NEW ORLEANS (AdAge.com) -- The downsized American Association of Advertising Agencies' annual media conference was an affair nearly as somber as it was small. Speakers did their best to pump up industry morale from the stage but the fear among attendees was palpable throughout the corridors and quiet gathering places of the event. In one of its more curious sessions, a series of consumer panelists raved about the value of various forms of media in their lives -- even as executives in the audience bemoaned their inability to sufficiently monetize many of those digital formats.