We don’t go to every industry event—but ad:tech is special, whether it’s New York, as it was this fall, or San Francisco, as it will be next week.

The conversations that spring up at ad:tech panels, talks, and ad hoc gatherings are the sort that often as not, break new ground. Create real rather than faux insight. There are moments where you see a person’s eyes open up and you get a sense of the paradigm beginning to shift in their head.

As when a buyer or a seller begins to suspect the truth: blind networks are a dead end, ad exchanges are the path to the future.

San Francisco from April 15 to 17 is going to see a lot of this sort of nudging and shifting of the paradigm – and we at TRAFFIQ must certainly bear some major responsibility for this. Our fingerprints will be all over this event. For example:

-- We’ll be previewing the latest evolution of the TRAFFIQ platform, featuring a powerful yet easy new tool, one that further diversifies our suite of transparent, flexible, and streamlined means of buying and selling online ads. You can get a hands-on demo at our booth, Booth 5271 on the Exhibition Floor, on both April 15 and April 16.

-- We’ve been nominated for the ad:tech “People’s Choice” award in the category of “Best Business to Business Web Site.” It’s this kind of recognition from all quarters of the industry that’s starting to push the paradigm our way. It’s not just that ad exchanges are a clear winner over networks – but that TRAFFIQ stands out even among exchanges. That’s not according to us, it’s according to a new report from Forrester Research.

-- We’re co-hosting a panel on a crucial topic: the quest to follow and engage consumers as they flock to mid-tail Web sites with content that matches their passions. TRAFFIQ’s own Dan Ballister will take attendees beyond the obvious – that the mid-tail represents a deep and fruitful new source of inventory outside tapped-out portals and top 100 properties – and into the insightful: how to best to monetize this new territory, how best to match spend and return to the kind of creative campaigns that generate true engagement and word-of-mouth? The panel title is “Beyond the Banner/Beyond the Network: The Mid-Tail and the Promise of Engagement,” and you can catch it Thursday, April 17, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out ad:tech San Francisco for yourself. And stop by the TRAFFIQ booth there – besides seeing the demo, you can pick up a copy of both the Forrester Report cited above and our new whitepaper on vetting exchanges. They’re both good reads.