Everyone probably already did their ASW 2009 recap post by now but better late than never. We actually were in Vegas between January 7th through January 14th because we were there for CES as well and as a result, lack massive sleep (probably averaged about 2 hours per night for 8 nights).

First Day

On the first day of the summit, we had our Meet Market table demoing the new Tracking202 Pro. The response was overwhelming and I like to take a moment to thank everyone who supported 202 all the way. Many of the people who were new to affiliate summit and the affiliate marketing industry caught wind of our name through multiple sessions and other attendees on the floor. As a result, our table was flooded the entire day of the Meet Market. It was absolutely phenomenal and I can't thank the community enough.

It got so overwhelming we had friends jump in and talk to attendees standing by because we didn't have enough man power between Wes and I to show everyone the demo. Overall I think we had 5 other people jump in talking to people so at one point we had 7 people wearing our new Tracking202 shirts talking to all interested attendees. I personally want to thank all those who helped out, you guys are fantastic. It was also awesome that many people started wearing the Tracking202 Pro shirt right away so it looked like we had a ton of Tracking202 guys running around even though we didn't. I just gotta say you guys totally rock!

After the Meet Market

As the Meet Market ended, we were stuck with the dilemma of going to Ian Fernando's Ianteract Dinner or a private dinner we were invited to elsewhere. Both were scheduled at 6:30pm the same night and unfortunately we could only make one. Due to some special guests we had coming to the dinner, I had to go to the private dinner. I wanted to apologize to Ian for not being able to make the Ianteract dinner and giving such short notice, I truly wanted to be there too.

After dinner, we headed over to the Red Rock Mansion party and talked to people all night long. The number of people that showed up throughout the night was amazing and I must say, I haven't seen such a great party in a long time at any of the affiliate summits.

Second Day

We ended up crashing around 5am and the second day of the summit was fast approaching so without much sleep to speak of, we got up again and got ready to head out. I made sure I was up in time to attend the Gary Vaynerchuk keynote. Normally I don't attend keynotes or any of the classroom sessions. In my honest opinion, your time is better spent networking with others than attending the keynotes even if you are new to the industry. Unless they start giving away real super affiliate strategies and tips, its not worth it. The only reason for wanting to attend Gary's keynote is because Gary is a badass and it'd just be cool to see him talk in person. I didn't bother approaching him at the end of his keynote but he would have been a cool person to meet.

Exhibit

After the keynote I went ahead and headed out over to the exhibit to where all the booths were. The first booth I aimed at was AKMG. They always give away skate decks every summit and because they are limited in quantity, I wanted to make sure I got in there to grab mine first. Not to mention Steve, the CEO of AKMG, is totally badass and definitely someone you guys would want to meet in the future if you were looking for a good network to check out.

MeetUp202 and Interviews

After walking around checking out all of the booths and going into the cashinator for the fun of it with a couple buddies of mine over at the Market Leverage booth, we decided to head over the the area where the Meet Market was held previously for lunch. After lunch we began our affiliate interviews like we did the previous year and at 4PM, we had our Global MeetUp202 where over 100 people attended. After the MeetUp202 networking event, we ended up conducting a few more interviews. Wes ended up going off to dinner and I went with a friend to see the David Copperfield show. It was awesome except I felt some of it was obviously rigged in an obvious way. But overall I was impressed with the show.

After the show was over, a bunch of us got back to my hotel room and just started hanging out networking there for the rest of the night before crashing around 5am again

Third Day

On the third day, things really died down and there wasn't much going on. We ended up doing interviews for most of the day and talked to a few people throughout the summit hallways. I got to meet some really good people in the industry that I hope to connect with really soon and while nothing much happened on the last day because many people were flying out already, I definitely enjoyed the trip as always and got to meet some great people this summit around.

One of my personal friends, Lorenzo Green, also flew out to the summit from New Zealand so it was awesome to finally meet him in person and to hang out with him throughout the entire trip and on the last day. I would definitely recommend everyone to check out Affiliate Summit if you guys haven't. Affiliate Summit East is just around the corner in August this year in New York. You can bet we'll be there.