Affiliate Summit East 2009 (ASE09), the biggest of any Affiliate Summit East with 3,076 attendees, kicked off in New York City on August 9, 2009.
The previous peak attendance for an Affiliate Summit East show was 2,341 in Boston last year.
Day one of ASE09 featured a series of educational sessions and the Affiliate Meet Market, where six hours of networking took place.
After we experienced some long lines this past January at Affiliate Summit West 2009, a number of things were changed to alleviate the time for picking up badges and registration materials, and lines were low throughout the day.
The second day started with the keynote address from Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, co-authors of the New York Times bestselling book, “Trust Agents”.
The capacity crowd was engaged as the keynote ran beyond the end time with the entertaining banter between Smith and Brogan.
After the keynote, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith signed copies of Trust Agents for a line of Affiliate Summit attendees.
The day also marked the opening of the exhibit hall, which spanned two floors and was crowded until closing.
There were also a series of packed educational sessions on the second day.
Towards the end of the day, there was a progression of roundtables hosted by a dozen experts on various topics related to affiliate marketing.
Day two wound up with a four-hour session of networking and karaoke at TechKaraoke, where a long list of folks in the industry sang their hearts out.
The final day of Affiliate Summit started with a keynote address from Peter Shankman, who had the crowd laughing and thinking with his talk.
The day also featured a series of educational sessions and the final day of the exhibit hall.
The final session was GeekCast.fm Live, where podcast hosts answered questions from the audience on podcasting and a host of other issues.
Finally, ASE09 wound up with the Affiliate Triathlon, where participants contributed $100 each to Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City for the chance to win a booth or five Platinum passes at Affiliate Summit West 2010.
The three sports in the competition were toilet racers (motorized toilets on wheels), Skee-ball, and Whack-a-Mole.
As things drew to a close, I was chatting with a number of people about the syndrome that hits attendees as they leave an Affiliate Summit (or any other conference).
After several days of networking, we strengthen our bonds, and there is a sense of emptiness when everybody goes their separate ways.
But it doesn’t have to be that way – we’ve got YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, the Affiliate Summit Social Network, and other venues to stay together.
Then again, there is no replacing Affiliate Summit West 2010, taking place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas. We look forward to seeing everybody again next January.
Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.
Download the entire FeedFront issue 8 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/20220412/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-8
FeedFront issue 8 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/10
