We open the Winter Search Insider Summit with a keynote interview featuring Alex Otrezov, Uber’s Head of Search & Experimentation, who leads acquisition across the ride hailing giant’s expanding roster of mobile apps. Otrezov uses Uber’s vast data ecosystem to improve paid and organic search results across platforms. He will take us through the scope of this huge operation, and reveal key learnings from testing and experimentation on Apple’s App Store, Google Universal App Campaigns, and others.

Search data forms a big part of the backbone for AI technology: innovations in analytics, people-based marketing, virtual assistants, and image recognition all leverage search data to be more accurate. But these innovations also create new and complex data streams for marketers to interpret. How quickly can artificial intelligence and machine learning bring us to the 1:1 Promised Land, and what is the marketers’ role in facilitating that? What privacy and security pitfalls along the way?

Does the rise of virtual assistants come at the expense of other media? Why search for products and services when virtual assistants can provide instant service based on your demonstrated preferences? If your virtual assistant has access to your mobile data, it can recommend products and services you didn’t even know you needed, so how will this next evolution of search impact the search marketing? How are some marketers experimenting with service-oriented media today?

After the Q1 debacle of advertisers triggering next to extreme content in YouTube/GDN, and Facebook’s hate targeting being brought to light, publishers have been forced to crack down on filtering abilities and targeting. However, to this day, ads are still showing next to extreme content. Have the platforms done enough to prevent this from happening, and have advertisers taken the proper steps to prevent it themselves? How much does this really matter to brands? Does quantity reign supreme or does quality and brand safety?

Can Search Marketers Benefit from Voice Computing? - David Graveline, Sr Product Manager, Macy's
Consolidating Data for Relevant Messaging - Todd Ulise, VP at Ad.net
Advertising and Extremist Content: Safeguarding Your Brand - Jon Kagan, Sr. Director of Search and Biddable Media, MARC USA | Results:Digital
Search and AI - Steven Gibson, Client Director of Search, Canvas Worldwide

Amazon has been the birthplace of thousands of third party retailers like InstaNatural, a beauty and skincare products maker that started selling on its platform in 2013 before eventually expanding into Walmart.com, Jet and other digital marketplaces. In this keynote interview, Ethelbert Williams, departing CMO of InstaNatural, will reveal why Amazon remains the backbone of InstaNatural’s business, while sharing insights into how brands can boost rankings, enhance discoverability, foster favorable ratings and reviews, and leverage paid media offerings on Amazon and other platforms.

Mega-marketplaces like Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target are turning into some of the world’s largest search engines. How are brands and search marketers alike leveraging these retail behemoths as advertising channels? How important have the paid media opportunities on these channels become for brands, what strategies have succeeded, and what data ownership issues arise?

Are you getting the most out of your search platform partners? Join a panel of search marketers, who will be presenting case studies on how to enjoy successful partnerships with the likes of Google and Bing, including: how to get the most from beta tests, optimizations and expansion efforts. What should your role be in these collaborations as the advertiser?

Building Your Business Through Mega Marketplaces - Mike Grehan, CMO, Acronym Media
Getting the Most from Your Search Partnerships - Alexander Edlund, Director, Digital Acquisition, Choice Hotels
Cashing in on Mobile Addiction - Erin Everhart, Sr. Manager, Media Strategy & Mobile, Home Depot

In our last session at the Winter Search Insider Summit, we wrap by bringing three of our Roundtable leaders on stage to recount some of the key conversations and takeaways they’ve come across in talking to fellow attendees over the passed three days.

Mobile SEM: Tools, Strategies and Tech to Succeed - Dan Williams, CRO, 3 Day Blinds
What’s Next? The Future of Search (and SIS) - Ross Fadner, Director Event Programming, MediaPost