Here are some of the highlights from the "Whither The Media Plan?" and Publisher panels from the recent ATS London. The first panel, ably moderated by Microsoft's Zuzanna Gierlinska, focused around the media plan and whether or not it would still be around in 3-to-5 years given the rapid move towards automation. The panelists included Vivaki's Marco Bertozzi, AOL's Brandon Keenen, Martin Kelly, Infectious Media, MediaIQ's Gurman Hundal and Nigel Gilbert. The discussion touched on wider trends in the marketplace such as the in-housing of the re-targeting function by agencies, the ad net's potential demise and publisher concerns around CPM pricing.

The Publisher panel focused on sell-side issues and the opportunity for publishers in the emerging data-driven display space (note the mention of the Publisher Trading Desk and the pan-European publisher exchange here). This panel included: Tom Barnett, Director, Switch Concepts; Martin Van Der Meij, Yield Manager, De Telegraaf; Tim Gentry, Head of Optimisation & Effectiveness at Guardian Commercial; Jonathan Wolf, Chief Buying Officer, Criteo; and Nicholas Timms, Head Of Network Products, A&NY Media.