ASE10 Experience Extravaganza: Tuesday
More Booth Time, Session Fail, & Decompressing
I took the lead on managing the booth most of Tuesday while Forrest ran errands. I did attempt to head into a session, but quickly learned that it wasn’t what I’d initially thought it would be. I guess I must have read the description wrong (or, not at all, though that’s unlike me). Tuesdays, especially in the afternoon, are always slow in the exhibit hall. I had plenty of time to enter Buy.at’s twitter contest, and win a sweet gift card for DebShops.com (which I’ve already used!) and to enter into a booth war with nearby Andy Rodriguez Consulting.
I’d say they started it, but that might not be entirely accurate.
The day before, Andy Sr. loaded me down with a million tins of mints and an entire 12pk case of Oreos to lighten their shipping load. By Tuesday afternoon, they were attempting to be rid of all the beach balls and stress balls they’d brought as well. I went down to chat, and collect the Ear Pollution headphones I’d been promised (thanks again, Andy) and accused Andy Jr. of littering. He said it was branding. Potato, Potahto I guess. Stress balls were thrown at me, which I successfully caught (at least, after that first time of being pegged in the knee with one). I was also very proud of my throwing arm to return one of the balls clear past the three booths between ours and into their area (didn’t hit anyone…but honestly I was just glad I didn’t hit an innocent bystander!).
The afternoon ended after a rather disappointing lunch (I was hungry, so I still devoured it) and an early exhibit hall end time. I had wanted to go to the closing session, but since I was pulling booth duty alone, I didn’t want to leave the booth unattended for too long. The benefit is that the most colorful characters seemed to stop by the booth towards the end of Tuesday. Many New York locals that wandered over after work on Tuesday to see what this “affiliate marketing” is all about, apparently. It was interesting.
Earlier in the day, I’d gotten a text from Jen Goode trying to get a large group together for a final dinner in NYC, and of course for lack of a better decision (because it’s easy, and affordable) we headed around the corner to good old Oldcastle Pub. I think I was there almost every day I was in NYC for one reason or another… Tuesday night was at least the 3rd dinner I’d eaten there! We had a lovely dinner, and gracious Mike Nunez of AffiliateManager.com picked up the check for us – thanks again Mike! We meandered downstairs to keep drinking after they decided to close the upstairs due to lack of staff, and kicked back in a corner discussing how our conference experiences had gone.
At a certain point, a few of us wandered over to Lindy’s to get some dinner and I took care of my New York cheesecake fix (thanks Debbie of Team Loxly!). I realize that we got back to Oldcastle and then left to go back to Bridges Bar in the Hilton to see a few other people over there, so I think I owe someone a couple bucks for the ginger ale I had (if it was you, let me know, and I’ll send you a nifty craft or something in return!). It was a nice chill way to close out the summit and say goodbye to my peeps. Until we meet again in Las Vegas, folks!
Please feel free to view all the photos I took in New York: Affiliate Summit East 2010 on Flickr
Read MoreASE10 Experience Extravaganza: Saturday Night & Sunday
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
Saturday 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.
Directly 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
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 37: Affiliate Summit East 10 Recap
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
We’ve escaped from New York & have returned back to our respective home offices after a great time at Affiliate Summit East 2010. In what shapes up to be epic in length, Mike & I talk about our experiences at the show and the variations in how different some of our activities were. For a Goliath 1 hour & 28 minutes, we discuss:
- The parties hosted by ABestWeb forums, Buy.at, & ShareASale.
- The keynotes high & low points.
- Shenanigans in the blogger lounge with @HeatherInBC.
- Trisha’s newcomer Jennifer graces her with a fantastic purse from HandbagHeaven.com.
- A brief discussion of booth babes & controversy (see some great post-ASE articles on the booth babes thing… I’m sorry…why are you here? by Karen Garcia & Professional events and sexual harassment, when did that become ok? by Jen Goode)
- John Chow egging on James Thompson to use the beer bongs being given out by one exhibitor. And yes, there’s video.
Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 36: Interviewing Kim Salvino
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to Kim Salvino about her origins in affiliate marketing & her panel “Strategies for Marketing to Women”. About a month ago we talked to Tricia Meyer about this same panel, so it’s nice to get another angle. We also chat a bit about what Kim does at buy.at. In in this episode we discuss:
- Kim schools us on the proper pronunciation of buy.at (the . is silent).
- Want to attend the buy.at party during Affiliate Summit? Reach out to Amy Ely or Kim.
- The party is co-sponsored by Ghirardelli, so bring room to take home goodies.
- Find Kim on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, or kimberly.salvino@buy.at!
Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!
Read MoreAffiliate Summit East 2009 Resolutions
They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So if I didn’t learn from my experience at this last affiliate summit, I’d be crazy. I’ve had some time to think long and hard about my experience in Las Vegas and I’m resolved to learn from these experiences. I wouldn’t say they’re mistakes, per se, but definitely opportunities for learning. Here’s some things I’ve figured out for myself that might just help you too (see, this isn’t my being selfish!)
- Make sure to secure internet for the trip! I had SO many problems this time around, I’m going to make sure the hotel I’m staying at has either wired or wifi connections, and bring my own Ethernet cable that I know for SURE works just in case. Being without internet for 5 days is killer!
- Don’t get sick! I’m going to finally try out Airborne and hopefully avoid catching germs from people. Maybe I’ll even go semi-germaphobe and carry around some PocketBac to help reduce the chance of germs jumping on board after shaking so many hands. I have some awesome peppermint sceneted stuff from Bath & Body Works in a tiny and manageable 1 fl. oz. size. I can’t afford to come back sick from a conference AGAIN!
- Lighten my load. My big backpack was too big – I didn’t need to cart around that much space. Luckily the Buy.at backpack I won is just right to carry my laptop & the essentials (business cards, beverage, wallet, antibacterial hand gel, that kind of thing).
- Get more information from my mentee! I don’t want to be a sourpuss and not do the mentor program again because I have even MORE stuff to tell a AS newbie, but this time I’ll be sure to find out when they’re coming to the summit, if they’ll be there all three days, and try to find out what they look like so I can spot them in a crowd to say hi!
- Attend “Ask the Experts”! I jokingly said that I’d never attend this unless I was one of the experts, but since I don’t see that happening I need to not be lazy that second day and get up and attend. Somehow sleep always seems to take precedent that second morning…
- EAT! I managed to go all day Sunday having eaten just a few snacks and no real meals until a 2am bowl of cereal (thank you Las Vegas for being a 24/7 town). This was not good. Since the provided Continental Breakfast and Luncheons don’t kick in until Monday & Tuesday, I need to remember that Sunday isn’t just the Meet Market anymore – it’s a full fledged day of sessions, so get up and get energy!
- Get a smaller camera. Or bring the smaller one I gave my husband, because I don’t take nearly enough photos and end up relying on the power of Flickr and Facebook tags to find photos of me at the show. My camera that I take most my pics with is kinda bulky and not really friendly “on the fly”. Next time I’ll have my Flip Mino (thank you MarketLeverage!) and will be sure to get video of some of the general events (not the sessions, that’s a no-no) and random people I encounter. I’ll be video happy!
- Pimp myself out. It’s nice to look professional, yes, but being branded like a cow gets noticed. I had my own business cards of course, but no cards for any other departments, no nifty swag to hand people, no visible affiliation with them other than the name on my badge, not even a postcard with the equivalent of a 30 second elevator pitch. Next time, you’ll know who I rep when you see me coming!
When a microblog stands in for a real blog…
Anyone who follows me on Twitter (if you don’t yet – what’s your excuse?) could see that I was more than making up for my lack of internet on my laptop by tweeting notes from the sessions I was in. I strained one of my fingers on my dominant right hand Sunday night bowling with the folks from GTO Management, and even taking traditional written notes was a challenge.
So before I kick off all the notes I took at the sessions (it was lighter this conference than I have in the past), here’s all the tidbits of knowledge I tweeted while attending sessions at Affiliate Summit West 09.
From the Buy.at Party at Moon:
- http://twitpic.com/11sw2 – Tear the roof off at Moon buy.at party
- http://twitpic.com/11t7v – From the roof of the palms
From The Ultimate Pitching Guide Session:
- @skydiver just said re pitches on twitter “if u can’t pitch in 140 char u need 2 work on brevity anyway”
- Twitter has replaced focus groups- @skydiver
From the ShareASale Under the Star’s 80’s themed party:
- http://twitpic.com/1243s – Jon levine @ sas party
- http://twitpic.com/124e8 – Gettin’ down at SAS party
From Affiliate Videos: Where do they work best? Session:
- Video session: Youtube is larger than Microsoft in search engines- 77mil uniques
- u don’t have to have a professional prod studio to develop video
- .tv traffic increasing but still nowhere near as high as .com
- very brand & vertical specific video creative is the most requested
- People buy from people – at the end of the day video is the most effective medium for that. Amen!
- I love @andrewwee for bringing up ShamWOW in his question!
- get out there & try it!
From the Pinnacle Awards Gala:
- Nice touch on the tux & beer @shawncollins
- Right on for Train Signals donating $10k for Breast Cancer Research- squish a boob save a life!
- Mike Allen – Affiliate of the Year
- AM of the yr- @djambazov Angel
- pinnacle award exceptional merchant CelebrateExpress.com
- pinnacle award Affiliate Mktg Advocate @mellies! Melanie Seery
- pinnacle award Best Blogger @jangro! Scott Jangro
- affiliate marketing legend – congrats to Kellie Stevens!
- congrats to thew winners!
From Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages Session:
- 2% avg conversion rate: 2009 year of conversion optimization
- test everything assume nothing
- Lisa Crossly Hunter: what are your affiliates doing that your search team can borrow from?
- start now, but don’t start without a plan. And test.
- gen rule of thumb- at least 100 conversions for at least a week (per element you change, I forgot to include that in the tweet)
From the Affiliate Triathalon:
- http://twitpic.com/12mj4 – #asw09 Brian Littleton of SAS @ Affiliate Triathalon
Of course if you’re REALLY bored you can just go to Twitter Search and enter in “#asw09 trishalyn” and see EVERYTHING I tweeted while at the conference 😀
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