Last year April I was in Paris and what a great time of the year to be there.
If you have the time and money, go this April, do all the tours and see the attractions and then attend ad:tech Paris.
According to their latest newsletter:

Looking to expand into the European or French market - or already there? Consider ad:tech Paris. Leading digital companies (i.e. Yahoo, Google, ad’link, Netvibes, PriceMinister, Seesmic, Ozone) come together with the most influential international advertisers (i.e. Coca Cola, La Poste, Danone) and their agencies (i.e. Avenue A Razorfish, Nextedia, DDB) to share concepts and visions; to exchange results and experiences.

I really enjoyed the topics of discussion, the level of presenters and the networking, interaction and new opportunities at ad:tech New York in November last year and can only imagine that Paris will be of the same high standard.

I just attended the first session of Ad:tech, the digital marketing conference. The keynote address was presented by Nick Brien, the Worldwide CEO of Universal McCann, the ad agency group.
After sharing with us all the latest stats in terms of online, mobile and digital uptake in the world, Nick spoke about the traditional agency model and how it is not going to work in today’s business.
He used some of the most common traditional aspects of advertising and added his own perspective of where it’s heading.
One of the statements he made is that the above the line/below the line, online/ offline terminology is redundant and that it is about consumer, brand and agencies, (who believes are businesses rather than “agencies”)
All the issues of user generated content, interactivity, mobile was also mentioned.
According to him it is now all about marketing and not just advertising.
Although we’ve all heard about content, it is nothing without contact and useless without being in CONTEXT. Timing is everything!
5 ideas he left us with:
1. Persuasion is still important but not without INFLUENCE
2. Big ideas are still relevant but must make way for EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCE
3. Communication has always been important but not without CONVERSATION
4. Innovation has to go with INTEGRATION
5. Creativity takes COURAGE