Posts Tagged A4UExpo 2010
The Missing A4UExpo Round Up!
Posted by Jason Dale in Affiliate Marketing on October 14, 2010
So A4UExpo London is over for another year and whilst many will be nursing hangovers or implementing new business relationships, I’m not as I wasn’t there. There are plenty of valid reasons for my absence. I’m moving house soon and there’s 101 things to do. Whilst many people were tucking into sausage and mash at London’s Excel on Day 2, I was with Jude and disposing half the garden at the local tip.
The worst thing about not being at the 2010 A4UExpo, especially after going to the last ones, is that inevitably you see blogs and tweets announcing that it was the best one yet. It’ll be interesting though to see how Lammo.net and Kirsty report the event – perhaps from an “old school” affiliate point of view.
The good news for A4UExpo absentees, however, was that you could follow some of the proceedings via Twitter. The #a4uexpo produced some useful snippets of information, although there definitely seemed to be less tweeting going on on Day 2. Whatever could have happened to cause that?
Live blogging was also in action and a massive thanks to the guys at Distilled who produced some quality blogs during the proceedings. I get easily distracted in seminars so to be fair I think I got more out of following twitter and reading Dave Naylor’s Three Pillars of SEO and Negative SEO than actually being there!
There wasn’t much tweeting or blogging about other seminars though. Michelle Dewsberry’s session got a few mentions, although one saying something like “there’s a lot of guys here” did make me laugh.
Affiliate Armageddon, which I think was the last session of Day 2 was another that sadly lacked twitter commentary, but it did produce one of the most telling tweets for me from the whole two days. Pete Sipple wrote “Last session will certainly make me rethink strategy with networks and merchants who only value their top 10s”.
When I asked Pete to expand he replied “as a small affiliate, my ability to influence the big boys/girls has diminished too much, so I need to rethink who I talk too”.
Perhaps a sobering thought for many who are reflecting upon the events of the last two days?
All in all I kind of missed being at Expo, mainly because it’s nice to catch up with people and share a beer or two. Of course, there’s no hangovers to recover from, no backlog of work and no bags of freebies to find in 7 months time. By the way whilst packing things we found a Buy.at chunky chocolate bar from Expos gone by – tasted awful!
But there is good news as I still learnt stuff by following proceedings virtually and in fact implemented a coding change at the same time in response to one of the seminars. The garden is clear too!!
And there’s always next year… maybe.
A4UExpo 2010 Early Bird Doesn’t Go Cheap
Posted by Jason Dale in Affiliate Marketing on July 13, 2010
A4UExpo 2010 takes place in London between the 11th and 13th October at the London ExCeL. It’s the fourth expo and this year we’re being a “new venue, new opportunities and format”. There’s even a new website coming along too. As yet the agenda and programme aren’t available, but if you like earlybird discounts you can book your ticket now.
Last year the earlybird was £249 for affiliates, although if you were quick off the block you could have picked up a pass for just £149 (A4UExpo Blog). This year, to take into account the new venue, new opportunities and format – and quite probably the rate of inflation, credit crunch and sundry extras the early bird for affiliates is a mere…. £395!
That’s a 58% increase from last year or a 165% increase if you got the cheap deal. Blimey!!
In fairness the pricing is inline with other events, such as Bingo Bullet, and in fact it’s still a bit cheaper and probably better value.
However, I’m not rushing for the early bird – not just yet.
I did enjoy A4UExpo 2009 and did get some exceptional value from attending. However, a large bulk of our time was spent doing meetings rather than being in the seminars.
Taking into account ticket cost, travel, hotel and also time off for two people that was fine. However, at the increased rates this year I’m starting to question whether we need to rethink a little. Paying out almost £800 for two tickets (£700 if you pick up a discount code on Twitter) to then go and have a few pre-arranged meetings sounds expensive, even more so if it’s at the expense of missing sessions.
The increased cost means that there now needs to be increased value in attending. That means that before parting with cash I’ll be scrutinising the sessions when published a lot more closely than normal. Also coming under the microscope will be what’s on offer during the event. An extra few quid not to suffer that club at The O2 again may actually be worth it (personally I’d prefer The Thames boat trip again… that was cool).
It may well mean that this year we have to cut down on meetings and perhaps attend more seminars. If that’s the case then they better be good. Whilst A4UExpo is great for the social aspect, there has to be more value in attending than just supping a few beers with mates. We can do that down in Plymouth. The alternative is to consider not going to Expo and perhaps spending a cheaper few days in London meeting merchants/partners etc instead.
Fortunately we’re in a position to be able to afford to attend, and perhaps still will as it’s an event unlike any other for affiliate marketing. However, for new entrants to the industry or those struggling to get a foothold the price, plus of course travel, hotels and maybe even time off work, may feel they’re being priced out of things and that’s a big concern.
The best advice if you’re after a free ticket is look out for giveaways, like this one on Affiliates4U, and discount codes which are already appearing on Twitter. There may even be some blogger passes available too!
The “earlybird” rate will expire at the end of August, although if A4U’s previous is anything to go by, it’ll get extended.
