Posted by Lammo in
Affiliate Marketing,
a4uexpo on Thursday, October 15, 2009 |
6 Comments
I stumbled across GeoffBlog’s review, and agreed with pretty much every word of it, so rather than post the same things, I thought I’d just link to the post (maybe I could do a session next year on entitled “How to be a very tired, still-slightly-hungover and thoroughly lazy blogger”) instead, and bullet point the main things that stood out for me:
The food was much, much improved on previous years – Chilli, Pizza, Nachos, Curry, Fish and Chips. Spot on, and no hungry affiliates this year!
The sessions weren’t that great – if you’d been to the previous 2 expos, you’d pretty much seen the same content a couple of times! not sure what you can do about that though – There’s only so many ways you can skin the “how to rank on Google better” cat, and I can’t think of a session that I’d like to see next year off the top of my head – Perhaps next year I’ll leave the sessions to the newbies and just do the networking.
The o2 club was really, really disappointing – the o2 itself is pretty stunning visually, and a really cool place. The club wasn’t – it was dark, dingy and uninviting. The promised “quiet area for networking” didn’t happen, so you couldn’t hear a word anyone was saying, and they kept running out of beer! we’d had enough after about an hour so grabbed a couple of taxis back to the Novotel where a brilliant, chilled relaxed evening was had. We weren’t the only ones either, as more and more taxis full of affiliates kept arriving as word got out, and there must have been 60 or 70 affiliates there by midnight!
The networking to be had was top quality. For an affiliate that’s based nearly 200 miles from London, it’s not often I can get to chat face-to-face with networks, merchants and other affiliates. a4uexpo gets them all in the same place for a couple of days, meaning I get to chat with almost everyone (apologies to those I didn’t have time to speak with – I’ll catch you next year!)
The Twitter wall was a brilliant addition, and kept me entertained throughout – it was useful to see where the good sessions were, what others were doing, or for the daily announcement of “Rum O’ Clock” by the AF team 
Forcing affiliates to fend for themselves food-wise on the middle night was a good idea I think, as we had the opportunity to go off somewhere with affiliate buddies and have a good chat/laugh over a brilliant meal – again not something we can do very easily at any other time of the year – Many thanks also to Clarke at Paid on Results for footing the bill for the “all you can eat meat fest” – more Chicken Hearts anyone?
As usual, I’m so, so tired after the event – It’s a mental couple of days, which has huge impact on our Industry as a whole – You leave full of ideas, contacts and deals, but top of the “to-do list” for me right now is to catch up on some sleep (and I managed to have around twice as much sleep as last year!)
Roll on a4uexpo 2010!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
You might also like to read...
Can I go to bed now please? A review of a4uexpo 2008
I’m writing this at 11pm on Thursday evening, having had an average of just three hours sleep a night for the past four nights, so please excuse any random spelling mistakes (well, any more than usual), because I simply have…...
a4uexpo – what I’m looking forward to
A4uexpo is just three short weeks away, so it’s time to start making the arrangements for travel, hotel etc. And also worth sitting down and making plans for the event itself – Who do you want to talk to, what…...
a4uexpo – £100 discount for being forgetful
If like me, you watched all the countdowns to the end of the initial a4uexpo earlybird discount period (which was the 31st May) and thought to yourself “I must remember to do that when I get 5 minutes”, only to…...
If you enjoyed this article, please consider submitting it to the readers of Affiliates4u so that they can enjoy it too! Just click the following button:
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Popular Articles
Who is Lammo?
Sounds like a good laugh.
I have never been to one of these conferences but every time I hear about them they sound like a fun and enjoyable way to grow your business and network.
Just wondering what is the range of people like at these events. Young/old, men/women?
Hey Stuart,
It’s just the right mix of business and pleasure – everyone gets loads out of the event, including a real buzz from being around other motivated people.
There’s a decent mix of young and old now – It seemed a few years ago that everyone (including me) was in their twenties.. Now those guys are in their thirties, and younger guys have come along and replaced them.
I would guess the oldest person I spoke to at expo would have been in his late sixties or early seventies, and there was even an 18 year old on one of the panel sessions!
It’s still mainly men, but more women than there were a few years back – I wonder whether the networks etc have any stats on this?
I was just sitting here checking my regular blog feeds and jumped up when I spotted my name in the Lammo’s bright lights… 15 internet seconds of fame for me at last, hehe
Seriously though, thanks for the mention and glad you found it useful, hope to see you next year, perhaps at a quieter 2nd night party
Rum ‘O’clock was nearly ruined by the dads disappearing for Teddy Bears! I think we’re all getting old!
@Geoff – No worries on the mention! Be great to have a chat next year rather than try and shout at each other over the music!
@Pete – Yup, when we first started out it was scantily clad women and alcohol that attracted us to the stands.. now it’s just alcohol and presents for our kids..
btw, I forgot that the Rum o’clock deal was a pirate joke in exchange for a drink.. I can’t think of one of my own, so I’ll just pinch one I saw on the Twitter Wall:
Q: How do pirates get to a4uexpo?
A On the DL Aaaarrr!
Hi John
Yeh we thoroughly enjoyed the expo and took us both a few days to get over it ha ha. Was good to hang around with the usual suspects back in the Novotel with the other taxi loads of affiliates lol !
Looking forward to next year already !
Cheers
Frank