The first ever Affiliate Convention took place last week at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO.  I came, I saw, I networked, I spoke, I left!  All of my pictures are up on Flickr and Facebook, and video is coming soon!  All in all, I’d say the conference was a success for both Paulson Management Group and for the event’s organizers.  PMG hosted a classy party downtown which turned out to be the only party without women in various states of undress!  We at PMG had a great time: Heather Paulson spoke on two panels, I spoke on a panel, and Tony Cohn and Clarissa Cutrell both moderated panels.  Overall it was a great time to be had.

Unfortunately, the only panels I was able to attend were the Super Affiliate Strategies panel and the Final Debate panel, both of which involved Heather speaking, so I was focused on taking lots of pictures and video and not taking notes to share here like I normally do.  But the plus side is that I’ll be sharing the video of some of Heather’s bits of knowledge soon.  The irony in this is that Affiliate Convention was definitely geared more towards the education of affiliates and less about trends in the industry.  With affiliates getting free entry, there was an overwhelming show that I’ve not seen at past Affiliate Summit’s I’ve attended.  Paulson Management Group was the only OPM in strong attendance, which was good for us that we stood out, but a little frustrating to explain 100 times that we weren’t a network of some kind (almost all of the other exhibitors were networks).

We avoided the opening night’s party being held at a gentleman’s club (in full operation), and instead spent the evening in Boulder, where PMG is based and Tony & I (both having flown out from California) were staying. The following day, the first day of Affiliate Convention offered a huge turn out of affiliates wandering the exhibit hall floor, which was a quite intimate setting with about 20-25 exhibitors divided between full booths and table tops.  We were always busy telling affiliates about the programs we manage that they’d be interested in, and it wasn’t just because we had plates of cookies!  We took turns in the booth, making sure we all got a chance to network, wander around to check out the conference, and took PLENTY of photos with various affiliates and other industry folks that stopped by to chat!

Later that night, as I mentioned before, PMG threw a great party at Alto Restaurant in the lower downtown (LoDo) area of Denver.  It was a fantastic venue that offered plenty of room for people to wander around and network.  Jazz filled the rooms at first, but once the in-house DJ showed up, we let him do his thing and the result was a strange yet awesome mix of newer hip hop, rock, and some 80’s songs thrown in.  We gave away a Flip Mino HD Video Camera to CPA network XY7 for all they did in helping Affiliate Convention happen.  Afterward we headed to the WebmasterRadio.fm Affiliate Bash just around the corner, where libations and good times were had.  The party had hired some wait staff ladies to be topless and painted with scenes of Colorado on their fronts and the logos of the sponsors on their backs.  It was definitely interesting to see the artists work freehand trying to recreate photos of scenery and the logos (and some men behaving questionably as the night wore on).

The second day was a bit slower in terms of the exhibit hall, but I know the session in which I was a speaker, Social Media Marketing, was standing room only!  I hear most of the other sessions were that way too.  Moderated by Dave Taylor, our panel featured myself, Wade Sisson of PartnerCentric, and David Snyder of Search & Social.  David trucked through despite a cold, and I forgot the last point I was going to make during the Q&A, but otherwise I think it was fantastic.  I heard some good feedback, and if you were there and have more feedback for me I’m all ears!  I’ve spoken before at the Social Media Marketing Summit back in October, but this was definitely more of an industry conference, so I was a tiny bit more nervous.  But it was excellent practice for my upcomming panel at Affiliate Summit East 2009 in August!

Heather spoke on the final panel, which was billed as a debate but ended up more like an “Ask the Experts” panel, which was cool too.  I busted out my Flip and took some video of her nuggets of information, which I’ll share soon.  After the event was done, some people headed over to a final party, but thanks to Dina and MarketLeverage, Tony and I headed over to Coors Field to check out a Colorado Rockies game!  So, yeah big thanks while I’m at it to MarketLeverage for being awesome and getting a sky box that had tons of food, a great view, and awesome company.  Another quick shout out to Tony & my new network BFF’s NDemand Affliates’ Mike & Robert for the ride back to Boulder and good times.

Saturday our team decided to sleep in and skip the Webmaster Pub Social and have a team BBQ.  Tony did a great job corralling the fire and the chicken drumsticks were awesome.  The flight home was uneventful and I’m glad to be back at sea level and ready to hit the ground running with all the new stuff I picked up from attending!

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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!

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