I was literally stunned by a couple of the ‘break out’ sessions at Affiliate Summit in Boston. Stunned at how underprepared and/or underqualified the speakers were. This was my third time attending this popular affiliate marketing conference, and as I’ve said time and time again, Affiliate Summit offers some great networking opportunities. Unfortunately this time around some disappointing break out sessions, as well as a weak expo hall really dragged down my overall impression of the event.
One of the first sessions I attended was titled “Which PPC Engines Work and How,” by John Hasson. I don’t know John – I’m sure he’s really good at what he does – but the slideshow looked like he spent maybe 10 minutes on it. Click the link above and look at slide #15 (notice the row of dollar signs, some of which he forgot to press the [shift] key for, so they’re just ’4′s). And how about slide #17 (size 6 font for a room of over 100 attendees); with plenty of extra room on the slide. This isn’t the kind of presentation I expect to see in a professional setting – especially not when I’m paying to see it. Visual aides aside, John was a likeable presenter, but lacking in conviction. He provided a decent list of PPC engines and shared which ones he likes and doesn’t like – but the audience didn’t come away with any “ah-ha” moments. John failed to give any hard opinions, making even his recommendations seem half-hearted.
On another day I was intrigued by the title of this break out session: “Lead Generation for eMarketers.” I do lead generation; I do e-marketing – seems like a great topic! Too bad every one of the panelists for this session was just up there to plug their products and services. This one really pissed me off. Save your schtick for the expo hall – don’t cram it into the break out sessions that conference attendees are paying to see. The moderator of this session, Kelli Beougher (of LinkShare), briefly introduced the topic and the panelists. First up was DC Cullinane (of thinkingVOICE) who literally read straight from his notes, said how great his company and product are, fielded exactly zero questions, and handed it off to the next guy – John Engler (of UnsubCentral) – who did the exact same thing. No value add. No insight. They virtually read their company’s marketing packets to us.
At that point I looked around to see if anyone else was as shocked as I was. People in the audience were completely and totally disconnected from the speakers – looking every way but straight. I just got up and walked out. Later I found out that people in that session were twittering about how poor the content and presentation was. I wasn’t alone.
Affiliate Summit East 2008 was the first conference I’ve ever brought an associate to, and thankfully Carolyn came away with a better impression than I did. She and I attended different break out sessions for the most part, so maybe it was the luck of the draw, and I got the lamest ones. Maybe I’m just getting more critical in my old age…or maybe I expect more of a conference when I’m covering travel, lodging and admission expenses for two. Whatever it is, I can’t deny that this was my most disappointing Affiliate Summit experience. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom – there were some highlights (which I shared in a separate post).
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Thanks a lot for the feedback, Jeremy. It is much appreciated.
We will have videos of all of the sessions up in the coming weeks, and hope you’ll give some other sessions a look.
With regards to the exhibit hall, was this the first time you attended on the east coast?
The west coast shows are larger, but this was the largest of the east shows by attendance and exhibit hall.
We made the aisles more roomy than usual in an effort to alleviate crowding, and overheard many folks stating that it was smaller than past east shows.
I guess there is something to be said for keeping it crowded for perceptions sake.
If anything else occurs to you, feel free to reach out directly to me at shawn@affiliatesummit.com
Thanks for the reply, Shawn. I just finished giving you props for this kind of personal attention to the conference (in another post):
http://blog.r3r.com/2008/08/21/affiliate-summit-silver-lining
To answer your question, though, yes I’ve been to Affiliate Summit in Miami before – as well as Vegas. Both of those were great. I guess I would just hope for higher standards from some of the presenters/presentations – they reflect on the whole show.
Thanks again for reaching out. You guys and your staff do a great job.
Hi, thanks for your comments about my presentation. It should be noted that the $44$$4 and the !!11!!!’s are on purpose. It is a fairly common internet meme to indicated excitement about something. Sorry you couldn’t read the font. (It looked better in the template I wrote it in, but I had to switch it over to Affiliate Summit’s template and some things were sacrificed.)
Hey, John. Thanks for the reply. I honestly had no idea that the $44$44 thing was a common “meme to indicate excitement.” If that’s the case then I learned something new today!!1!!1
Seriously, though, it is no easy task presenting to a large group of your peers. You put yourself out there, and the blogosphere gets to pick you apart.
In all honesty your session was the more enjoyable of the two that I mentioned in this post.
Well, in the speaker’s defense, I imagine you’re having speakers with quite a bit of knowledge address you. In general, computer types are not noted for a feel good, make you happy, jaunty conviction presentations, such as you might get from a self-help motivational speaker. You probably got nuts and bolts and wanted a little more butter and creme with that. In your defense, maybe the speakers could do a little better to know their audience and that they may expect them to be more like a salesman instead of a college level lecturer.
Thanks for your comment, Rex. As you rightly point out there are two sides to every story. But yes, I’m a butter-and-cream-with-my-nuts-and-bolts kind of guy when it comes to these conferences. I say inform me first, but entertain me too!!1!