Four times a year, VIA members come together for Industry Drinks. No formal programme, no agenda, just the industry in a room together. A chance to catch up in person, swap stories, and meet people you've been meaning to meet for years. This time, VIA's Smart Targeting taskforce is in charge for the Programmatic Reunion.
Remember when we weren't just "buying ads," we were changing the world one millisecond at a time?
If you still have an Improve Digital hoodie in the back of your closet, if you spent 2012 patiently explaining to confused clients that "No, it’s not literal robots," or if you have permanent hearing damage from the Felix Meritis acoustics during a packed Online Tuesday: this one is for you.
We’re getting the old gang* back together to celebrate the era of the "Great Disruption." Before the walled gardens got quite so high, we were the ones in the trenches of the real-time bidding takeover.
Why bother showing up
- The war stories. The years when DMexco still felt like something, the halls were packed, and the afterparties ran longer than the conference itself.
- The perspective. A chance to laugh about the days when a EUR 1.00 CPM floor felt like a bold strategic move.
- The people. Faces you used to see every month at Online Tuesday, before everyone became a Head of Something or a VP of Everything.
- The atmosphere. No pitches, no decks, no talk of synergies. Just a decent drink and an honest conversation with the people who actually built the Dutch digital industry.
"It wasn't just media buying. It was a revolution." - All of us, roughly 2013.
Don't leave it to the algorithm to manage your social life. Track down the colleagues you haven't seen since your last argument about attribution models, and make sure they know about this one. For instance: Veterans of Improve Digital, Ilse Media, WebAds, Criteo, Bannerconnect, DQNA, ClickDistrict, Sociomantic, MyThings, YD, Amnet, TURN, Adlantic, and anyone else who made it through the 2010s with their sanity roughly intact.
Dress code: "I survived four days of back-to-back meetings and three liquid dinners at DMexco".
Proost. We'll see you there.
Industry Drinks is sponsored by Result Recruitment.
Please note: The VIA Industry Drinks is for members only.