Digital advertising on the Internet, via banner ad management, took a major step last night at the January 13 Netpreneur meeting hosted by digitalNATION. The discussion, even for this novice, was informative and lively. The best local area minds in the business were there to learn, inform, and above all debate the merits, successes and challenges faced in Internet advertising.

The meeting, led by Mitch Arnowitz, Director, Business Development, Morino Institute, PKW Netpreneur Program, was expertly facilitated and provide all members the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding surrounding banner ad management and the tools necessary to accomplish this task.

The lead presenter was Mike Smith of digitalNATION who discussed one of digitalNATION’s products - Ad-Juggler. Mike eloquently provided everyone with a ground-level basis of understanding by explaining the banner ad management universe and then the specific capabilities of Ad-Juggler. He also led a serious discussion concerning the merits and mechanics of banner ad metering, covering such services providers from industry leader DoubleClick to MSN’s Link Exchange. The discussion moved on to specific software solutions that included Net Gravity and Ad-Juggler and where they fit in the banner ad management business.

The discussion did not end there but ventured into territory that covered seminal subjects about how to capture measuring statistics for hits to click-through to conversion rates. An informative discussion on the merits and use of cookies was also conducted.

The discussion also included such notable comments and opinions by Terry Pittman of Netcom and Mark Dorf of Digital City, both with backgrounds in television. They discussed their concerns in such areas as contextual promos and the over reliance of metrics in Internet advertising versus other forms of media advertising.

Finally, Christy Kochan of the Washington Times related the challenges of insourcing web site management and advertising. Her trials and tribulations encountered gave all participants a reason to pause in their assessment of the travails of Internet business.

All in all the crew at digitalNATION, with their uniquely decorated conference room and gracious hospitality, revealed why they are the local leaders in international web site hosting.

Congratulation, to Mitch Arnowitz and our host digitalNATION for a fantastic meeting.