V2’s Take on Advertising Week and ADWEEK House NY 2026. The Deals Are Done. Now What?

Great events for brands and creators. Almost no one talking about what happens after the deals are made.

Notes from Advertising Week, ADWEEK House, and a missing conversation.

2,880 Minutes in New York

2,880. That’s the approximate number of minutes I spent in NYC this past week looking for what’s next in advertising. My headline takeaway: these were fantastic events for brands and creators, but almost no one was talking about what happens after the deals are made. Here’s what I saw from my seat as a CEO and RevOps advisor for the ad sales industry.

Credit Where It’s Due

First, credit where it’s due. These events are way cooler than the tech conferences I usually frequent. This industry knows how to market and sell with passion, and it shows. Some tech vendors put on a good show, but these felt far more engaging.

One of my favorite sessions was at the ADWEEK House penthouse venue. It was an intimate conversation featuring Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski, Perry Kamel, founder and CEO of DNA Vibe, David Young, VP of Retail Media at DICK’S Sporting Goods, and Lois Cook, CEO of FootballHer, a professional football player in the WFA and a leading advocate for women in football. The session brilliantly discussed the role of sports and pain/recovery in career and life. It was funny, stimulating, and inspirational.

AI Was Everywhere

On the more academic side, I showed up with a few questions I posted last week. The good news: my curiosity about AI was well satisfied. AI was everywhere. Nearly every session I attended found a way to weave in its impact. Most of what I heard across both events centered on running ads more effectively, with a strong brand focus. I listened, observed, and learned, and I came away admiring the passion and advertising technical acumen in the room. This is an industry that constantly adapts and evolves to survive and thrive.

The Missing Track: Revenue Operations

What I didn’t find was a robust track on revenue operations. I get it. Revenue operations and driving efficiency across ad sales, COGS, and SG&A are a lot less exhilarating than seeing Gronk up close, hearing about the growing influence of retail and commerce media, or getting the private equity point of view on the industry.

So why do I care so much about the RevOps side of the business? Because I believe the future health of the advertising industry will increasingly rely on operational efficiency across marketing, sales, client services, ad ops, billing, and other key departments. AI will impact far more than programmatic ad buying and content creation. If and when it’s done well, AI will help transform this industry into a leaner, more durable ecosystem. Some panelists openly admitted there’s still too much talk and not enough results with agentic AI, a key insight I discussed in my post last week, and it was refreshing to hear it said on stage.

Much of the conference conversation stopped at the deal. The RevOps work keeps going.

The Deals Are Done. Now What?

So now that the deals are done, it’s time to start thinking about the RevOps side of the equation. How will ad sales organizations sell more effectively? Systems tie together with MCP and headless strategies? Multi-agent solutions reinvent the way ad operations are executed? Finance teams streamline billing and reconciliation? Call me a geek, but that’s the stuff that I get excited about.

My Take on Last Week’s Three Questions

1. Question 1Where’s your problematic flow?

   There was definitely commentary on agentic ad buying and creative process optimization, but I heard very little about the hardcore RevOps flows that keep ad sales organizations running. Maybe I missed some great sessions, but most of the conversation focused on advancements in the ads themselves.

2. Question 2Where’s the P&L impact?

   The industry is heavily focused on revenue, which I understand. But I didn’t see a compelling focus on holistic operational efficiency. Driving profits in advertising has always been tough, and I would have loved to learn more about how AI can drive healthier revenue while containing costs.

3. Question 3Process and change: are you tackling the hard stuff?

   Yes, there was plenty of talk about tackling hard things. It just wasn’t the hard stuff I was hoping to hear about. I wish there had been more sessions on efficient data and process flows, and on the people and change management work that make RevOps run better.

Closing Thoughts

It was truly rewarding to hear such an intelligent, passionate group of industry folks talk shop on a range of issues. As I digest last week’s conferences, I’m more inspired than ever to make an impact on this industry. V2 has a vision for advancing this RevOps conversation, and we’ll be sharing it soon.

And a correction: if I take out six hours a night for sleep (I wasn’t dreaming of advertising), it was 2,160 minutes of time well spent last week. The ROI was high, and I look forward to more great sessions in the advertising industry in 2027!