My Affiliate Summit West 2011 Recap

Wednesday I got back from Las Vegas after a few days of “work” at Affiliate Summit West 2011.  I’m finally getting around to posting my recap since as soon as I got back my wife was sick and I’ve been playing Mr. Mom to my 9 month old daughter.

The Saturday before I left for Vegas I came down with a stomach flu and I was debating canceling my trip all together. I was not looking forward to my early morning flight, but I sucked it up and went after thinking about it (and an encouraging tweet, Solomon was right, it’s freakin Affiliate Summit, I can’t miss it).

Day 1

I arrived Sunday morning around 11am and went to check in at Treasure Island (I would have stayed at the Wynn, but it was full when I booked.  Guess I slacked off on booking early).  That was the longest I’ve ever waited to check in.  It took about an hour in line at the hotel before I could finally get to my room, drop off my crap and head into the conference.

I really was feeling pretty terrible so when I walked around the Meet Market, I was in a daze.  I didn’t even realize I walked around the whole thing without saying a word to anyone.  My head hurt.  My stomach hurt, and I was in no mood to talk business.  I met up with Chris Guthrie and we decided to head into a session put on by Chris Pearson on landing page optimization.  30 minutes into it I couldn’t take it anymore and headed off to my hotel for a night of fun.  I think I watched the same ESPN SportsCenter episode 3 times before realizing it, then switched the channel over and watched the movie Hitch twice.  I did enjoy some room service soup and can of pop for $28.  This was the first time I got my money’s worth for a hotel room in Vegas.

Day 1 was pretty much a waste, not because the conference sucked, just since I was feeling horrible.

Day 2

I finally fell asleep and slept in and missed the keynote.  Oh well, it was worth it to get some rest and I felt a lot better.

I made it down to see Wil Reynolds session on SEO toolsets.  That was the first time I’ve heard Wil speak, and he blew it out of the water.  I’d pay money just to hear him talk SEO and I’m sure others would to.  I think that was the most notes I’ve taken in a conference session (I’m not much of a note taker) and have a lot of stuff to check out that he spoke on.

After that I headed into the exhibit hall and made my rounds doing my thing.  I made some really good connections, ran into a lot of industry friends, and was losing my voice already plus I had a pounding headache.  Somehow later in the day I ended up in a mobile marketing session that was somewhat interesting.  I’ve tried a little mobile advertising in the past without success, so it was great to hear from others making it work, although the content was a little thin.

I chatted with a few other people and then headed to my room for some much needed rest and medicine and watched most of the national championship football game on TV. Not a bad game plus I won $150 through Football Fanatics.

That night I met up with Jonathan and his crew from Amped Media with Chris Guthrie and we headed to the affiliate ball in a hummer stretch limo.  Those guys (and girls) are class act and had a great time getting to know them a bit.  I was pretty disappointed however at the affiliate ball.  It was a great venue, but the entertainment was pretty weak.  I was hoping to see Sir Mix a Lot, but that never happened.  Three 6 Mafia came out and apparently they didn’t know how to perform more than 30 seconds in a row which was really annoying.  The little they did perform was all a backing track anyway with them randomly screaming, which left me wondering how these guys made it so big.

Day 3

Once again I slept through my alarm and missed the keynote on Tuesday.  Not a big deal.  I headed straight to my panel on building the affiliate/affiliate manager relationship with Jamie Birch, Jason Rubacky, Joe Sousa, and Todd Farmer.  To be honest I had expected it to go a little short, but I think it turned out pretty well.  I spoke to some great people after the session and really enjoyed it.  Next time will be even better as I’ll know a little more what to expect with this whole conference speaking thing.

After that I headed to lunch with Wade and Bill from Football Fanatics to talk shop and hang out a bit.  My goal for Tuesday was to find a merchant to hook me up with Seahawks season tickets next year… we will see how that works out.

Once lunch was done I headed back into the exhibit hall to talk to a few more people and had some great conversations and networking opportunities.  By far day 3 was the most productive for me since the first two days I was pretty sick.

That night I spent with my good friend Eric Schechter, his friend Todd, and Zoe and Elissa from Blue Global Media.  Was a good day.

Thoughts

Overall it was a great conference, although I would have got a lot more out of it had I been feeling better.  However it’s Affiliate Summit, so I couldn’t have missed it.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward did another amazing job on this conference.

One regret is that I didn’t take many pictures.  Next time I’m going to make it a priority.

What did you think of Affiliate Summit West 2011?