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Affiliate Summit Question

Jenyfari

New Member
affiliate
Hi all

We will be attending the Affiliate Summit in January and were wondering whether it is worth getting the full pass. We will be coming from Australia so the cost of the airfares and accommodation alone will be quite high so the addition of the two full pass tickets are really going to break the budget. So we really need to know if the full pass is worth the extra money.

Any opinions??

Regards
Paula
 
The full pass gets you in to hear the speakers and you can learn from them. What I would suggest is go to Google's Video archive and do a search on affiliate summit ... watch the videos they've put there for you. You'll get a feel for what the full pass is like.

The thing you definately should do though, is to go to the parties after the show closes. That's where you'll learn a lot if you connect with the more experienced affiliates. You'll make a lot of connections if you're a social networker. So, I'd say definately plan on attending those parties. ;)
 
Great advice AffiliateGuild,

This is also my first time going and we have the additional free passes for the affiliates. Just wondering how many companies make use of the free passes for their affiliates. We're trying to come up with a way to distribute the passes but would like to know what others have done in the past.

Do many companies bring their affiliates or is it usually just the AMs, and other top-level folks in the company?
 
Thanks for the advice. Will definitely head on over to Google to take a look.

And just a suggestion to 5PillarManager, I have seen affiliate managers give away free passes to their top performers but it also might be a good idea to have a competition that also allows your low performers to enter. I wouldn't give them free to your low performers but a competition that encourages them to promote your products in some way and the best promotion wins. This gives them encouragement as I do know that most affiliate managers only award their best performers and disregard their new affiliates who are just starting or have gotten waylaid. This gets them on track and encourages them to promote your products so its a win-win situation for both sides.
 
Re; the parties. Def important. Not for the partying but the networking. Sometimes you learn more at the "after" events. Plying your competitors with liquor is a sure fire way to discover some of their secrets. :p (kidding)

I believe I have heard Shawn say though - to get into official Summit parties you need to have a full pass.

Good idea Bobbie to have people go watch Summit video to get a feel for how good the sessions are.

"Do many companies bring their affiliates or is it usually just the AMs, and other top-level folks in the company?

It used to be mainly AMs and network reps but now more and more affiliates are going. Not sure how many of the affiliates are sponsored by their merchants, but having a contest that rewards not just the super affiliates and top performers is always a good idea IMHO. Some newbie and mid-tier affiliates will grow up to be supers - with a little help from us. :)
 
You guys better all come to our party! We'll be throwing down for sure. After all, Vegas = homecourt advantage! :)

watch out AF '07 weeeeee
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone. What about booths? Any advice for a newbie? I posted a similar question in another forum but didn't get much of a reply. Any booth vets here care to share some tips, do's and don'ts?

I haven't done many conferences so I'm just trying to soak up all the info I can before I go.
 
Hi Lisa,

You said: "What about booths? Any advice for a newbie?"

What specifically did you want to know about booths???
How to staff it? decorate it? giveaways? schatskes? (sp) lead gen???
 
Hi Linda

All of the above. lol I guess mainly decorations and booth activities. I watched the video on the aff summit homepage and saw most booths had a backdrop so that's something we'll have to prepare. Do people generally do contests, giveaways? I'm sure it's up to the creativity of each company, but just want to make sure you we are prepared and get the most out of the conference. :) As you can tell, I've very green regarding the whole thing.
 
So sad... :( Was going to show you pics of Partnercentric's booth a couple years ago when I worked the show with them. I made a collage but it got deleted.

Anyway, one of the reasons to have a booth is to collect leads, so you will want to have some type of contest so you can collect biz cards. Most affs don't have cards so you'll also want entry forms too. Also most people give away schwag so you'll want to have some type of branded promo item to give away for branding purposes.

I came up the theme and contest for PC's booth a couple years ago. The Theme was "Let PartnerCentric Take the Stress Out of Affiliate Marketing." We gave away little stress relief balls shaped like computers with the PC brand on them and had chair massagers in the booth. We gave away some other stress relief schwag too - can't remember. We also hosted a PC party with the same theme and had a masseuse doing chair massage, played mystical massage music and stuff. It was all VERY cool!

The contest we did was all online, so the lead forms were electronic and the affs entered in their own details so there was no data entry needed after the show to do follow-ups. But the online contest was a pain - had all types of tech problems.

You'll want a backdrop display so you can have signage and also to "keep up with the Joneses" and have your display look as good as or BETTER than your neighbor's.
 
Just found some pics of our PC booth.

http://www.nightfireproductions.com/modules/gallery/exhibits-day2/summit_06_14_05_072

http://www.nightfireproductions.com/modules/gallery/exhibithall-day1/summit_06_13_05_081

For a backdrop Linda just had a large sign designed and placed on an easel.
It worked.

You can scroll through the pics if you've not seen them before and see lots of other booths. That was 2005 Summit, you can also find pics of the exhibits in 2006 to get ideas and see the caliber of other booth set-ups.

This is not like other BIG tradeshows in other industries I've worked in where you need to have a $140,000 display to even be counted as an industry player. This is a small traeshow so you don't need a lot but you do need something and it takes time to get all this stuff designed and made, so better start now. Hope you have a bit of a budget to work with.
 
Hey Linda,

Since you're the schwag expert :) , we're trying to get a rough estimate of how much to bring? Any feedback would be great! Thanks :)
 
hehe, swag is cool. :D

Bring mugs. Lots and lots of cool mugs.

Plying your competitors with liquor is a sure fire way to discover some of their secrets. (kidding)

You may be kidding, but it works. Do you know how many secrets I got out of some people by just buying them a few beers? hehe :D

~ Teli
 
Everyone's calling me names!!! :(

1st Bobbie Grennier, a 5 Star Mod no less, calls me a "Wicked wench" on her blog
http://affiliate-blogger.com/2006/12/19/tagged-from-5-stars/

Then Lisa calls me a "schwag expert."

Sheesh those are all public comments,
what do you guys call me behind my back??? :p

Well I'm not sure how many are registered for this Summit and don't know what you plan to bring. If your schwag is so cool it generates buzz and everyone comes to your booth wanting one, then you better order almost as many as Shanw anticipates registrations to max out at. If it's just a little thing, then realize everyone at the event won't make it to your booth so you could order a little less.

Think of something affiliates would like and then if you have leftovers you can mail them to affiliates after the show as perks.
 
Linda Buquet said:
Everyone's calling me names!!! :(

1st Bobbie Grennier, a 5 Star Mod no less, calls me a "Wicked wench" on her blog
http://affiliate-blogger.com/2006/12/19/tagged-from-5-stars/

Then Lisa calls me a "schwag expert."

Sheesh those are all public comments,
what do you guys call me behind my back??? :p

LOL! Poor Linda. :D

There are 1600+ attending according to Missy and I've heard the rule where you want to bring 1.5 times the attendees but that seems like an awful lot.

Ahhh Teli, the ole' alchy trick. Noted! :D
 
For swag bring for less than half of the attendance, you're better off running out than having to ship the stuff back home.

Shipping is expensive so only ship what you know will go, if you find that you ran out of stuff early then next show bring a bit more. We hand out Bungee Rockets and only bring about 500 of them to the show, by the middle of the second day they are usually all gone. This is a very popular item for some reason so these go faster, i would suggest you bring a few hundred items as opposed to thousands.

As far as booths, the location is important as well as your message. Most of the time trade shows are a good place to talk face to face with those you are already working with, as well as a good branding opportunity for your company. make your booths message shot and inviting, you want someone to read your booth and ask you what you do, this gets the conversation going.

set up meetings at your booth so it looks crowded, people want to go where the crowds are, it makes them feel important.

Attend the parties to network and let loose, i read that someone thought you needed a full pass for the parties and that is not the case, you just need to be a part of the show in someway, and most likely bring a business card, since those who sponsor the parties do so to get your information.

Dont print hundreds of handouts either, we barely get rid of 100 handouts in a show like adtech NY with 9K people. ASW if we hand out 50 handouts its a lot. The goal is to build relationships not inundate people with handouts they end up throwing away anyway.

Good luck at ASW it really is shaping up to be an awesome conference for affiliate marketing.
 
excellent advice!! Thanks so much. I can already tell that I was planning on bringing too much. LOL This is sooooooo good to know.... :)
 
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