I just got back from Affiliate Summit West 2012 last night and man has this shown grown. I remember my first Affiliate Summit West back in 2008. The show then was great and I was already making ok affiliate money. The money I made with my affiliate income got me to Affilaite Summit and I haven't missed a Summit since.
This year 2012, Affiliate Summit West proved to have grown immensely. Looking at my FeedFront magazine, 2012 conference attendee is at 5087! Amazing growth and lots of new things. When I saw Shawn Collins, I congratulated him on the show growth and also gave him my feedback. With growth there is always changes and the Summit went through them.
As I have done in the past I will write my observations, no particular order:
- First timer session was HUGE. I didn't think that there were many first timers, but then again a 1k growth for the Summit is amazing.
- Meet Market is always packed. Not sure if it is because its the first day, but every Meet Market is so friggin packed.
- Caesar palace was a great place but the conference area it self was awkward. It was held on 3 floors and it seemed everyone got lost finding places.
- Comparing Affiliate Summit in 2008 to now, there is a change in the industry. Affiliate Summit is being seen as the place to go to to learn performance marketing and online marketing in general. I am seeing more agencies than traditional affiliates that I knew back in 2008.
- Our content monetizing panel with John Chow, Steve Hall, Murray Newland (mod) turned out to be impressive. Full House!
- Q&A was different this year, users would send questions to a text twitter system and questions would appear on the monitor. I think this takes out the interaction from speaker to user. But it does stop certain people from trying to just use Affiliate Summit as just an advertorial and asking dumb questions.
- Clickbooth party was pretty good - I was a Guest UFC judge
- I got interviewed by the Hot Dog man - told me ketchup on hot dogs is a fail.
- Blue man in full spandex running around was weird.
- Some sessions was very simple. I even heard from some people the advance and intermediate wasn't that entertaining.
- lots of women are in love with Ad Hustler. Jealous.
- Met up with some great past marketers such as Shoemoney, Nicky Cakes, Jonathan Volk, Heavy T, Max T, and multiple networks and advertisers I work with.
- Mobile Meetup was very productive, thanks Kevin De Vincenzi for the invite! Learned a couple new things.
- Lots of meetings about some new things I am doing. I hate it when meetings get shifted. Messes up my full day of scheduled appointments.
- Live “New” as a way of life, if not you will die in the industry you are in - Jon Spoelstra
- NJ affiliates took over
- I miss the Eric Thomas and Shoemoney keynote - needed to get out of Vegas. I know their keynotes were probably amazing.
- Club XS was crazy fun, lost my voice that night.
- Mr Green and Stack that Money are some crazy people! Great finally chillin with them.
- Hangover party was hella packed
- Darren did an amazing job at the Affiliate Ball. One of the go to parties to be at while at Affiliate Summit.
I also want to thanks XRev Media for sponsoring the IANteract Dinner, now called the DotCom Dinner. It turned out to be a great event and great networking with people I want to network with. Connecting and learning is one of the best things to do. I really hate talking business in the club and especially when they insist on talking about it too. It never made sense to me to do business in a LOUD environment.
Also another note is I want to thank Missy and Shawn for an amazing show. It is definitely growing and the change is pretty noticeable. I hope it doesn't become a traditional conference show. Some of the shows I have been to are just not worth going to. The show for me is a place where I can hangout and catch up with others in the industry. I even caught up with networks that I want to work with on a certain project which will do well I think and will definitely change how our industry performs.
With Affiliate Summit just ending. I am going to start working on my new direction on where I want to be in 10 years. As Affiliate Summit grows so does other affiliates, like I said there are some affiliates that are now networks, advertisers, and lead brokers. 2012 we come!
... and as always it is always great catching up with friends from past shows, networks, ThinkTanks, and just strengthening the relationship. I met a lot of great people in this industry and I enjoy always seeing them at any show or where ever we are.
Some pictures:
