Not such a little, unimportant channel after all

May 14, 2005
by

Affiliate Summit 2005 sold out at 450 spaces a month before the conference.

Think about that statement for a moment. 450 cared enough to lay out cash to talk about affiliate marketing and I assume that Affiliate Summit could have gotten at least another 100 to 200 people.


Both AD TECH and Search Engine Strategies are great shows. This year, AD TECH in San Francisco was the largest event ever with 6500 participants, but less than a 1000 people paid. Search Engine Strategies in New York this year was the largest SES ever and 1734 people paid to attend. Yes, I know there are a ton of people in the expo halls of both shows, but those people are not willing to lay out money to learn and network inside the conference. At Affiliate Summit, everyone paid.

I think it says something about the affiliate marketing industry that a first year conference (yes, yes, there was the cruise, but that was a little different) manages to pull so many people, especially compared to established, leading conferences that serves the larger paid media and search channels.

It just makes you think how important this channel actually is to advertisers, publishers, and vendors though people brush it off as some little channel.

A HUGE congratulations to Shawn Collins and Missy Ward for selling out the Summit a month in advance! I think I can safely say on behalf of all of my ReveNews colleagues, we are happy for both of you and are looking forward to a great conference. See everyone in Vegas!

About Beth Kirsch

You can find Beth on Twitter @bethkirsch

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • http://www.eddiewilson.com Eddie Wilson

    > 450 cared enough to lay out cash

    Hmmm… they were sending out e-mails a month ago offering free spots. You so sure about that?

  • http://NoCookie Beth Kirsch

    Eddie,

    And so did SES and Ad Tech. All part of the game.

    Cheers,

    Beth

  • http://www.eddiewilson.com Eddie Wilson

    Right, and your ragged on them for that.

    Your words…

    “but those people are not willing to lay out money to learn and network inside the conference. At Affiliate Summit, everyone paid.”

    If they’re all playing the same game, why write an article pretending that isn’t the case?

  • http://NoCookie Beth Kirsch

    Let me try to clear up any confusion.

    To clarify, SES and AD-Tech do have expo halls one can go to for free and the paid part of the show, most people pay, and that is the data I have to refer to, so I will assume that the ratio of comp tickets to the presenations at all three conferences is about the same at all events for the sake of this blog.

    btw, I did not write an article pretending this is not the case nor did I rag on them for this. What I said is that people go to the expo hall for free.

    If you are going to hold me to fine details then please be accurate also. Seems fair. :)

    Thanks for your feedback and keeping me honest.

    Cheers,

    Beth

  • http://www.eddiewilson.com Eddie Wilson

    “If you are going to hold me to fine details then please be accurate also. Seems fair. :) ”

    It would be tougher to be any more accurate than *quoting* you, no?

    “At Affiliate Summit, everyone paid.”

    Seems like we all know (now) that just isn’t true.

    So, was the confusion you cleared up your own?

    ;-)