Most ad technology and exchanges deal with remnant inventory, no matter how people try to avoid the R word. The huge direct deals world is largely stuck in the stone age. But that's changing, with new platforms and programmatic buying coming to Class 1. Learn how things are evolving over the next few years, what the demand and supply sides want, and how publishers need to recalibrate their fears of channel conflict.

Jeremy Rondol will discuss what NBCU has learned over the past two years in the private exchange space, the challenges they've uncovered and some thoughts on how to optimize the ecosystem.

Publishers have struggled with the vast imbalance between supply and demand in digital media. Ad exchanges promise to help buyers find the right inventory for the right price. Will this allow publishers to better reach buyers they never would, or is this just another step down the road of total commoditization?

In rapid-fire presentations of five minutes, digital-media leaders will present their solutions to an industry problem.

Agencies have historically thrown people at problems. The fragmentation of digital media, along with client pressures to cut costs, has driven agencies to find new ways to operate leaner ad-buying operations with the application of technology. Two leaders speak out on how the modern buying agency looks.

Publishers are wary of ad exchanges. Some think exchanges commoditize their inventory. Others believe they are a dumping ground for unwanted ad space. Almost all see an alphabet soup of acronyms that overcomplicate supply and demand. Digiday editor-in-chief Brian Morrissey and OpenX vp of publisher and business development Sam Cox discuss how publishers can make programmatic buying work for them -- instead of against.

The reason a customer buys something is the most important understanding any business can have. Yet publishers usually don't understand why advertisers are buying their media on exchanges. Hear Jonathan Mendez explain the problem, what the impact is and what he thinks publishers can do to remedy the situation.

Programmatic buying is a new phenomenon that’s mostly the preserve of direct-response ad campaigns. To date, large portions of ad budgets have yet to be earmarked for machine-based buying. Will programmatic buying ever break out of the DR ghetto?

Many publishers originally viewed the shift to programmatic ad buying warily. It seemed like a way for advertisers to cherry-pick the impressions they want, ultimately driving down the value of their inventory. There were also concerns about control of data and channel conflicts. Private exchanges were, in theory, a way to allay these concerns. Eighteen months on, many top-tier publishers have opened up private exchanges. Are they working? We sit down with Hearst, which recently launched its first private exchange, and ad buyer Merkle to find out the truth.

Data has moved the provenance of direct marketers to all brands. Any brand worth its salt is diving into the data to connect more effectively with existing and new customers. Exelate CEO Mark Zagorski joins Digiday editor-in-chief Brian Morrissey to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls brands face in becoming truly data-focused.