This meetup will be held August 6th, 2011 in  Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.  Adsimilis is an affiliate network based out of Amsterdam and they are an awesome company to work with.  I’ve also been to many conferences with these people and they know how to treat their publishers!

Meetup Agenda

On Friday night, the Adsimilis‘ team, Sean, Michael and Eleah plan on starting the weekend off right.  The plan is to do some bar hopping around Amsterdam and hit up some of the local favorites. I know what else I’m gonna be doing while we’re hitting up the local favorites.

Saturday, the official day of the meetup, they will be having sessions all day.  They’ll be starting out around 10am and going until 4pm.  The topics include, but aren’t limited to, learning new ways to run traffic and traffic sources, including Adsimilis‘ Display Network, get avice and tips on how to optimize and increase conversions from top affiliates from around the globe and an understanding of the financial implications of doing business on a worldwide scale with a Q&A session with a legal specialist.

Sunday you are free to explore the city and become a tourist.  London and Paris are both a quick 60-minute high-speed train trip away.  This is something I will be taking advantage of.

Affiliate Rewards

The two publishers with the most revenue generated,  the two publishers with the highest incremental revenue and the publisher whose referrals generate the most revenue during the period of May 1st – July 15th will be awarded an all expenses paid trip to this meetup. I wish I was one of these publishers

Please RSVP

If you’re interested in attending, please RSVP for the Amsterdam Meetup 2011.  I know I will be in attendance for this one.  I also plan on extending this trip and hitting up Paris, Rome and Athens before heading back home to Tulsa, Oklahoma.  If anybody’s game, hollar at me!

Disclosure: The Adsimilis links are my referral links.  I received nothing in return for this post, other than some attention from Eleah. <3

A good friend of mine, and also a local network owner to me, Mike Pacheco, is putting together an Affiliate Meetup in Puerto Rico. The meetup is scheduled for Saturday, November 19th, 2011.  He’s arranged with the Ritz Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico for rates for November 18th – November 20th.  During the afternoon he’s rented a catamaran to enjoy the waters around San Juan that includes free food and drinks.  For the evening, he’s scheduled a Party Cruise with La Rumba Cruises that includes entertainment, food and an open bar.

If this sounds like a great time, he’s even giving away a free trip for TWO for the dates of November 18th – 20th that includes flight and hotel reservations.  All you have to do is RSVP at PuertoRicoMeetup.com for a chance to win!

For anybody concerned this is scheduled a week and a half after ad:tech NYC, so there are no scheduling conflicts if you’re already planning on attending that conference.  Networks are on an invite-only basis.

Currently, the itinerary looks something like this…

7:30am: Start boarding outside of Ritz Carlton for Catamaran
8:00am: Leave for Catamaran
9:00am: Check In at Catamaran
10:00am: Departure
11:00am: Arriving at (Icacos, Palominito, Lobos, Tortugas o Palomino)
12:00pm: Lunch
1:00pm: Departure from (Icacos, Palominito, Lobos, Tortugas o Palomino)
2:30pm: Sailing to Villa Marina
3:30pm: Arriving at Villa Marina
4:30pm: Back at Ritz Carlton
6:00pm: Board for La Rumba Dinner Cruise (sails around the Bay of San Juan)
6:30pm – 9:30pm: Still working on exact times, but entertainment, dinner and open bar will be provided

Lunch/Buffet Menu for Catamaran
Sandwiches: Fresh Bread, Cold Cuts, Swiss cheese, Tomatoes, Onions, Pickles, Mustard etc., Pasta Salad, Fresh Fruit Platter, Green Salad, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Fresh Vegetables, Tuna Salad, Snacks, Cookies, Cheeses, Crackers, Chips & dips
Unlimited drinks: Sodas, Water, Ice Tea, Fruit Punch, Lemonade, Painkillers (Drinks), Rum Punch, Rum & Coke

Party Cruise Dinner
3-hour ride with DJ entertainer
Menu: Chicken breast with Mushroom Sauce, Tenderloin, Rice & Beans, Fresh Salad & Flan
Appetizers: Assorted Dumplings, Meatballs in Sauce & Mini Egg Rolls
Open bar: DonQ Limon, Dewards, Finland, DonQ, Beefeater, Coors Light, Medal, Budweiser, Red Wine & White House, Sodas, Juices

If you’re even remotely interested in attending, I suggest you go ahead and get on the RSVP list for any updates and further information about the meetup. Heck, you might even get lucky and win the free trip!  To RSVP, please visit PuertoRicoMeetup.com.

RevenueAds is hosting the second annual Oklahoma Affiliate Meetup. It will be held Friday, March 18th at 12pm at the RevenueAds Office in Midwest City, OK.  If you’re anywhere near Oklahoma City I suggest making your way out there. You will definitely enjoy yourself.

I co-founded the event last year, but unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts, I will not be able to make it down there this year.  Last year we had Ian Fernando and Murray Newlands give a presentation about affiliate marketing and how they got into the industry.  They catered lunch and we then went out to eat followed by a fun time downtown.

This year they have John Chow coming down to speak.  Ben from PlentyOfFish.com will be there as well, so if you have ANY POF question you need answered, that would be a great time to ask. I’ve heard rumors that Jonathan Volk may also be in attendance, but don’t quote me on that.  I also read that they may even have an Oklahoma City Thunder player in attendance.  Hopefully they make it happen!

On this year’s agenda it looks like they are again catering in lunch and will have an open bar at the office.  They will also have door prizes and they had some awesome gifts.  Last year, they had something Gucci they gave away and a couple bottles of Cristal.  Afterwards, they have a suite at the Ford Center in downtown Oklahoma City for you to enjoy watching the Oklahoma City Thunder play the Charlotte Bobcats.  Their suite will also includes an open bar and hors d’oeuvres.

For more information and to RSVP, click the image below.

I flew into New York City late Tuesday night, around 8pm. I got to the room at the New Yorker and met up with Sam (conv3rsion) from Optimal Webworks. We were hungry so what else would you expect, we went to the halal cart at 53rd and 6th for some chicken and rice. With that, I accomplished the one thing I set out to do the entire trip.

Wednesday – Day 1

I was still hella tired from the day before, but Sam and I finally go to the conference around 11am.  We quickly made our way to a corner of the exhibit hall to start makin our way down the aisles and as soon as we stopped at a booth we ran into AdHustler and Mike from Firelead.  Chatted those guys up for a few minutes and continued to make our way throughout the booths.  We quickly noticed it was the same companies and the same faces.  It was kind of a disappointment.

After about 2 aisles through, Sam and I decided to hit up the Convert2Media booth to hollar at the C2M crew, their new team member, Rob Adler and to help float their infamous kegs.  At the booth, I was able to meet with my buddy Morgan Thomas and also got to meet another affiliate that I had been talking to on AIM for awhile, Jessica Chen.  It was great finally getting to meet her.  I think C2M had Stella on tap this time, but don’t quote me.  Before I knew it, it was time for my 1pm lunch lunch with one of my favorite traffic sources.  Sam, Jess and I all went to eat with them at Hudson Yards Cafe and they were packed, but the food was awesome!

By the time we got back to the Javits Convention Center, there was only a few hours left to finish making my rounds and I did so quite quickly.  As I already noticed, same companies, same faces.  Pretty quickly I ended up back at the C2M booth drinking beer.  Unfortunately the staff at Javits couldn’t figure out how to tap a keg so we were left drinking out of bottles.  I wasn’t complaining though.  I was able to meet up with AdHustler and Ian Fernando.  I also finally ran into Ryan Gray and it was great meeting him.

Soon enough it was 5pm and time to meet up with Plenty of Fish.  I got there considerably early hoping they might be there, but they didn’t make it there in time for me to get to hangout with them because I had another dinner to go to at 6pm.  That’s too bad, I was really looking forward to that meeting.  We’ll make up for it in Vegas though, I’m sure.  Next was the dinner at The Spotted Pig with Sam, Jess and the team at Adsimilis.  The food there was excellent as well.

Then it was on to the Clickbooth party at Marquee.  We decided to start the night off right and ordered 6 shots of vodka.  It was some cheap ass vodka and the total ended up being $108.  Fuck New York City and their outrageous cost of living. Anyways, so Sam and I decided to take full advantage of the open bar and started getting drunk.  It was pretty dead when we showed up and slowly started filling up and then all of sudden it was too packed to walk anywhere.  Just to name a few, Clickbooth, of course, C2M, ECM, AdHustler and Ian Fernando.  I actually met @Cheyyyaaboiii so for everybody who has asked me, he is a real person, but that’s all you get.  I was able to chat up Rohail Rizvi for few minutes before the party got to outta hand.  Once the open bar closed, we finished our alcohol and again hit up the halal cart and murked some chicken and rice.  Then it was off to the room to get some sleep before the final day of the conference.

Thursday – Day 2

Woke up super late and hungover, slept through my meeting at 10am and finally made it to the conference right at 12pm.  Went straight to the C2M booth to cure my hangover with a couple more cups of beer.   I hit a few spots in the exhibit hall, but I made it a point to say hey to my new affiliate managers at Neverblue and Copeac, Michael Crouch and Frank Ciuffo, respectively.  I’m glad they’re my new AM’s, they’re on top of they’re game.  Rescheduled my 10am meeting for noon and was finally able to meet up with Ben from Plenty of Fish.  Kinda had to cut that meeting short because my shuttle to the airport was scheduled to be at my hotel to pick me up at 1:15pm.  Sorry Ben!  We finished that meeting right at 1pm and while I was trying to flag down a cab, SuperShuttle called me to let me know I had 4 minutes to get to my hotel or they were leaving me.  So I said fuck it and ran about 4 blocks and barely made it in time.  Looking back on that I should’ve said screw it and just paid a cab to take me to the airport.

Conclusion

I was disappointed that there wasn’t a more diverse selection of traffic sources.  Seemed to me the traffic sources were the same ones at ad:tech San Francisco.  There seemed to be a lot of locally-focused booths exhibiting there.  So if you’re in the local affiliate marketing space, you missed out.  I was able to finally meet  a handful of people I’ve been wanting to meet for a while, strengthen existing relationships and most importantly eat chicken and rice, twice!

Any of you guys attending the Meetup202 event this Saturday in SoCal?