Last week Share Results attended and exhibited at the Affiliate Summit West Conference in Las Vegas, and I can easily say that this was one of our most successful summits yet. So successful, that it took me 4 full days to recover, after a whirlwind of meetings, networking events, sessions, parties, booth duty, more meetings, more parties, and lots and lots of business cards. Here's a quick recap of some of my personal highlights:

-The scale and quality of the this summit - by far the largest and most productive affiliate summit I've attended to date. The sessions were all well attended, the meet market was packed to the gills as usual and the conference floor was a buzz with constant activity, but what surprised me most was the number of conference attendees EVERYWHERE - walking the halls of the Rio, attending the networking parties and events, we were everywhere! Even when I dragged my weary self to the gym for an early 7am run I ran into fellow affiliate marketers who were passionate about their business and eager to share ideas. It's a fantastic sign for the industry.

-The diversity of attendees - No longer are people fitting into the usual publisher/advertiser/network molds. Most affiliates I met were also starting do to some consulting work, software development, or program management on the side, while networks were becoming advertisers, and third party agencies and service providers were developing their own new opportunities. This means that you have to listen a lot more closely and ask questions to find out what people do, but the payoff is that there are more diverse ways of working with partners and competitors that may have not been considered before.

-More indepth sessions - I only had a chance to attend one, but it was really worth it. A panel discussion on coupons in affiliate marketing, it was a great opportunity to hear ideas from affiliates, OPMs, and merchants on how to make coupons profitable and successful for affiliate programs and merchants. Annabelle and Vanesa attended some sessions as well and both came back with pages of useful notes.

-More great networking events - this year the trend seemed to be more private or invite only parties, I'm assuming because logistically it's too hard to organize parties for 4,000 plus attendees. The upside was that the quality and choice of events to attend was stellar, and I got to see some really neat venues in Vegas. Kudos to Paresh of OPMPros.com for organize two amazing nights at Club Vanity and Club XS, Plimus for hosting a sushi and drinks event where I won a bottle of Dom Perignon, and SAS for the cool photobooth, awesome deserts, and free darts at their karoke party.

We've already booked our booth for New York, can't wait to see what the next summit brings!