Affiliate Summit West 2017

[Durbtron]

Anyone going to ASW17? I am contemplating attending this year, but wanted to first get the opinions of BuSo members that have attended past ASW events. If you have attended to ASW, what kind of recommendations can you give a newbie?

I am slightly hesitant of this years event because I don't recognize many of the speakers and the last thing I want to do is walk into a giant circle jerk.

 

[eliquid]

It was good in the past when I went.

I stopped going because at some point ( for me, it was #3 ) it ends up being the same ol crap. Same people, same topics, same offers, same blah. I could have prob. skipped the 3rd time actually because that's when I realized it was the same crap from the first 2.

I'd recommend going to one at least. Especially if you have not been to Vegas before. Make it a trip where you get there early and stay late so you can see Vegas.

Other than that, the real gold is in networking. If you haven't planned on networking with people... dont go. If you havent already set up plan to network with people, dont go because everyone else already has and everyone is prob busy now.

Hit all the parties. No, not to party and drink, but to network. Hit all that you can. Beg a rep to get into one if you aren't already invited.

Other good events in the year are the A4D event that normally happens in April in San Diego. I never get tired of this event though and its all about the networking too, but the speakers are generally awesome too.

Past that, events get kinda specific like PPC Hero, Leads Con, Inbound ( just happened ) and stuff like that. AdTech is normally good too.

Also, I never once listened to any speakers at ASW.

I always got the networking pass and worked the market and parties. The speakers could prob be a good thing, but for me I know pretty much whatever they are going to speak about anyways so I just do the cheaper pass and network.

 

[Phenom]

It was good in the past when I went.

I stopped going because at some point ( for me, it was #3 ) it ends up being the same ol crap. Same people, same topics, same offers, same blah. I could have prob. skipped the 3rd time actually because that's when I realized it was the same crap from the first 2.

I'd recommend going to one at least. Especially if you have not been to Vegas before. Make it a trip where you get there early and stay late so you can see Vegas.

Other than that, the real gold is in networking. If you haven't planned on networking with people... dont go. If you havent already set up plan to network with people, dont go because everyone else already has and everyone is prob busy now.

Hit all the parties. No, not to party and drink, but to network. Hit all that you can. Beg a rep to get into one if you aren't already invited.

Other good events in the year are the A4D event that normally happens in April in San Diego. I never get tired of this event though and its all about the networking too, but the speakers are generally awesome too.

Past that, events get kinda specific like PPC Hero, Leads Con, Inbound ( just happened ) and stuff like that. AdTech is normally good too.

Also, I never once listened to any speakers at ASW.

I always got the networking pass and worked the market and parties. The speakers could prob be a good thing, but for me I know pretty much whatever they are going to speak about anyways so I just do the cheaper pass and network.

I about shit my pants when I got sent to Pubcon last year. Never again, I met a few sharp people, but for the most part everyone is fake and when you ask a question about anything technical, they just talk about penguin, panda, or whatever animal Google is called now. I love how ego driven those things are too. lol

 

[ari]

I'll be at ASW this year.. I haven't been to West in about 8 years or so (Don't hold me to the exact dates). However one of the projects I am working on is taking off in a big way and it makes a lot of sense to go out and press the flesh with both current and potential partners. If anyone else from BuSo will be there, post in the thread and we'll go grab some food and talk shop.

As @eliquid said, you don't go to these conferences for the talks. (Walking the floor is always interesting to see the progression of the industry, but that's more of a post for another time).. You go to network, to talk shop, maybe to find some hidden niche you didn't know about (much rarer)..

 

[ari]

BUMP.. If you're going this year drop me a PM.. Would love to meet BuSo folks in real life if any make it out!

 

[greenleaves]

@ari, I'll be there, you have PM.

Going kinda last minute so I don't have any networking plans.

I am doing a cross country, 6-12 month, work/vacation drive, and it just so happens I'll be in Vegas for this one. Funny how it all worked out, as the plan is to have no real plan and just wing it as we go (traveling with the wife). We are only going to make it because of a long chain of unrelated coincidences over the last 2 months and 4500 miles.

Anyone else going and want to meet up, I'll be glad to meet some fellow hustlers.