In a New York minute, we scaled some skyscraping topics at the annual beginning of May New York City Summit, hosted at the hip offices of Vimeo in Manhattan. Matt McQueeny joined me for a live rendition of our “Matt & Matt” show on the road, where AEO became a central topic of discussion.

What’s clear is that companies feel the urgency to act on Answer Engine Optimization - but there’s still a lot of confusion about the "what" and "how." From ai12z’s Bill Rogers to VShift’s Eric Feige, we were offered a plurality of insights through the vendor and agency lenses.

A couple of through-lines from day one:

✅ Sara Benkov gave us a peek into Vimeo’s enterprise value, its growing influencer ecosystem, and why it’s increasingly relevant to CMS. It was great to learn about its business benefits (HIPAA compliance being one) and how that's delivering competitive differentiation. Video is a critical data point, and it continues to deliver brand and experiential impact.

✅ Sree Sreenivasan gave another enlightening talk about his discoveries and observations in the jungles of AI - where he’s on the front line helping people and organizations to embrace artificial intelligence while understanding its ethical use, limitations, and risks. He outlined his theory of two footprints (both physical and digital) and where we can bridge the gaps. It was a compelling and interactive session that focused on the human side of this machine equation.

✅ Alexa Griffith Winton of New York’s Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum invited us into her content universe, stirring discussion about how to organize a legacy ecosystem and where community participation might provide a salve to the challenges. Big props to Hannah Gutkauf of Manyone for some inspired reflection on the topic - and for underscoring the artistic value of design.

✅ Thanks to Contentful’s Nika Karliuchenko and RDA’s Chad Solomonson for offering some lightning commentary on the challenges of keeping up with AI, and what Martech Day 2026 is telling us about the current state of our software ecosystem - which continues to grow.

This was another day when our community came together to explore, share, and connect on the critical topics affecting our industry. Huge thanks to Janus Boye for making the Big Apple the backdrop for these conversations - and for showing us how karaoke is done in Denmark.