Affiliate Summit West 2010 Review

Affiliate Summit West was so epic that it's hard to describe without you having been there. Here is a recap for your reading pleasure.

Saturday:
Maria and I flew in from SFO (San Francisco Airport) to Las Vegas around 2pm. It took all of 1 hour and 19 minutes to get from SFO to LAS. Awesome... I hate long flights.

After we arrived, we checked into the RIO where we had our room. Doh. Bad move. I didn't realize how smokey the Rio would be compared to other hotels such as the Wynn (which I highly recommend). Being Maria's first time in Vegas, she had nothing to compare to (smell wise) so that was good. Hahaha...

After getting checked in, we both relaxed for a bit until our dinner meeting with Smiley Media. Smiley Media is a company that specializes in co-reg paths. If you need a contact, hit me up... I can get you a good deal. Over dinner at this fancy sea food restaurant in the Wynn. This place had environment, great food, and really good company. Phil and Robert were all really great to meet!

After this dinner, I had the most epic event at Affiliate Summit... Charity Poker. I absolutely love poker. It's a great game and it was for a good cause... Breast Cancer Research. Overall, I heard that DK (and the people at affiliate summit) ended up raising over $14,000 for charity! Wow! Great job.

This is the second poker event that DK has put on that I have been to. The first time I played I got to 14th place. This time around I totally bombed it... 45th (our of 100ish). Boo. I had a really great time getting to hang out with some really top notch people.

I really hope they continue to do more of these tournaments. Probably one of my favorite events.

After I lost, I got to hang out with Andrew Wee, Markus (owner of POF), John Chow, and a bunch of other awesome people!

It was great!

Sunday:
Maria and I have never ordered room service so we decided to get breakfast in bed. It was really awesome. We relaxed until around noon and then had a meeting at Mon Ami Gabi restaurant in the Paris hotel with Tara and Choots from Linkconnector.

Lunch was probably one of my favorite meals. We got to sit outside across from the Bellagio hotel and watch the water show every 15 minutes. What an amazing view and the food was really great.

After Lunch I hit the show room floor and got to go meet and greet with a TON of people. I had a great time being able to meet many of you!

I interviewed a few booths that I had interest in. I'll be posting a few of these video interviews later on in the week. (Thanks for those of you who agreed to do the interviews!)

Later that night, I had dinner at the IANteractive dinner sponsored by ECM. The IANteractive dinner is something I plan to go to as long as I am going to affiliate summit. It was great to be able to hang with other bloggers and affiliates over a really great dinner. Dinner was at CraftSteak. Yum. HIGHLY Recommended.

Over dinner, I got to talk to all the awesome people at ECM, Ian, Brandon (Adhustler), Logan, Kris (Cash Tactics), Andrew Wee, and a bunch of other awesome people.

Monday:
Monday was a really busy day! Again Maria and I ordered in room service for breakfast. That was awesome. One thing that really bugged me was them charging $12 for a pot of hot water with tea bags. I mean... $12 (not including tip) for hot water and 3 tea bags? Common... But, tea is a morning tradition for Maria so we did it anyways.

After this we had an EPIC lunch with Ryan Sessler at the Wynn buffet. The Wynn buffet is amazing. Very, very good food at a fairly good price (~$25 for lunch). It was nice being able to catch up with Ryan. I have not had as much time to talk to him now that he is no longer with AzoogleAds.

After lunch we all caught a cab back to the Rio and went to the exhibit hall. Maria and I forgot our passes in our room so we had to borrow some to get through (Shhh, don't tell Shawn). We must have been in there for 3 or so hours. It was cool to meet up with so many people. Matt Marcin, Scott Pae, AzoogleAds staff (You're all awesome), Ian Ho, the list goes on and on.

I got to meet David from PPV Playbook. David has a PPV Forum that is growing and seems to be doing pretty well. He also had a session that he did. I heard it went pretty well... I wish I had known about it. If I did, I probably would have gone!

After the meet market, I was super tired... Ready to relax.

I didn't book this dinner because I wanted to take a night alone with just Maria. We had eaten such rich food the entire week, we both just decided to go to the food court across from the Wynn. Nothing fancy... It was great.

All in all it was an amazing trip. Lots of good networking, fun, and food!

If you're wondering which convention to go to... this is probably the one I recommend the most! It has always been my favorite over Adtech and the other conventions. Now... I am already looking forward to the next affiliate summit. I hope to see all of you there again.