Life at Affiliate Summit Boston 2008

Affiliate Summit Boston, has a different feel this year, moving on from a hotel based location we’re at the Boston Convention Centre, with 2300 fellow delegates, 36% of which are affiliates, ASE has a large exhibition hall, and 3 simultaneous tracks running throughout the day.

I have just been to the ‘Ask The Experts’ Session this morning, though there are only 80 to 100 people here in a round table environment its a great opportunity to meet experts within the field of Mobile, Video and SEO, you get the feeling some people are missing out.

The show has overall been good so far, with a number of good networking opportunities, and a packed exhibition hall, the sessions have been for me variable with some excellent panels and moderated sessions.

Chris and I have been interviewing a number of figures here in Boston, some familiar and new to the scene, Chris will be uploading these over at affiliates4u.tv in the coming days.

Big thanks to the Team at Affiliate Future for their hospitality at the Top of The Hub - There were quite a number of unnoficcial networking parties last night and in previous nights. LinkShare for instance held a reception for their clients outside of the conference.

The official webmasterradio.fm party was cancelled which is a shame as these networking events are integral to the success of the trip, well perhaps that’s just in my opinion as It’s a great opportunity to sink a few pale ales with fellow affiliates!

The main difference here, this year is that affiliates seem to be making money more from the long-tail and niches within the marketplace, this appears to be confounded by the number of niche exhibitors rather than larger brands on the exhibit hall, Maybe it’s always been like this, but it appears more noticable this year.

If you’re here and would like us to catch you on film, buzz me on twitter or catch us as we roam the exhibition hall!

Looking forward to a busy day ahead, we have a number of meetings set up as well as a number of sessions in the diary to attend. Though I’m not sure if there is a party tonight, so need to arrange something today!