Filed under: Events
Existem to sponsor Bristol’s Web Developers Conference
We are pleased to be supporting this year’s Web Developers Conference (WDC) being held at the Watershed on November 12th 2008.
The conference organised by Alex Older, aims to kick start, educate and inspire students at the University of the West of England (UWE) and is also open to Designers and Developers outside of the University.
As an ex UWE student, I am really excited to be supporting the event and investing in the exceptional talent within the Bristol area.
Apart from being based at the Paintworks, a growing new media and creative hub we are also members of the growing Bristol Media a community of new media specialists.
In addition to supporting the WDC conference, we are also bringing the a4uexpo Roadshow to Bristol on the 16th July 2008. The evening is a free to attend networking event for anyone involved or interested in the Affiliate Marketing space.
CAP Spring Break was Hot!
Having just returned from the most excellent CAP Spring Break in Cyprus I feel fully revitalised having topped up my tan and rested my eyes but not my liver, ready to beef up our gaming efforts.
We have had a couple of projects on the sideline that will be bounced up the development queue in the coming weeks. it’s been frustrating to keep them on the sideline whilst we finish off other projects, namely our new improved release of affiliates4u.com which is near completion.
There were around 300 or so attendees to the CAP spring break which included the first dedicated Poker Conference which took place prior to the conference and a three day version of the Affiliate Series of Poker (ASOP)
It was great to meet up with some of our gaming partners including Jasper from Jackpotjoy, Pierrick from Virgin Games, Yoni, Jamie and Neil from Webroute services, Sarafina from Income Access not forgetting fellow affiliates such as ASOP winning Marcus Tandler and Everest Bob who seemed to be clutching the worlds coolest ghetto blaster at the beach party.
And parties were certainly high on the agenda, we had parties on the beach with belly dancers and a cool Arabian theme courtesy of Webroute services, a rather swanky pool party hosted by 888.com, and possibly my favourite the relaxed setting at the PKR.com party on the Thursday afternoon.
Our gaming vertical forum on affiliates4u was a hot topic amongst some of the affiliate managers in attendance, many have already started to post and a number will commence in the coming weeks.
Gaming is an interesting vertical; it’s not without its challenges in a cloudy market where legislation causes continued headaches and uncertainty. However competition is hotting up within the affiliate space as more brand and companies enter the space with substantial funding.
The next CAP organised event will be Barcelona in September, it’s a few weeks before our affiliate conference so I’m not sure if we’ll be going but I would recommend it to anyone involved or thinking about getting involved in the online gaming space.
Update from CAP Spring Break, Cyprus
Greetings from sunny Cyprus, it must be near 30 degrees out here at the moment! I’m out here on business catching up with our friends at CAP (Casino Affiliate Programs) and its sister site PAP (Poker Affiliate Programs) - I would upload some photos but the internet connection is mind boggling slow.
After arriving yesterday afternoon its been a really productive networking event so far, catching up with old friends and making new contacts too. CAP Spring break is light on sessions and stands but heavy on networking and parties.
The Gaming industry is a really exciting one to be involved with, and it’s spurred us on to get cracking again on our new poker site which is nearly 90% complete in the back-end. This will be a project for Chris to manage in the near future.
Last night we passed by the 888.com party by the pool and tonight we have an Arabian themed beach party sponsored by web route which I can see being set up from my room - it looks awesome, I had a chat with the guys from webroute last night they seem like they have big plans.
One of the highlights for me so far is seeing the ASOP (Affiliate Series of Poker) live in action with a 10k bracelet and a seat at the WSOP up for grabs. Sadly I was away when qualification took place online but I’ll have to get some practice in for the next tournament taking place in Barcelona in September. Our newly converted Bristol City fan Marcus Tandler who ironically already has a seat at WSOP went through to the final in dramatic style.
As we are talking about Marcus, CAP has been a great avenue to find people who are up for speaking at our own affiliate conference, a4uexpo in October and I’m really happy to welcome a few people onboard the roster.
Celebrate the Success and Excellence within Affiliate Marketing
Back in January when we announced the first major Affiliate Marketing Awards for the affiliate industry, some felt the industry was not yet ready for its own ceremony. News this week that the a4uAwards had Sold Out came as a shock to some. However we’ve been back to the venue to secure a few extra tables, but this means that the 5th June 2008 will see the cream of the affiliate marketing industry congregate for an evening of entertainment and networking with more than 300 super affiliates, merchants and industry figures - It has to be the hottest ticket of the year.
If you’ve not already secured a ticket or a table, then contact us now to secure one before it’s too late. We also have just two sponsorship positions available which both include a table of 10.
Everyone has a part to play in the awards. It’s split into judged awards which require you (affiliates, networks, agencies or merchants) to submit a short one page summary on why you feel you should win. A template is available to download to guide you through the process, it takes less time than you think!
The remaining awards are community and publisher choice awards, these very special awards are voted for by the members of affiliates4u.com, and you can vote until this Friday.
The awards will be presented by Mr Michael McIntyre, one of the hottest new comedians on the circuit.
Future Of Web Design, London. Reviewed
On Thursday last week me and Nick traveled down to the big smoke to attend the FOWD and I’ve got to say, rotating Aston Martins and slightly dodgy hotel aside it was a really informative and productive day.
The event had completely sold out so when we arrived for registration at around ten to nine there was a huge line waiting to be registered. Not a problem as it moved fairly swiftly and by around 9:15 we had found a seat and only really missed the first 5 minutes of the first session.
In the interests of keeping this review fairly short I thought I would just focus on what were, for me, the stand out sessions of the day. I will say at this point that I enjoyed every session that day and even the plug from Adobe wasn’t too bad (Microsoft please take note).
I really enjoyed hearing from Andy Clarke stuffandnonsense.co.uk and Steve Pearce pokelondon.com and picked up some good pointers but the first session I really engaged with was Andy Budd clearleft.com .
Andy spoke about the user experience curve and how we as people judge an experience like a curve. His point throughout was if you make the experience as easy, fun and engaging for the user over the time period they are immersed in the experience then their impression of your product and brand is something they will use again, and tell their friends.
He spoke of things as simple as using friendly, personal language that the user can emote with. This, he stressed is really important when things go wrong (such as form errors etc…) as it can turn a negative into a positive.
The next session from Elliot Jay Stocks elliotjaystocks.com I had been looking forward to for a good long while as it was actually an approach I had been a fan of for quite some time.
Elliot spoke about what we as web designers can learn from print design.
What really spoke to me from this session was not actually translating ‘look’ of print design to the web but the idea that web design does and should have strong narrative.
He argued that what makes a website outstanding is its use of narrative structure to convey an overall feeling about a site, and thus, a brand. I thought this was clever way to look at web design and user experience and it is defiantly something I will be thinking about more.
Next up was my stand out session of the day from John Hicks hicksdesign.co.uk. I probably learned more layout tips in that half hour than I did in 3 years at uni.
John had made a website for the presentation cheesophile.com and ran us through how it made it.
I really liked the idea of using a default template system to start each project from and his tips on stylesheets and IE6 bugs was invaluable.
The top two tips I picked up were that the main cause of IE bugs is something called ‘hasLayout’ and that it can be simply cured by adding something like div, li {zoom:1;} to the IE stylesheet.
The other top tip was to use a sliding scale for typefaces. By this I mean starting specifically, ie HelveticaNeue Light > HelveticaNeue > Helvetica > Arial > Sans-Serif. I thought this was genius and so simple.
In Conclusion
I found FOWD engaging and enjoyable. The sessions were great and the atmosphere was friendly and eager.
My only negatives were the sales pitches (from Microsoft especially), the price of the beer at the after-show (£5 is too much for a bottle of beer in my book) and the rather ‘Faulty-Towers-esque’ hotel which promised free wifi in all rooms, satellite TV and continental breakfast but actually delivered no wifi, 14 channels of freeview, toast and jam and no shower gel or soap of any kind. (The hotel in question was the Montana in Kensington)
Times Ticking to Enter This Year’s a4uAwards
The a4uAwards have been high on the agenda here at existem, and this morning we distributed a press release calling for entries. 7 of the awards are Publisher and Community Choice where nominations are already open online. The remaining are judged by a panel.
Entering the a4uAwards is free, so what are you waiting for - get recognised for your work whether you are a merchant, agency, network or affiliate - find full instructions on the a4uAwards website.
Here is the press release.
Nominations for this year’s prestigious a4uAwards are already flooding in, but there’s only another 30 days left to ensure entries are received in time for the judging process to formally begin.
The a4uAwards, which were launched last year to celebrate the innovation & commitment being demonstrated by those working in the £3bn Affiliate Marketing sector at present, are this year being co-sponsored by jackpotjoy and in association with NMA. They include 16 distinct categories, with the gala event taking place on June 5 at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in Central London.
Nine of the prestigious awards will be judged by an independent panel consisting of some of experienced practitioners working in the sector, including Affiliates, Merchants, Network Directors, Agency Heads as well as commentators on the industry. For each award, the panel will be looking for evidence of innovation, creativity, fulfilment of client objectives and effectiveness of delivery.
The remaining seven awards will be Publisher & Community Awards, which apart from the affiliates4u Award for Excellence, will be decided by a controlled online vote via the 20,000 strong affiliates4u forum.
Nominations for the affiliates4u Award for Excellence are to be submitted by members of the Affiliate Community via an online entry form, attaching a testimonial as to why the nominated individual, team or company should win. The number & quality of these nominations will then be taken into account by the independent judging panel.
Matthew Wood, founder of affiliates4u and organiser of the a4uAwards, says: “Giving the Awards their own spotlight, with their own prestigious event, has once again raised the profile of this dynamic industry and will ensure that those delivering the goods will be recognised and celebrated in style.
“We’ve been inundated with entries already, which just goes to show the level of interest & support the industry is giving these awards and I’d like to thank everyone so far for their input, views and comments over how we can make this year’s event as special as it should be. I‘m now very much looking forward to watching the voting debate formally unfold.”
The 16 award categories, which will reward both a highly commended entry and overall trophy winner, are:
- Best Use of Creative
- Best Network Innovation
- Best Merchant Innovation
- Agency of the Year
- Publisher of the Year
- Best Use of AM as part of an Integrated Campaign
- affiliates4u Award for Excellence
- Publishers’ Choice of Network
- Publishers’ Choice of Account Manager
- Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2008
- Affiliate Manager of 2008
plus awards for innovative AM activity in the following vertical sectors:
- Finance
- Retail
- Gaming
- Travel & Leisure
- Technology & Telecoms
Entry for each category is free, and submissions need to be received no later than April 25, 2008. For more information about the event, individual categories and details on criteria for entry, please go to www.a4uawards.com
