Must Attend Affiliate Marketing Events

Written by Zac Johnson
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One of the most important factors in making your online business succeed, is getting out there and networking. One of the best ways to market yourself and get the connections you need, are to attend trade show events, conferences and exhibit halls. Here are just a few of the premier conferences during 2008 that you should try and attend.

Affiliate Summit
Boston (August 10-12, 2008) & New York City (October 5, 2008)
Over the past several years, Affiliate Summit has continually been increasing in size and recognition in the affiliate marketing and internet advertising industry. This is one of the premier events and conferences you should try and attend every year. This year Affiliate Summit is adding a one day NY networking event in addition to their EAST and WEST conferences. I have always made it priority to attend every Affiliate Summit, and I haven’t missed one yet! ( Except for London… but that doesn’t count! 🙂 )
– Affiliate Summit Information

Ad:TECH
SanFrancisco (April), Chicago (August) & New York (November)
One of my favorite shows to attend is Ad:Tech, and that’s strictly just for the exhibit halls. Over the past few years Ad:Tech NY has been covered THREE FLOORS of the NY Hilton. Ad:Tech San Fran was just last week, Chicago is next on the list and New York is in November. I always make sure to attend the NY show and will try and make it to San Fran one of these times.
– Ad:Tech Information

BlogWorld Expo
Las Vegas, NV – September 20-21
A new conference and expo show last year was BlogWorld. At first, I had no idea what to expect when attending BlogWorld, however it ended up being one of my favorite events I’ve had the joy of attending. Not only did I get to meet up with a whole new niche area of bloggers and marketers, but the event had an awesome line up of speakers. With the addition of Marc Cuban as the last day keynote speaker, this was simply a can not miss event. I’m looking forward to this year’s BlogWorld in September.
– BlogWorld Expo Information

EliteRetreat
April 3-4 in San Francisco, California (2009 TBD?)
I was fortunate enough to attend EliteRetreat this year. I’ve seen the even advertised for prior years and always wondered how it was and if it was worth the cost attendees were paying to be there. EliteRetreat is the premier learning experience. Jeremy puts together an awesome display of speakers with vast knowledge and during the whole event, all of the speakers make themselves available for you to ask anything, or just to chill and have a good time. EliteRetreat caters to all of it’s attendees is one of the best “learning experiences” available.
– EliteRetreat Information

IzeaFest
September 11-13, Grand Bohemian Hotel, Orland FL
I just heard about IzeaFest today and it looks to be a combination of fun times and learning from great marketers. With headliner names such as keynote Jeremy Shoemaker and many big name speakers such as John Chow and Brian Clark, this event looks to have some potential. The event it put together by Izea, formerly known as PayPerPost. I’m still deciding if I will be able to attend this event as there now seems to be a new event every other month, but I wouldn’t mind visiting Florida for a week and meeting up with some of the speakers, since I’m good friends with most of them.
– IzeaFest Information

These are just a few of the networking and conference events that I look forward to attending this year. In addition to the ones highlighted above, there are also SXSW, eComXpo, CJU (my first conference back in 2000!) and many other smaller conventions and networking events thrown by smaller companies. Have you attended any of these events or looking to make the visit later on this year?

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31 Replies to “Must Attend Affiliate Marketing Events”

    1. I went to CJU way before it went corporate. I stopped going to CJU after 2001. I think most of their stuff now is run within the company. I haven’t been to LSS, but again, I think it’s more corporate.

      1. More corporate as in for Advertisers instead of Affiliates or just that there's not as many fun or networking events?

        I've attended 2 Aff Summits so far and really enjoyed them but never been to CJU or LSS.

        1. More corporate as in most of the speakers are people from within the company. I went to CJU before they were purchased by ValueClick. Once a company is purchased, it usually isn't as good or FUN.

          1. Zac, I'm interested to know whether you attend these events for fun or information? 🙂

            I'd be very interested in a post on what you think the benefits are of attending these events. We hear a lot about the parties but paying around $1000 for a party doesn't makes sense in my mind. Perhaps you could share one great bit of information that you learned from each event. Cheers.

          2. I attend for both reasons. Anyone new to the industry will find these events extremely information. However if you are seasoned, you will find a lot of the information you already know. I usually skip out on a lot of sessions and end up meeting with people I'd like to take to, or walk through the exhibit halls to meet others.

          3. I totally agree, I think the networking face to face with people in the industry is the most awesome part of any event. Affiliate Summit was awesome and I think one of my favorite things was the meet the experts. You were great, and I actually surprised myself by asking questions. I am usually a quite person, but Affiliate Summit made me feel like I was surrounded by people that got what I was trying to do. So many big names actually knew who I was or when I did meet them they were so friendly and wanted to share their knowledge and teach any newcomers willing to learn.

            I think I know what you mean by "corporate", it is all about them and their goals, where Affiliate Summit was all about sharing the passion of blogging and Affiliate Marketing. Thanks Zac for the great round table discussion and answering my questions. You play Wii bowling really well too. Another point, Affiliate Summit was soooo cool, it was like lets have fun while we share our passion, and all in all I brought back tons of knowledge that I didn't have before going.

            Thanks Zac, love your blog.

  3. adtech and affiliate summit for sure are good ones. blogworld maybe. but seriously….lolite retreat? izeafest? sorry but nobody in the affiliate marketing industry has anything to learn from shoemoney and john chow

    1. Mike it's SO worth it. The networking is great, the parties (I hear) are phenomenal, and there's SO MUCH to be learned in the sessions. They're my favorite part of the two I've been to.

  5. Oh, there are too many of them going on. I think after blogging, affiliate marketing is making its way strong.

  6. Sucks about the age. The first time I was a speaker at one of these events I was 19, and it was on a cruise. I was finally able to gamble since it was in international waters. 🙂

  7. Zach, I think that a lot of newbies would love to attend every one of these events, but just don't have the funds to do so. Is there a way that they can get the information presented at these conferences to help them build their business, so they can attend in the future?

    Thanks,

    Pugsley

    1. Most events will provide videos or powerpoints on the presentations from the event. Another option is to attend eComXpo, which is an online based convention… it's also free.

  8. Zac,

    I hope you can make it to Florida for IZEAFest. I am really excited about the lineup from an educational standpoint and I promise good times outside of the session itself. At $50 for early bird it is hard to find a better value.

  11. Nice: If you had to attend just 1 event which would it be?? I've heard a lot about Affiliate Summit and Ad-Tech, so it'd be nice to hear your suggestion… I'm leaning towards ASummit, as that seems to suit me more as an affiliate marketer.

    I can finally expense some biz trips 🙂

  13. Elite Retreat was def. worth it. I'm looking into probably attending an SMX event this year as well. Should be a good time…

  15. Hey nice blog my friend. Affiliate marketing is the fastest growing business in world. However its not that easy as it looks. Obviously you need advanced knowledge about

    affiliate marketing . If you are dead and broke , you can learn most of the startup tricks via marketing forums.

  18. I am planning on going to Affiliate Summit East this fall. I thought I would look for 4-5 others who are wanting to go so that we can take advantage of the 20% off group rate and even have the possibility to cut down on hotel costs (if someone wanted to share a room). If you would be interested just respond to this and comment and we can get in touch.

  19. Everyone keeps telling me to attend the Boston Summit because I live in Boston… but I’m not 100% sure if I should… I’m a noob! But it’s a long ways away anyways…

    Jay

  22. I've been listening to the CDs from Underground Online Seminar. Found them recently in a filing cabinet, got about 30 or so CDs, I'd love to visit one of these events sometime, thanks for the heads up!

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