Advertising Week New York 2026

Hundreds of sessions run in parallel, so no one sees everything. These are the published sessions closest to OOH and DOOH; build the rest of your schedule in the event app. Times are EDT and can change — check the official agenda before you go.

The event fills The Penn District, beside Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and Herald Square — one of the best-connected corners of Manhattan. Use the mid-block entrance on West 33rd Street, and look for Advertising Week signage and staff.

Entrance

Mid-block on W 33rd St between 6th & 7th Ave, near the loading dock

Event address

100 W. 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001

Nearest stations

Penn Station, 34 St–Herald Sq and 34 St–Penn Station: about 2 min walk

Layout

Six stages plus summits, lounges and partner activations

Badge pickup

From 8:00 a.m. Monday, October 5

Food

Concessions, lounges and activations; most passes exclude meals

The Penn District sits on top of New York's busiest rail and subway hub, so almost any Manhattan hotel has a direct route. PATH trains from New Jersey stop about 2 minutes away at 33rd Street, and NYC Ferry works too with a connection from the Midtown landings, though rail or subway is usually more direct.

• Subway

  Recommended

  Time

  2 min walk from 34 St

  Cost

  Standard fare

  34 St–Herald Sq (B D F M N Q R W) and 34 St–Penn Station (1 2 3) are each about 2 minutes from the entrance; the A C E platforms at 8th Avenue are about 6.

  Best for Anyone staying in Manhattan

• Rail to Penn Station

  Time

  2 min walk

  Cost

  By operator

  Amtrak, NJ Transit and LIRR all arrive at Penn Station. Exit toward 7th Avenue / 33rd Street and walk east.

  Best for New Jersey, Long Island and Northeast Corridor

• Taxi or rideshare

  Time

  Slow at rush hour

  Cost

  Varies

  Allow extra time around Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and Herald Square, especially in the morning.

  Best for Groups or heavy luggage

• Drive and park

  Time

  Heavy Midtown traffic

  Cost

  Expensive garages

  If you must drive, reserve a garage in advance, check oversized-vehicle fees and don't rely on street parking.

  Best for Rarely worth it

Stay in Midtown around Penn Station, Herald Square, Koreatown or the Garment District: over four days, being within a 5–15 minute walk lets you drop back to your room between sessions and dinners. The organizer's FAQ mentions convenient hotels but names no official hotel partner, so these are independent picks by proximity. Numbers match the pins on the venue map.

• 1

  Renaissance New York Midtown

  218 West 35th Street

  Closest full-service5 min walk

  One of the nearest full-service hotels to the Penn District, with a restaurant and working space. Close to Penn Station for rail arrivals.

  Show on mapWalking route
• 2

  Fairfield Inn & Suites Penn Station

  325 West 33rd Street

  Same street7 min walk

  West of Penn Station on 33rd Street itself — a straight walk to the entrance. For attendees who put location ahead of luxury.

  Show on mapWalking route
• 3

  The New Yorker

  481 Eighth Avenue

  Large teams7 min walk

  Large historic hotel across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. Very convenient for rail travelers and bigger teams.

  Show on mapWalking route
• 4

  Crowne Plaza HY36 Midtown

  320 West 36th Street

  Business hotel9 min walk

  Business-oriented hotel a few blocks northwest, with business facilities and easy access toward Hudson Yards.

  Show on mapWalking route
• 5

  Arlo Midtown

  351 West 38th Street

  Modern design12 min walk

  Modern hotel with social spaces a little farther west — handy if you also have meetings in Midtown West or Hudson Yards.

  Show on mapWalking route

Claim your pass before you travel and keep the event app on your phone: it holds the digital pass, agenda, maps and meeting scheduler.

Fast Track

Platinum and Super Delegate passes use a priority line for sessions

Meals

Not included with most passes; Platinum gets lunch daily at the AW Food Festival

Water

Bring a reusable bottle — refill stations, no single-use cups

Evening events

Some need a higher tier, an RSVP or an invitation

1. Claim your pass in your Advertising Week account.
2. Download the digital pass or use the official event app.
3. Have the QR code ready for scanning at badge pickup.
4. Arrive early on Monday — printing starts at 8:00 a.m. and the first morning is busiest.

• All attendees

  Coworking Lounge

  On the lower levels, for work, calls and email between sessions.

• Higher tiers

  Premium Lounge

  For eligible higher-tier pass holders.

• Partners

  Meeting Hub

  A dedicated area for selected partners and attendee meetings.

• Creator pass

  Creator Lounge presented by Meta

  Creator networking, brand connections, product demos and content creation.

• Platinum & Super

  VIP and Speakers Lounge

  For speakers, guests and qualifying Platinum and Super Delegate attendees.

• Pass-dependent

  Official wrap party

  Included with Delegate and higher passes; check your tier for other evening events.

Standard prices published on the registration page, in USD. Prices, promotions and availability change, so check before you buy.

• Most attendees

  Delegate

  The core conference for most brand, agency, media and adtech people.

• Busy schedules

  Super Delegate

  Fast Track entry and priority seating matter when popular sessions fill; adds lounge access.

• Business development

  Platinum Delegate

  For meeting-heavy weeks: bookable meeting tables, premium work space, VIP lounge, lunch and breakfasts.

• 30 and under

  NewGen

  Much cheaper in-person access for eligible younger attendees.

• Content only

  Digital

  Sessions without the networking — for people who mainly want the talks.

Six stages run at once. Pick two or three themes and plan around the stages that serve them.

• Best for programmatic DOOH

  Tech Stage

  Data & Collaboration, Advances in Adtech, AI & Innovation, Tech Stack of Tomorrow. The highest-value stage for DOOH platforms, DSPs, SSPs, audience-data and measurement companies.

• Measurement

  Innovation Stage

  Engaging with the Modern Consumer, Industry Disruptors, Modern Marketing & Measurement, Future Forward. Modern Marketing & Measurement is the track to watch for proving OOH's impact.

• Retail & commerce

  Marketplace Stage

  Shopping & Commerce Media, Small Business Marketing Forum, Mid-Sized & Independent Agency Forum, Game Changers, Campaigns & Creativity — the overlap with retail DOOH and place-based media.

• Omnichannel planning

  Media Stage

  Media & Entertainment, Attention Economy, Streaming, Modern Media & Storytelling — how OOH sits against CTV, streaming and video budgets.

• Culture & sports

  Creativity Stage

  Creator Perspectives, Content & Pop Culture, The New Sports Economy, Collabs & Partnerships — how OOH amplifies cultural moments and sponsorships.

• Brand strategy

  Insights Stage

  Brands & Marketers, Branding & Storytelling, Brand Connection & Identity, Trends & Insights — broad strategy rather than technical adtech.

Beyond the main stages, Advertising Week runs specialist forums with their own audiences.

• CTV Summit

  How streaming TV inventory is bought, targeted and measured, and how its economics are changing.

• Gaming Summit

  Gaming as media and culture: younger audiences, entertainment partnerships, virtual worlds and creators.

• Health Summit

  Healthcare, wellness and life-sciences marketing: regulation, trust, data, creators and responsible marketing.

• Investor Summit

  The business side: investment, M&A, consolidation, growth and valuation.

• Career Summit

  Leadership development and career moves in a changing industry.

• Thursday

  B2BMX @ Advertising Week

  B2B growth, account-based marketing, sales alignment and B2B media strategy.

OOH increasingly lives inside omnichannel plans: programmatic DOOH is bought alongside mobile and CTV, location data shapes audiences, physical exposure is tied to digital attribution, and outdoor is compared with every other channel. These 2026 themes speak to that directly.

• Cross-channel audience planning

  The Audience Is Not a Segment. It's a Pattern. covers planning and measurement across mobile, CTV and DOOH — making outdoor work inside one audience framework.

• Mobility and real-world behavior

  Moments in Motion (Lyft Ads) looks at mobility media and journey signals — transit, location-aware and event-triggered campaigns.

• Measuring beyond clicks

  Stop Pushing ROAS Uphill challenges click-based scorecards, the frameworks that have long undervalued outdoor.

• Real-world engagement

  Offline is the New Flex and the Engaging the Modern Consumer track make the case for physical spaces as attention and memory.

• Commerce and footfall

  The Shopping & Commerce Media track follows retail media into stores: in-store signage, retail DOOH, mall and proximity media, closed-loop measurement.

• Campaign creativity

  The Campaigns & Creativity track explicitly includes OOH advertising alongside broadcast and social work.

For OOH and DOOH professionals, our suggested order of priority:

1. Tech Stage — data, adtech, automation and cross-channel audience infrastructure.
2. Innovation Stage — measurement, consumer behavior and emerging media strategy.
3. Marketplace Stage — commerce media, retail environments and campaign execution.
4. Campaigns & Creativity — integrated creative work that includes OOH.
5. Real-world and mobility sessions — location, journeys, physical spaces and experiential.
6. Networking — the brand and agency teams that skip specialist OOH events.

The organizer describes an audience of marketers, senior brand leaders, agency executives, publishers, media buyers, creators, technology companies, students and C-suite executives. Brands it highlights as part of the audience include American Express, Coca-Cola, L'Oréal, McDonald's, Nike, NVIDIA, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Unilever and Walmart; published 2026 speakers include executives from State Farm, Supergoop!, Ben & Jerry's and the Washington Commanders. Line-ups change, so treat the official agenda as final.

For the OOH ecosystem, the most relevant groups are:

• Media agencies
• Integrated planning teams
• Brand marketing teams
• Adtech companies
• Commerce-media networks
• Measurement providers
• Retail media teams
• Mobility and location-data companies
• Creators and experiential agencies
• Platform partnerships teams

Advertising Week is too big to treat as a normal, linear conference.

• Choose themes first

  Pick two or three goals — DOOH and measurement, programmatic, retail media, AI, creators — then build the agenda around them.

• Leave gaps

  Corridor conversations, lounge meetings and activations are half the value. Don't book sessions back to back.

• Book meetings before you arrive

  With thousands of people across the Penn District, chance meetings are inefficient. Start outreach early.

• Arrive early Monday

  Badge printing starts at 8:00 a.m. and the first morning has the biggest queue.

• Skip the car

  Traffic and garage prices make driving a handicap in Midtown; the subway is faster and more predictable.

• Shoes and a power bank

  You'll be walking and standing all day, and the app, maps and messages drain a phone fast.

• Keep evenings flexible

  Some of the best networking happens after the formal agenda ends.

• Land October 4

  Flying from Europe?

  Arriving the day before avoids combining jet lag with badge pickup and a full first day. Check ESTA or visa rules, and allow for immigration queues.

• Pack for early October

  Mild days, cooler mornings and evenings, occasional rain and cold air-conditioning: bring a light jacket and a compact umbrella.

The Penn District is dense with places for a quick lunch, a coffee meeting or a client dinner.

• Koreatown

  5 min walk · W 32nd St

  Group dinners, late meals, quick lunches and informal client meetings.

• Herald Square

  5 min walk

  Dense with cafés, fast-casual restaurants and shops.

• Moynihan Train Hall

  7 min walk

  Quick food, coffee and informal meetings west of Penn Station.

• NoMad

  7 min walk south

  More sit-down restaurants, hotel bars and client-dinner options.

• Hudson Yards

  15 min walk west

  More restaurants and higher-end meeting spots.

Midtown holds some of the densest digital signage, transit media and high-impact OOH in the United States — worth an hour between sessions.

• Times Square

  13 min walk

  Spectaculars, synchronized digital displays, takeovers, experiential activations, long dwell times and night-time creative.

• Penn Station and Moynihan

  2–7 min walk

  Transit media, digital networks, commuter flows and place-based advertising.

• Herald Square

  5 min walk

  Pedestrian-scale OOH, retail frontage, digital displays and heavy tourist and commuter traffic.

• Fifth Avenue

  About 4 min walk east

  Premium retail media, flagship facades and fashion and luxury campaigns.

• LinkNYC and street furniture

  All around Midtown

  How brands use street-level digital formats alongside large spectaculars.

The venue is central enough to add a few Manhattan sights without a detour.

• Empire State Building

  4 min walk

  A short walk east of the entrance.

• Madison Square Garden

  6 min walk

  Directly above Penn Station.

• Bryant Park

  11 min walk

  A quieter outdoor spot for a meeting or a break.

• High Line and Hudson Yards

  15 min walk west

  Restaurants, meetings and the High Line's northern entrance.

• Brand leadership and strategy
• Media and entertainment
• Branding and storytelling
• Audience attention
• Advertising technology
• AI and automation
• Data and collaboration
• Marketing measurement
• Streaming and CTV
• Commerce media
• Creator marketing
• Sports and entertainment
• Gaming
• Healthcare marketing
• Independent agencies and SMBs
• Experiential
• Cross-channel planning
• Privacy-safe identity

Access to the wider advertising market in one place: the brands, agencies, adtech and commerce teams that decide where OOH sits in an omnichannel plan, and who rarely attend specialist outdoor events.