If Carlsberg made Conferences…

they’d probably look a lot like A4U Expo.

Just a few short weeks back we were commenting on posts that claimed the US was 18 months ahead of the UK in it’s affiliate marketing. I think we’ve put that one to bed this week. The quality of the sessions was extremely high with some of the UK’s top players freely dishing out up-to-the-minute practical advice, and the comments and questions from the floor showed that the attendees really got to grips with some complex issues.

Every major network had turned out in force to support the show and sniping between them was at a minimum, everyone far too busy dealing with their own business and for once talking about strengths rather than others’ weaknesses. Two of my favourite sessions were Affiliate Future’s Maz Darvish on “Lessons Learnt from the Travel Sector”, and Tradedoubler’s Andreas Bernström on “The Next Big Thing”. David Hall of Affiliate Window did a solid job of defending the role of the network in his session, but the biggest winner of that debate in my view was Clarke Duncan from Paid on Results who got a telling off for not doing enough to tell the world about their great content technology, showing the respect that affiliates have for smaller networks as long as they have something unique to offer.
As someone who has struck out with their own business in the last 12 months, I also picked up some great tips from the Super Affiliates session, where Kieron Donoghue and� Duncan Jennings debated the pro’s and cons of building a company vs the one-man-ban-approach. The lifestyle choices in this decision also came up again in Duncan’s session on selling your business.

The event was smoothly run with all the mod cons a show like this needs. Even the slightly dodgy signposting within Excel was coped with by numerous helpful venue staff. The A4U events have moved up in professionalism in a big way over the last couple of years, and they found a whole new gear, and a turbo boost too for this event.
Evident among the conversations was how much personal relationships have shaped the UK industry. Individuals and companies sat together on panels with their competitors without indulging in tedious sniping, but instead focussing on issues that will help us all move forward and grow our businesses.

With the key players in the cashback business now coming together to form a ‘Loyalty Marketing’� association, it is now a genuine possibility that more separate affiliate marketing bodies will spring up to cope with the issues that each sector faces. My view is that this is a good thing, showing the size and maturity of those sectors, but a role still remains for an overall association to lobby on issues such as spyware, and to promote the industry as a whole to make sure we get the biggest possible share of marketing budgets.

More than ever, affiliate marketing in the UK feels like a cohesive and professional industry, rather than a collection of businesses with their own agendas and we should thank all those who gave their precious time and expertise this week for helping that feeling grow.

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