Dorin's Personal Weblog

2 months ago I was lucky enough to attend Affiliate Summit West 2013 at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. It was my first time at a Summit and my first time in United States, so I guess the next tips might be helpful for someone in a similar situation:

1. Buy your ticket as early as you can. You can save probably around $1,000 by registering early and reserving your hotel room and ticket plane several month before the Summit. I know it’s a nobrainer, but i didn’t do it. So I want to remind you that the tickets for Networking Plus (at Affiliate Summit East) now cost $279 and they will end up with a cost more than $600. Do the math.

2. It’s a very big event, so plan very carefully ahead. I had an hour-by-hour schedule for all three days, with several meetings established weeks before, workshops or presentations to attend and well…. parties . Leave enough room for new contacts, as well – to have coffees/drinks with, they might be extremely valuable.

Beside all aspects, it will take you a lot of time to walk from one location to another (not to mention again, well…. parties). And you don’t do a lot of new business when you’re tired. Speaking of this – if it’s possible for you to arrive to Nevada time-zone several days before Summit, do that. I did spent 4 days at San Francisco before arriving in Vegas, but coming from GMT+2 took me almost a week to get rid of the jetlag, when the Summit was already over.

3. Go to all the parties you can – public or private (you can manage to get invited to many, people are friendly in Vegas).

4. Always keep a photo ID with you. It’s been a while since I’m over 21 but I couldn’t get in to a big party without it and I was too tired to get back to my hotel room and get it (remember tip no.2) .

5. Always be networking. Go to meet market and stop at each booth. Check everyone’s badges and if you see someone interesting – approach him! Everyone is there for new business. Rehearse your lines very well – you will have to introduce yourself more than a hundred of times, most likely. “I run an affiliate network in Eastern Europe” was my answer to “what do you do, Dorin?”.

And bonus – the extra tip: don’t go at a Summit alone. I went with a friend and partner, and it was very helpful for both of us.

I’m a champion of attending relevant business events – in public or as a speaker. I don’t think there’s other more efficient ways to grow as a professional and promote your business to a relevant group of people in the same time.

It always costs time and money, of course – but it always worth it, if you select them well and approach them with the right mindset.

Just in the last 5 months I attended Webit in Istanbul, a VC event in Wien (organized by Wien British Embassy and Amadeus Capital), Venture Connect in Bucharest, Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, Interactive-Seminars in Sofia and I’m getting ready for the third edition of ecomTIM next week in Timisoara (plus 2 or 3 other local events like Lumea Seo PPC).

From each event I came home with more knowledge, relevant contacts and fresh, new ideas. I always keep my mind open, I’m staying focused on the speakers and approach anyone who seem interesting for me. They are all there for business development, too many people from the audience forget that!

So I don’t understand people who say they are “too busy to attend a business event” especially when is 100% linked to their field of activity.

Guys, there are your best competitors, clients or partners, gathered all together, speaking about industry trends, opportunities and issues and you’d rather stay in your office, doing the same things you’re doing in a regular day?

So they will understand better how your industry is changing, learn how to react faster,  expand their business network and having a good time at parties, while you will be at home? Do you really want to give them such a big, unfair advantage over you?

Well…. it’s obviously your choice, but If you’re into affiliate marketing, online marketing or ecommerce I’d say to grab ASAP the 20% discount that I’m offering you for Affiliate Management Days in London and buy your tickets NOW, and then book your trip to London, I’m sure it will worth it.

PS yes, I’m looking forward to see you there, I will have a speech about gamification in affiliate management. How I got there and how happy I am about this engagement, in a later post

In my 3 years amazing journey as the CEO of an affiliate network I’ve met thousands of people involved in ecommerce.

Everyone in this field is so passionate about online marketing and programming, so careful about which platform to use for building an online store or for online payments that usually forgets that ONLINE commerce is still COMMERCE and ONLINE business is still BUSINESS – that fundamentals still apply and matter the most, I’d say.

So please, before starting your new PPC campaign, go have a look on Coursera – Introduction to finance and Operations Management. They might help you more than you think to build a great online business.

Coursera is a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.