Conferences

[DrCool]

I just wanted to get a feel for what kind of conferences any of you still attend.

As for me, I pretty much go to all the Affiliate Summits, both East and West. Affiliate Summit West will be in Vegas January 9-11 and East is August 21-23 I think in New York. I have probably been to about 8 Summits and I really enjoy them. 90% of it for me is just hanging out with friends and catching up. I will be speaking in Vegas this year talking about datafeeds and also how to improve the affiliate and affiliate manager relationship and it will be my first real time speaking at an Affiliate Summit. Should be fun.

Been to the last 4 Shareasale Think Tanks. This is a private event for merchants and affiliates of Shareasale to get together and talk and figure out how to do more business and how to improve stuff. Awesome time and one of my favorite meetings of the year.

Last month I checked out my first BlogWorld. Probably won't go back. There were a lot of people but a totally different crowd than I am used to. Lots of bloggers who have no clue about monetization and no idea how to market anything.

In the past I have been to an AdTech, a few Pubcons, an SMX, and some other smaller IM related meetings.

Are there any others that are worth attending? Any that you are planning on going to?

[agerhart]

I'm ready to start hitting a few.

Need to make more connections, do some biz dev, and get the fuck outta the office once in awhile.

Not sure which ones I'm going to attend.

Nowhere cold

[JamesR]

0 here

I would try to make arrangements to see you guys and others I have met online but that's about it.

[agerhart]

>>>>>Much prefer a select meet and chat than the full on conference stuff

100% agree

[4Eyes]

Ditto

We have been holding fairly regular smaller (private-ish) meets over here - 2 or 3 a year perhaps.

I hate the larger conferences with a passion, smaller meets have always produced more value for me.

Having said that, I am actively trying to shed clients and wind down to a nice easy passive income model (or at the very least, a client-free model)
I suspect I would put myself about a bit more if I was pursuing a more client based model.

Early days of course, but I guess there may be some value in cranking up the SEORoadshow engines again - we will know when the time is right

[DrCool]

In a lot of ways I like the smaller meetup better also. That is why I like the SAS Thinktank. Only about 100-150 people.

But I also enjoy the larger conferences like Affiliate Summit. I think they are expecting 4,500 people or so in Vegas this year. But I am able to ignore most of the people there so it kind of seems smaller. There are maybe 50-75 people I would talk to on a regular basis there. Everyone else is just filler.

[Drastic]

Also prefer the smaller confs. The large ones were just a good excuse to be somewhere, legit face on the tax writeoff.

I'd be up for something probably after first of the year. With holidays coming and my production rocking right now I can't do it yet.

[rcjordan]

One problem we have is that the west coast US members won't go to jackshit if it's further east than Vegas.  But, in general, the mood still seems to favor small meetups. But the big problem with small meetups in the US is that the US liquor laws re serving hours and/or public drinking kill them.

[JamesR]

One problem we have is that the west coast US members won't go to jackshit if it's further east than Vegas.

hhh, Denver would be fine, Chicago is pushing it   You guys just have to walk down the block and you're in the next state.

[agerhart]

I'd do a New England or NYC area trip for sure....drop the wife & kid off with the family

[rcjordan]

Hey Jason, what about Dublin instead?

[rcjordan]

>Dublin

I'm just moving you westward.

Virginia Beach?  Airport = ORF

[rcjordan]

No, I'll stop there.  And I'm not really suggesting this (yet. And ignore anything NFFC or the Vikings might say about our "Redneck Tour Service"), I was just seeing if you were flexible. Stansted would likely be the way to go for the coming May.  But, as familiar as you EU'rs are with Stansted, you should know that it's not particularly easy to get to from the US.  Schiphol is far easier.

And ORF is actually about half-way between our EU contingent and our West-of-Vegas group.  But, again, I think that's for another time.

<added>
And, of course, we have the fringe territories to consider; AU, JP, and --if mivox is still living there-- the independent country of Alaska.

[mivox]

Yeah, nowhere is cheap, easy or convenient to get to from Alaska... a round trip ticket to Vegas costs very nearly the same as a round trip to London, so location makes no real difference to me.

What about Australia? Or Brazil? Or maybe Antarctica? Then you lot can be as inconvenienced as I am for a change. ;-)

[rcjordan]

hhh. welcome home, mivox

>AU

Yeah, I've been begging Woz to set us up for -what?- 10 years now.