I apologize for the lengthy hiatus. What can I say? It was August, hot, and the summer holiday opps beckon to all of us! But now we are back to the blog, and with our return, a few words about Affiliate Summit East, which rocked New York City from August 9-11.

I think it’s important to mention that the details recounted here will be recollected through the fog of a long flight from New York, and after what felt like 5 days of non-stop networking (read: partying at AMAZING NYC locales). We’ve got all our pictures on Flickr, and you can catch them here or by using our handy blog toolbar (click the tiny butterfly icon to see a slideshow).

Gabi Cohen, Adsmarket’s VP of Media, had this to say about ASE09:
“We had the great opportunity to meet publishers who understand the potential that lies outside the US, want to increase their non-US revenue, and who were looking for international offers outside the usual verticals and hadn’t yet found the right partner for that. Now they understand that we are the right partner to expand with."

Highlights from ASE from Maor Sadra, regular blog contributor and Director of Sales:
"My first day as a sales team member at an affiliate convention was total culture shock. We went to the aptly named "meet market", which was was boisterously loud. Everyone was dressed casually, and blatantly stared at each other’s, ahem, name tags to identify Purple (Affiliate), Red (Network), Orange (Merchant) or Green (Agency). I couldn’t walk 2 feet without someone stopping me to check my tag. I felt rather violated…

After about an hour of trying to walk around, I got the hang of things and started chatting up with random people within the hall, and that was the amazing part. There were so many professional people from all around the world, all coming to interact and find opportunities, and people I’ve been working with over email suddenly got a face.

For Days 2 and 3, we had a booth at the main hall. I pre-scheduled most of my meetings, so I didn’t spend a lot of time at the booth itself, which turned out to be a mistake. There was a lot of companies that came up to our booth which I did not expect to meet there…I finished 3 boxes of business cards within 2 days!

A couple of things I learned in ASE:

• The more years you are in this industry, the more you are reminded that the world is very small. Many are the same people you worked with in the past, with different titles and company logos.
• When you pack for Affiliate Summit, pack a LOT of energy drinks. You’re going to need it!
• New York Ice Cream Floats are way too sweet than what they should be.

Last thing I’ll say is: See You in Vegas for Affiliate Summit West!!!"