• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • Locations
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Our Platform
    A platform that connects all walled garden media
    Connected Media
    Create and manage campaigns across search, social, retail media and apps, in one platform
    Connected Data
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Clients
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    News
    Check out our recent media coverage
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Quarterly Trends Webinar
    Get the latest insights on digital marketing campaign performance for Q4 2022
    Retail Media for Grocery Webinar
    Join us to dig into trends and challenges shaping the industry in 2023
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Blog
    Read the latest insights and thought leadership from our industry experts
    Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    Research
    Explore our reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    Subscribe
    Sign up to get the latest updates straight to your inbox
    Quarterly Trends Report
    Learn digital advertising campaign performance trends from Q3 2022
Back to Blog

Knowledge Was Power at K8 East 2019! An Event Recap

Margo Kahnrose, CMO @ Skai™

May  24, 2019

K8 East 2019 Recap.

Every year, in coming up with a theme for K8, our annual summit, we think about who we are as a company and what’s happening in the world at large—both within the advertising industry and outside of it.

The process is a good one, because it gives us a chance to zoom out of our day jobs and reflect a little bit on what Skai is really about at that moment in time, where we really fit in the ecosystem. And, more critically, what’s really on your minds, our valued clients and partners.

We try to sum it up in a few words and then build a full day’s (or more, in some years) agenda around the ideas that have surfaced. And thus, a theme is born.

Skai’s CEO Yoav Izhar-Prato, COO Shirley Grill-Rachman, and Senior Marketing Manager Lily Rotter hash out some ideas over coffee

This year’s theme, Knowledge is Power, felt right because—let’s face it—we are living in crazy times, and knowing how to navigate them is everything. There’s never been more capability at our fingertips, and turning that into possibility is something we’re still all figuring out together—tech platforms, publishers, agencies and advertisers alike. We’re learning where to draw lines, how to harness all of this data we keep talking about, and with it, empower ourselves to do right both professionally and personally.

Let’s get this K8 East 2019 party started

K8 East 2019 was first of this year’s two regional K8s, taking place on Monday, May 20. There, we dug deep into these concepts through discussions and presentations representing a mix of compelling thought leaders, industry trends, Skai platform expertise, and interaction with the media and publishers you rely on to reach your brand goals every single day.

To sweeten the deal, we did it all at the stunning Brooklyn Botanic Garden, awash in warm sunshine (that was lucky!) and the mind-clearing scents of eucalyptus and lavender.


Our morning kicked off with an intro and short history lesson from our sages on the connection of plants and trees to the quest for knowledge by Skai VP Sandeep Hardas, who, as MC, offered us some new perspective throughout the day.

VP, Strategic Accounts, Sandeep Hardas, Skai as MC of K8 East

Renowned marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, as our morning keynote, shared her incredible story of personal growth and commitment to a singular goal over the course of a lifetime. She reminded us that the importance of gathering data points and relying on our teams aren’t only relevant to our professional lives. We were rapt while she also played the trumpet, sang an enviable Janis Joplin, and made us both laugh and cry to the universality of her message. This made for a pretty unforgettable 9 AM on a Monday.

Renowned marathon swimmer, Diana Nyad

Skai CEO Yoav Izhar-Prato kept us listening, feeling, and thinking with his unique way of exploring the impact that new insights have on our perspectives and experiences. He then grounded us back in the here-and-now with a live whiteboarding session, connecting the dots to Skai’s vision to go beyond application and execution to help our 2,000+ clients access and interpret data to make better, faster decisions with it.

CEO Yoav Izhar-Prato, Skai

Next, VP of Corporate Development Tom Affinito shared an outlook of the trends and opportunities that we all need to be focused on right now, the new business models changing the game, and he taught us a thing or two about rainbow bagels (apparently they’re a thing!).

VP Corporate Development, Tom Affinito, Skai

Wrapping up the morning, Chief Product Officer Zvika Goldstein gave us a peek at the value pillars Skai is engineering towards and the crazy innovation coming from Skai R&D in every. single. channel. Think AI-based features that are unprecedented and unparalleled in the space that actually make your work life a whole lot easier along with deep integrations with partners like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Pinterest, Facebook, and Apple. He finished by dropping the incredibly exciting announcement of Skai’s solution for incrementality testing, Impact Navigator—the first in a suite of upcoming data intelligence offerings.

As you can see, even Yoav was on the edge of his seat:

Chief Product Officer Zvika Goldstein, Skai

Lunch took us for a garden stroll to the jaw-droppingly beautiful Palm House.

In addition to enjoying a delicious, fresh spread and networking with your peers at K8 East 2019, you could hang with our sponsors or give plant listening a whirl—another thing that I learned is, in fact, a thing!

K8 East 2019: Act 2

After lunch, K8 East 2019guests chose their own adventures and broke out into tracks to talk specifics in Search, Social, Ecommerce, and Apps. There, we went under the hood of each solution, learned firsthand from relevant Skai clients how to drive a successful program, and heard from our friends at Google, Facebook, Amazon and Oracle about what’s hot on their minds. We also held an open, casual exec brainstorm on the challenges of marketing measurement and attribution facing marketers and advertisers today.

Skai’s VP Corporate Partnerships Tom Affinito and GM, Ecommerce Oren Stern

Head of Performance Data Science Ben Royce, Google  

Global Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Claudia Virgilio, Skai and Senior Manager, Product Adam Dhanens, Oracle

Supervising Marketing Manager Lyly Tran, Strategic Education, and Expert Services Team Lead Mark Sherman, Skai

The last part of the day included a session on the massive Apple Search Ads opportunity by Skai VP Paul Vallez and agency partner Chacka Marketing. They surfaced this pro tip: If you’re not yet leveraging ASA and your business has a mobile app, you’re being kinda slow on the draw. Get on that!

We also heard from more of the broader ecosystem including headline sponsor Microsoft on the importance of inclusivity in marketing, Verizon Media on how native is impacting customer experience and AdMarketplace on their new technology, Conducive Search.

Head of Research Kelli Kemery, Microsoft Advertising

Director of Native Advertising Sales Giuseppe La Rocca, Verizon Media

Fireside chats with advertisers Zinus Mattress and The Home Depot on how to disrupt retail—and how to avoid being disrupted!—were led by Skai Social GM John Dobrowolski, which brought a wrap to the headier content of the day.

And to close us out, Joyful author and TED speaker Ingrid Fetell-Lee got us dancing in our seats, contemplating why moments of joy are so critical in life and work, and learning how to actively cultivate them.

Ingrid Fetell-Lee, Founder, The Aesthetics of Joy and Author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness

But K8 East 2019 wasn’t over yet

That put us all in a pretty good mood, a vibe that carried over to our pond-side cocktail reception, which included incredible live violinists, drinks and bites galore, and bonding opportunities like honey making, succulent planting and garden tours.

So…yeah. We packed a lot in. By the end of the day, there was a powerful clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose kind of buzz reverberating from everything we had learned and experienced together in twelve short hours. We’d taken a journey, but for most of our guests, all conveniently close to home.

And the best part? We don’t have to wistfully say take me back! just yet because we’ll do it all again — though a little differently, of course — on June 12th at Filoli Garden Estate in San Mateo, California for a new group of our valued partners in this wild industry.                     

Want to be part of the action?

Couldn’t make it to East? You can still join us for K8 West! We can’t wait to make more memories with you.

Register for K8 West

Related Posts

  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – April 2021
    Read More
  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – September 2021
    Read More
  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – August 2021
    Read More
  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – October 2021
    Read More
  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – May 2021
    Read More
  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – June 2021
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Ecommerce, K8, Search, Social, xTLx

Subscribe to Updates

Media that matters.
Marketing that works.
© 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
  • Connected Data
    • Market Intelligence
    • Our Approach
    • By Need
    • By Solution
  • Connected Strategy
    • Dynamic Marketing Mix
    • Budget Forecasting
    • Strategic Consulting
  • Connected Media
    • Overview
    • Retail Media
    • Paid Search
    • Paid Social
    • App Marketing
    • Auditing
    • Expert Services
  • Measurement
    • Incrementality
    • Experiments
    • Cross-Channel Attribution
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Glossary
    • Case Studies
    • Training & Enablement
    • Developer Hub
Privacy Preference

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

Privacy Preference

Save All

Save

Accept Only Essential Cookies

Manage Cookie Preferences

Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

Privacy Preference

Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

Back

Privacy Preference

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Name
Provider Owner of this website, Imprint
Purpose Saves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
Host(s) .skai.io, skai.io
Cookie Name borlabs-cookie
Cookie Expiry 1 Year
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Purpose This cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
Cookie Name acsbState, acsbReset
Cookie Expiry n/a
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name wordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
Cookie Name fs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
Cookie Expiry Session / 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .comeet.co, www.comeet.co
Cookie Name visid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name moduleFormPardotDownload
Cookie Expiry 30 days

Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name _ga,_ga_*,_gat,_gat_*,_gid
Cookie Expiry 2 Months
Accept
Name
Provider Hotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
Purpose Hotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
Host(s) *.hotjar.com
Cookie Name _hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Linkedin
Cookie Name lidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Skai
Accept
Name
Provider 6sense
Cookie Name _gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Pardot
Purpose Cookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
Host(s) .pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
Cookie Name pardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
Cookie Expiry Session / 10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name IDE, 1P_JAR, NID, SOCS, CONSENT, AEC, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
Cookie Name _fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Wistia
Host(s) .wistia.com
Cookie Name cb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Instagram content.
Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
Host(s) .instagram.com
Cookie Name pigeon_state
Cookie Expiry Session
Accept
Name
Provider Openstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
Purpose Used to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
Host(s) .openstreetmap.org
Cookie Name _osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
Cookie Expiry 1-10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Twitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Twitter content.
Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
Host(s) .twimg.com, .twitter.com
Cookie Name __widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
Cookie Expiry Unlimited
Accept
Name
Provider Vimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
Purpose Used to unblock Vimeo content.
Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
Host(s) player.vimeo.com
Cookie Name vuid
Cookie Expiry 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock YouTube content.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
Host(s) google.com
Cookie Name CONSENT
Cookie Expiry 6 Month

Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

Privacy Policy Imprint