Imagine building two model bridges with popsicle sticks: the first bridge you’ve glued together at every joint, but for the second bridge, you’ve notched the ends of the sticks and lashed the joints together with rubber bands. Now imagine grasping the ends of these bridges and twisting to simulate an earthquake. Which one breaks first? Resilience is the second bridge: strength through flexibility.

Today, we share the decision that ESTO 2020 is cancelled, a difficult but necessary response to the coronavirus pandemic. While we had greatly looked forward to being together in Grand Rapids, we are unable to proceed with ESTO in compliance with the guidance of Michigan public health authorities prohibiting large public gatherings.

On January 14, 2020, Google announced that they plan to phase out support for the third-party cookie in Chrome over the next two years — and subsequently sent the digital marketing industry into a tailspin.

Since then, our industry has systematically gone through the Five Stages of Grief; it started with denial, moved to anger, then there was bargaining, many were depressed and now, finally, we’ve moved to acceptance. While we’ve begun to accept our cookie-less, third-party future, what that future looks like is still undefined.  

Here are three things to know now: