Affiliate Summit East 2013 Review

On Sunday I posted about how Ruck and I were in search of the best Philly Cheesesteak in America!  Now… I personally don’t know if I’ll ever eat another cheesesteak in my life (more on that later) but we just completed another successful Affiliate Summit East show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This was my first time to Philadelphia and I enjoyed it.  It was a good change of pace from NYC and we got to eat a shitload of cheesesteaks.

Unfortunately we don’t attend the sessions or keynotes.  We never have.  We come in for the Meet Market, go to the Exhibit Floor, and meet with our current clients/publishers (several flew a long way to join us).

The Meet Market on Sunday was jammed full of people and companies.  It was refreshing to see some new names out there and see everyone that has stepped their game up over the last couple of years.  It’s the innovation in the industry that I admire and when done correctly without cutting corners can be highly lucruative.

The Exhibit Hall didn’t seem near as crowded as it did last year in New York but it was still heavily attended. I don’t know if that’s because the space was larger but it was nice being able to breath and have a place to sit down to conduct meetings. As with the Meet Market, it was nice to see some new companies out there stepping up.

Affiliate Nation was the after-party we attended at Lit Ultrabar.  We had a VIP sponsorship where we hung-out with 10 or so of our top partners.  Forming those type of relationships is what we like most about these trade shows.  It’s one thing to work online together daily and it’s a whole other stepping out and having that face-to-face friendship.  Pretty cool stuff.

I do have to send a shout to Darren Blatt as I heard the Affiliate Ball kicked butt.  We shoulda stopped by. Lesson learned. But great job!

A special thanks to Shawn and Missy who have continue to innovate the industry and provide a very respectable event for us all!  Looking forward to seeing you all in Vegas!

As for the cheesesteaks I personally ate four from: Genos, Pats, some place in the Reading Terminal Market, and even the darn Ritz Carton room service!  I’ve never eaten a cheesesteak that was “bad” so I have to say, I was impressed by all of them.  If I had to “pick” a favorite I would say Pats but then again I didn’t get to all the places that were recommended.  Not enough time or room for another steak sandwich.

I personally want to thank everyone for their compliments regarding our three properties. Our goal is to be helpful and useful to everyone in this industry and we work on that 25 out of the 24 hours in the day! We truly do appreciate everything it means the world to us and we’re humbled by our growth.

See you all at Ad Tech in NYC!

Pictures From Affiliate Summit East:

Ryan Gray

Ryan Gray is the founder and CEO of NameHero, one of the fastest growing independent web hosts in the United States. Ryan has been working online since 1998 and has over two-decades experience in Internet Entrepreneurship.