Not all affiliate marketing conferences are created equal. No, not in the “quality” or even the “quantity” sense of the word. “Equal” as in “identical” or “same in nature.”
If you carefully look through the list of the 2014 industry conferences to consider attending, you will notice that all of them can be roughly split into three groups: geography-specific conferences, topic- or subject-specific, and platform-specific ones.
To make the most of each type, you want to align your goals and expectations in accordance with the specificity of the conference.
Geography-Specific Conferences
While there are some conferences that are as close to being “transnational” as a conference can be (Affiliate Summit is a great example) even they tend to lean more towards the geography where they are being held.
Additionally, with the rapid worldwide growth of the industry, we have a seen quite a number of new countries get their own affiliate marketing conferences. Russia, for example, which in 2011 had no industry conferences at all, had two in 2012, and five in 2013. Also, in 2013 we’ve seen new affiliate marketing shows spring up in China, Brazil, Greece, Czech Republic, and Spain. Naturally, if you have interest in geography-specific affiliate marketing you want to consider attending conferences held in respective geographies. Here are just a few 2014 examples (including a brand-new one in the Ukraine) the dates of which are already known:
- 02/21 – CPA Day (Kiev, Ukraine)
- 02/25-02/26 – Affiliate TactixX (Munich, Germany)
- 05/22 – Affiliate Dag 2014 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) – I keynoted their 2013 show, and having experienced it first-hand, I highly recommend it
- 05/29-05/31 – Afiliados Brasil (São Paulo, Brazil)
- 06/24-06/25 – Performance Marketing Insights Europe (Berlin, Germany) – I’ll be speaking at this show on the 24th, and hope to see you in my session
- 08/10-08/12 – Affiliate Summit East (New York, NY, USA) – I’ve spoken at 10 of these already, and hope to have a solo presentation at this one too. It’s a great and very busy show
- 10/03-10/04 – Russian Affiliate Congress & Expo (Moscow, Russia)
Subject-Specific Conferences
It is also important to understand that some of the affiliate marketing conferences are either narrowly thematic (or centered around a specific niche), focused on a specific marketing service (e.g.: lead generation) or targeting a specific subject (e.g.: affiliate program management). Needless to emphasize that if a specific topic or subject is of interest/important to your business you do want to put these on your calendar.
Here are some 2014 examples of such conferences:
- 03/19-03/20 – Affiliate Management Days (San Francisco, CA, USA) – For advertisers, CMOs & affiliate managers – use this code to get $500.00 off.
- 03/25-03/26 – LeadsCon Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV, USA) – Focused on lead generation
- 05/13-05/14 – Affiliate Management Days (London, UK) – Super Early Bird rates end this Friday. Save £500.00 by registering soon.
- 06/24-06/27 – Amsterdam Affiliate Conference (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) – Targeting the gaming niche specifically
Platform-Specific Conferences
Finally, there is a separate group of affiliate platform- or/and network-specific conferences. Unfortunately, the 2014 dates for many of these aren’t known yet, but below you will be able to find their names and links to their websites (I’ve arranged them in the chronological order based on what we’ve seen in the previous years):
- 01/15 – ClickBank Exchange (Las Vegas, NV, USA)
- 02/21 – LinkShare Symposium Japan (Tokyo, Japan)
- 06/25-06/26 – LinkShare Symposium East (New York, NY, USA)
- 08/03-08/05 – AvantExpo 2014 (Park City, UT, USA)
- TBA – Commission Junction University (Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
- TBA – ShareASale ThinkTank (TBA, USA)
Since 2009 I have been keeping a close eye on the industry’s conferences (even more so now that I’m running my own show). In the beginning of each year I am putting together a list of conferences to consider, and I am constantly updating it throughout the year. The list of 2014 may be found (and followed) here.
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