What a media buyer can get done in four days
AGS Rome 2026 Welcome Kit for media buyers
The buttons will keep pressing themselves. Decide what you are when they do. Four days in the hall is the fastest way to become the person who understands the business, and this page is the plan. Five jobs, three conversations, one write-up.
1. Ask the platform's people a real question
TikTok, Meta and Google are exhibiting with staff on the floor, and two of TikTok's people (George Phu, Vertical Director for Ecommerce and Emerging Industries, and Niv Shaked, Sales Director) are on stage. Write your question down before you read the list. The measurement change that broke your attribution. Why the automated campaign type does what it does in your account. The policy decision nobody could explain. The beta you were told about and never offered.
A rep on a call has a script. A person at a stand, asked a specific question by someone who runs real spend, usually answers it. And a named contact at the platform is the thing your manager can't buy with a bigger budget.
2. Meet the people who own the offers
The direct advertisers and the networks that set payouts are the commercial side of everything you run. They know why the payout is what it is, what converts in which geo and why, and what they'd change for a buyer who can prove volume. Ten minutes with an offer owner explains more about why the number is the number than a quarter of dashboards. That's the material that makes you one of the people deciding rather than the person reporting.
3. Sit with buyers running more spend than you
They're at the stands, in the sessions, at the reception, and they have the same headaches with a zero on the end. Ask any buyer what the valuable part of their last event was and it's the same answer: drinks with people running similar spend, and the relief of finding out everyone has the exact same platform problems. Ask how they structure a test, what they stopped doing this year, what they'd do with your account. Nobody at work can answer that. Everyone here can. The drinks happen on their own once you're in the building.
4. Look at the tools with the vendor in front of you
Trackers, attribution, ad intelligence, creative tools. Ask the vendor the question your dashboard can't answer. Even if you never buy, you'll know what the higher-spend buyers are measuring that you aren't, and you'll have the thing to take back: "hey gang, let's test this."
5. Walk the traffic you don't buy
Native, push, in-app, CTV, messaging. If your remit is about to widen, and "one person, three jobs" says it is, knowing what these channels are and who runs them is the difference between being handed more work and being handed a decision.
How the Match App works once you hold a pass
Access follows pass approval. Once you hold a pass, you search for a company or person, send a request with a proposed slot, and they accept or decline. Accepted requests are meetings with a time and a place at the venue. Standard passes get the Limited level; Premium gets Basic; Platinum gets Privileged. Higher tiers get more of the app; Limited covers your three.
The request that gets accepted: "I run [platform] for [type of brand] at [spend]; I'd like to understand [the specific question]." Offer owners and platform people accept requests from buyers who run real spend and ask specific questions. "Let's connect" gets declined. Send yours the day the app opens; pre-booking matters more than wandering the floor.
The three conversations
| Who (from the list) | The question | What I'd bring back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform person | |||
| Offer owner or network | |||
| Buyer at higher spend |
Fill it in before you read the case for your manager. It's paragraph one, and it's the difference between a business case and a wish.
Which rooms exist
- The floor, Hall 2. All four days. Every pass.
- Conferences and workshops. Every pass. On stage: people who run brands and budgets (Nick Shackelford of Brez, Marisha Lakhiani of Mindvalley, Dayu Yang of EcommOps, among others), not people who sell courses to media buyers.
- The welcome reception. Every pass. Where the buyers at higher spend are, and a self-funded buyer at a reception is a person, not a badge.
- Half-day activity. Premium and Platinum.
- Networking drinks. Premium and Platinum.
- The AGS Awards, the VIP lounge and the VIP meet and greet. Platinum.
- Hosted dinners. In the paid tiers.
What you owe afterwards
A short share-back. One page or fifteen minutes: the three conversations, what each changes about how you'd run the account, one test you'd run next. It's the line in the case for your manager that makes the trip accountable. It's also the thing that gets you asked what you think before the next media plan is decided, which was the point.
We update this kit from time to time as confirmations, prices and event details change. This page is current as of 12 September 2026.