I just got back from Affiliate Summit East 2007 in Miami. Like most internet marketing conferences one of the biggest values in attending is in the relationships you’re able to form by meeting people in your industry face-to-face. I went in expecting to meet a lot of vendor reps – maybe even a couple I’d want to work with – but I came home having also made some good casual acquaintances – which made the trip a success in more ways than one.
If there’s one type of exhibitor that was not in short supply it was the ‘affiliate network’. It seemed like every other booth in the exhibit hall was for an affiliate network. My first question to each of them was “how do you differentiate yourselves from CJ and the other big networks?” Some explained that they specialized or worked exclusively in CPA or PPC. Some insisted that they had a better user interface. But none of them caught my attention. It might have been affiliate network overload.
The speaker sessions and interviews that were held during the show were generally pretty good. I saw Joel Comm discuss some interesting contextual advertising methods and techniques. Joel touched on and gave his opinions and tips on AdSense, Kontera, Chitika, AuctionAds, Intellitext and others. Wil Reynolds from Seer Interactive had the audience captivated with his “SEO Site Critiques” discussion. Wil’s presentation isn’t online in video yet, but here’s a good presentation he gave in August, 2006.
Overall, though, the best benefit I got from the show was at the mixer events. I have been a little concerned about an upcoming move I have planned – from San Francisco to Santa Monica (Los Angeles) – and the fact that I’ll be moving away from the “epicenter” of internet technology. But at Affiliate Summit I was pleasantly surprised how many people I met who are based in Southern California. Of course there were a ton of Bay Area people there, too, and I came away with some Northern California contacts as well, but the fact that I was able to start a dialog with some SoCal’ers gave me a great boost in confidence regarding my upcoming move. I’ll attend Affiliate Summit 2008 West for the networking opportunities alone.
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