Well I’ve just returned from my first A4U Expo and my first thought is ‘I’m knackered’. It was worth it though. The value of something like this for a work-from-home affiliate like me is immense. It was extremely useful from a business point of view, and I had a great time to boot! Here are 10 reasons why you should attend the next one:

 

1. Seminars

Really helpful thought-provoking seminars covering a wide range of topics, all of which were in some way or other relevant to my affiliate business. There’s no way you can see them all, so just pick the most relevant to your particular niche. Ones that stood out for me were ‘How mobile is creating a buzz in the online performance marketing channel’, ‘SEO ranking factors 2010′, ‘Avoiding the Google slap’ and ‘Finance is back’ (for obvious reasons).

 

2. Speakers

So many expert speakers to listen to over the 2 days, a really good mix of SEO experts like Will Critchlow, Dave Naylor, Dixon Jones; super affiliates such as John Lamerton, Kirsty McCubbin, Nadeem Azam, Michelle Dewberry; and industry experts like Matt Bailey, Mark Russell, Carla Arrindell and Chris Worthy. Plus most of the MD’s of the main affiliate networks, and many more.

Every seminar ended with a thorough Q & A session, but there was plenty of time to meet the speakers after each session – they were all very approachable.

 

3. Venue

The ExCeL is without doubt the longest building I’ve ever been in. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. Perhaps Ollie from Route One could hand out skateboards at the west entrance next year for those of us staying in hotels near that end of the building.

The location of the expo was the Platinum suite, and the way it was laid out made it extremely easy to network, find your way around and get to the seminars on time. It’s something that the planners at A4U obviously put a lot of time into, and it really paid off.

 

4. Food and drink

The thought of eating chicken and leek pie out of a cardboard box didn’t appeal to me at first, but it was actually very tasty and convenient, as was the sausage and mash on the second day. Water and soft drinks were in plentiful supply throughout the day.

 

5. Games

Some of the entertainment on offer in the exhibition hall included an F1 Driving Simulator complete with realistic F1 cockpit and force feedback, a dance mat, Ferrari driving simulators and a Blackjack and Roulette casino.

 

6. Competitions

I think I entered about 5 competitions to win an iPad simply by leaving my business card in a bowl. There were also prizes for the highest number of casino chips and fastest lap times on the racing games.

 

7. Free stuff

I thought I had bagged all the available freebies until I saw Dom Hodgson who looked like he might need a removals firm to take all his free stuff home. Amongst the things I picked up were a rucksack, T-shirt, memory sticks, highlighters, mugs, bottle openers and a few free beers from Affilinet, Clickbank and Webgains.

 

8. Expert roundtables

I am primarily a lead gen affiliate so I sat in on the Maximising Lead Generation roundtable on Day 1, where we had a thought-provoking discussion on, you guessed it, lead gen. I only wish I had time to visit the Google Instant and New Affiliate Marketing Techniques discussions too.

 

9. Parties

Great entertainment mixed with free booze until late in the evening – what more can you ask for. I only had chance to attend the first two parties, but believe me that was enough!

 

10. Networking

I’ve saved the most important ’til last. Networking was what this event was all about really. There were opportunities to network all over the place, from the exhibition hall to the party venues. I am confident that my affiliate business will massively benefit from this conference – I met loads of people who I will do business with in the coming weeks and months. I will definitely be attending the next one.

 

If you went to the Expo, I’d love to hear what you thought about it – please leave your comments below!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 11:50 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.