My life modified in an enormous method twenty years in the past immediately. It was the primary Affiliate Summit that I organized with Missy Ward and it came about at Baruch School in New York Metropolis on November 3, 2003.
Pulling the entire thing collectively occurred fairly quick. We chatted on the telephone about attempting to start out a convention and registered AffiliateSummit.com on Could 19, 2003.
The unique purpose was to placed on a convention on a cruise in 2004, however we determined to do a small occasion earlier than that to get the title on the market and construct an inventory.
I heard about a possibility at Baruch School, which was a couple of blocks from the place I labored on the time, and I went over to talk with them. We have been in a position to get a room for 200 with chairs, tables, A/V, and so forth. without cost in change for giving some passes to their advertising and marketing college students.
That was good since we didn’t have cash. If it wasn’t for that free spot from Baruch, the rise of Affiliate Summit could by no means have occurred.
Within the months we needed to arrange out first convention, we referred to as in favors from mates to workers the occasion, and did every little thing very primitive. All gross sales went by my PayPal account and affirmation emails for individuals who registered have been manually pasted from a Phrase doc and despatched from our emails.
Trade mates volunteered to be audio system and we bought a bunch of mates with firms to “sponsor” it (we didn’t cost them, so we’d have a bunch of “sponsors” out of the gate).
We scheduled it on the primary day of the advert:tech convention in New York, which was an enormous occasion on the time, so we may capitalize on folks coming into city, and we set a low worth level ($75 for all day and lunch).
Our solely bills have been lunch and printing for the day, and with ticket gross sales we broke even however turned wealthy in business popularity for Affiliate Summit.
Affiliate Summit 2003 was a sell-out a handful of days earlier than. We had a dozen or so folks present up hoping to attend, and we quietly liked that we couldn’t match them, as a result of it created a buzz and demand after we began selling our subsequent occasion.
So many issues labored out excellent and propelled us right into a dream that lasted almost twenty years.
Try images from Affiliate Summit 2003.