the suppliers and I guess Pile falls in that category.  Many suppliers are selling both to the agencies and the clients, so for them it is a great opportunity.  Yes, I was there to prospect just like the agencies.  But I found it impossible to find the marketers among all the agencies and I also had all the agencies wanting to prospect me.  It was great to see many people I haven’t seen for awhile, but I didn’t come away with any good leads!

I spoke to one of the ANA board members and they said it is a very fine line they walk.  They don’t want their members to feel uncomfortable, they want to support the agency world, but they can’t let it get out of hand in terms of balance.  Personally I think when you have 1600 in attendance and 1,000 are agencies, the balance may be off.