Affiliate Summit West Recap

January 17, 2009 | By Marc Porcelli | No Comments »

This year’s Affiliate Summit was hands down the most productive show I have attended in the last few years (and I have attended many shows)!  Ad:tech traditionally has been a great show, but the only one I find beneficial these days is ad:tech SF. In my experience, many decision-makers attend and more business gets done. The rest of the shows are either too small to justify the price, or in the case of ad:tech NY, way too big and busy.

The Affiliate Summit West took place at the Rio, where it did last year. It’s a cab ride from any of the hotels on the strip and veterans of the show know to be dropped off at the convention and not the hotel to avoid the long walk. This was my sixth affiliate summit and it’s going to be tough to top this one.

I had flown into Las Vegas on Saturday hoping to have a relaxing Sunday when I received a call on Sunday morning, the meet market was packed! For those that don’t know what the meet market is, it is a six-hour pre-show where merchants have tables to meet with affiliates to discuss their affiliate programs. The meet market has been growing in popularity of the past few years, but it’s safe to say now that it’s the best event at the show.

AzoogleAds, a division of Epic Advertising (the company I work for) was the Platinum sponsor, so we had the booth right where attendees for this event walked in. Needless to say it was very busy and provided a great opportunity to discuss new business and to meet with contacts from other business we work with. The attendees that came to the meet market where very qualified and eager to network. I had a chance to walk around when our table traffic eased up and it was very busy. I later found out there were one hundred tables, during the last show in Boston over the summer, there were seventy.

After the meet market it was off to a few meetings and then three consecutive dinners, two of which overlapped. My last meal at Tao was simply rice, I had no more room at that point. Following the dinners we hosted an event in a suite at the Palazzo for our publishers and then it was off to Lavo downstairs.

Monday began at the Azoogle booth followed by two lunches, meetings and then dinner at the Encore in Botero. Those that know me know I am a big fan of steak. This was the best steak I have had in sometime! After dinner it was off to Jet in the Mirage where Akon was performing. The venue was horribly over-packed which made it an early night. On the way back to the Wynn I ran into a few clients who convinced me to stay out and we ended up at XS which is at Encore. XS truly blew me away, it was one of the best clubs I have ever been to.

Tuesday at the show was much like Monday with many meetings, but not as many during the afternoon, which provided me with a much needed break. The show went strong until about 3pm when it started to wind down. I had two more meetings and by the second one, I was just totally exhausted. When it was time to leave for the airport for my red-eye flight back to Toronto I was ready to go, but felt very content with the trip and all that had been accomplished.
Going from this venue to the Affiliate Summit East venue which will be taking place at the New York Hilton on August 9-11th this summer in New York City will be quite the change. The New York Hilton brings back memories of an over-crowded booth and swarms of people during ad:tech in NYC.

Affiliate Summit has come a long way in the past few years. Affiliate Summit West had over 3000 attendees and is the affiliate show to attend! Overall the attendees seemed a lot more engaged in discussing business and capitalizing on all available opportunities. Now that the show is over, it’s all about following up on leads and moving forward with the business.

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Category: Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing

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