NEW YORK — I told a friend of mine at DoubleClick Google that I'm flying to San Francisco next week for Ad:tech. His response: "Hahahahahha. Have fun with that." Worried, I reached out to conference veteran and Adweek writer Brian Morrissey. His words were kindly reassuring. "It's very, very sales-y," he said.

Tons of random, sketchy lead gen ad networks who hire booth babes and blow their marketing budgets on parties filled w drunken sales guys for vendors. One VC I met w here called it "the vast underbelly of capitalism."

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