Affiliate Summit 2008

Affiliate Summit 2008 is an industry trade show and conference that’s taking place February 24-26 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The first Summit took place in November 2003 in New York City with about 200 attendees, and February will mark the eighth Summit, with an expected attendance of over 2,000 people.

The Summit will feature three days of conferences and courses on heavy issues facing affiliate marketers today, as well as a networking event and an exhibit hall where vendors and exhibitors will represent their businesses to Summit visitors.

There are two registration options for attendees of Affiliate Summit:

• Full Conference Pass ($1,449) includes access to all three days of conference sessions, as well as breakfasts, lunches and the exhibit hall.
• Exhibit Hall Pass ($199) allows access only to the exhibit hall, but no access to any conference sessions or meals.

Is it important to attend industry events?

When you’re breaking into a new industry, attending trade shows and industry functions is a fantastic way to get your name out there and meet A-listers and players in your market. If you make a point to attend the conference sessions, you’ll have a unique opportunity to learn from the very best of the best in your industry as they speak from stage and share their latest practices, views, and secrets.

Outside of the learning opportunity, attending a big ticket industry function shows how serious you are about your business, and it can be an amazing opportunity to network and build your recognizability among other serious business people in your market. The right connections can potentially lead you to better business opportunities or beneficial collaborative efforts with market peers.

I’ll be attending Affiliate Summit

I’ve not been to any conferences or events since I decided to make a serious bid for a career working online. I originally considered making an appearance at this summit around mid-December, thinking that I’d pick up an inexpensive exhibit hall pass to save on funds. However, I’ve decided that if I’m going to make the flight, then I’m going to try my hardest to make my first conference a memorable one… so I’m going to make a play for the $1,500 full conference pass.

$1,500 is expensive for a conference!

No kidding! That was my first thought, too… but ultimately, the cost is really prohibitive to the amount of value I receive from attending, which I expect to be very high.

I realize that people aren’t normally prepared to drop this kind of money for anything except a vacation or a new car. I certainly am not completely prepared to do it. While I reflected on the ticket price, I had a flashback to my old network marketing days, when I used to organize groups to do car washes and garage sales in the summer to raise money for leadership camps and out of town seminars. I realized that I’m certainly no stranger to event fundraising.

I’m planning to seek business to business sponsorships over the next month to raise money to put towards my full conference pass for Affiliate Summit. I plan to pay for the travel and hotel expenses on my own, but my goal is to raise the $1,449 and be the only publicly sponsored attendee at the entire event. I’ll publicly thank my new sponsors each week here on Chris Bloczynski dot Com, and I’ll be sharing the fundraising story as I network at the event, so sponsors to my cause will be a unique talking point when I meet other members of the affiliate marketing industry.

If you’re interested in sponsoring this unique cause, please contact me if I can answer any questions.

Stay tuned for more announcements about the campaign!