ASE10 Experience Extravaganza: Saturday Night & Sunday

Posted on Aug 27, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Career, Conferences & Networking | 4 comments

Where do I begin?  For maybe the first time ever, I don’t have a plethora of post-conference posts planned for this blog.  This is mostly due to the fact that the only session I attended, aside from both keynotes, was the one I was speaking in.  I spent the majority of my time at this summer’s Affiliate Summit East 10 behind a table talking to people about For Me To Coupon. Nor did I use a single drink ticket provided by the staff!  Overall I was able to get some great networking jammed into my time in New York, as well as catching up with old friends from all over that congregate at Affiliate Summits like a family reunion.  BUT, let me tell you some great things about the parties I attended & working the show based in the expo hall – something I haven’t done in a couple of years since my days at PsPrint.

Before I go into my long recap, some housekeeping.  For the sake of keeping my long recount of the weeks events from overwhelming you, I’m going to devote separate posts to each keynote, my disgust at some things that have become common behavior at conferences, the Audience Conference, & something we like to call Affiliate Super Friends.  So keep an eye out for those posts in the next few days…

Saturday Night: ABestWeb.com Reception & Buy.at Black & White Affair

Cinema the BrasserieSaturday night, after I was done with the Audience Conference and had some dinner & a nice short rest, it was all about the parties.  What lovely parties, put on by some lovely folks!  First was the ABestWeb.com reception, put on at Cinema the Brasserie.  Don’t be fooled, this was no movie theater – it was a very open feeling restaurant with a small lounge area near the bar that we inhabited.  I drank a lovely white wine while chatting with some great people.  Appetizers were passed around along with great conversation with other posters from the ABW forums.  I was able to put some faces to screen names of a few folks I didn’t know in person, and also able to catch up with some old regulars.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no where NEAR an old hat on the ABW forums, but I do like the crowd of posters that tend to show up when events are thrown.

buy.at party at inc loungeDirectly after, we walked over to the Buy.at party being thrown at trendy Inc Lounge.  I LOVED the interior and vibe of the party when we first arrived.  As a new advertiser on their network, Ghirardelli was sponsoring the shindig, so the trays of chocolate desserts were everywhere!  There were comfy couches to hang back on, which was very well received by my tired feet after walking there from the ABW party.  At the beginning of the evening as people trickled it, it was nice to sit & chat, have some drinks, and talk… but as more and more people showed up, it got very loud and hot and crowded.  To me, it turned from chill lounge to something closer to a night club, which really isn’t my cup of tea.  So a group of us left a bit earlier than the scheduled end time of the party & headed back to the deli across from the Hilton for some snacks before bed.

Sunday: Podcasting 101, the Meet Market, Newcomers, & ShareASale’s Under the Stars Party

To keep it short, I think our panel, Podcasting 101, went really well.  If you were unable to attend, you can view the slide presentation here. My voice was almost gone from yelling to speak to people at parties, but I made it work.  We didn’t have many people when the session began, but more filtered in…probably after they bum rushed the ShareASale meet market table to get their party passes first :).  We got some good feedback from people, and I hope this finds a life beyond Affiliate Summit via the presentations and videos.

After the presentation and some questions afterward, I booked it over to the package room to grab the flyers & notepads we’d had shipped to the hotel in my name, then upstairs to the Meet Market to relieve Forrest at the FMTC table and deliver the goodies.  BIG thank you to an unknown gentleman from Woot.com who noticed my struggle with the three boxes and kindly carried one up to the Meet Market  for me!  We sat for the remainder of the meet market talking to people about the service, save for one trip I made down to the sundry shop to grab some beverages and the short opportunity I had to walk around.  Because most of my time was spent at the table chatting with folks, I didn’t get a chance to check out all the other tables, but I did walk an aisle or two to hit some that caught my eye (both via their products/services and brightly colored swag).

After carrying our materials down to the FMTC booth, I headed over to the Newcomer Program meet up, headed by the lovely Jen Goode.  There I met my super newcomer Jennifer from Affordable Style, who opted to gift me with a fantastic purse from one of their brands HandbagHeaven.com.  I am very glad that Jennifer seemed to really get a lot of help from what I clued her in on about the summit & she was able to have a very productive first conference and learn a lot about affiliate marketing in general while there.

Instead of dinner, we went straight to the ShareASale Under the Stars party at the Empire Hotel, with a promise of food.  We had some difficulty getting a cab in the rain as someone jumped into our rightfully gotten cab, and then had to stand in the rain outside the hotel waiting for the bouncers to let us inside as the line for the elevator was longer than space inside the lobby would allow.  As usual, SAS knows how to throw a spectacular party!  Despite the rooftop bar location, the venue had rolling awnings so no one was rained on, drinks flowed freely, and appetizers were passed around.  The appetizers only seemed to last for about an hour or so as droves of people started showing up.  It got crowded quickly, and a couple hours into the party we’d reached capacity and people were being turned away.  Some say this is because the bouncers downstairs stopped checking for the SAS party invites and let just anyone in, but I can’t really confirm this beyond people telling me that no one asked to see the pass they had.  It’s a shame that people were turned away, but I guess that just means a bigger venue next time!  Or, tighter controls on invitations 🙂

Don’t worry your pretty head… there’s more to come when I recap Monday and Tuesday!  Please feel free to view all the photos I took in New York: Affiliate Summit East 2010 on Flickr

4 Comments

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  1. Tricia Meyer

    I had no idea that Jennifer was your newcomer! She’s one of the only other people in Indianapolis who has a clue what affiliate marketing is. Terrific gal and great company!