Affiliate Summit West 2011: Day Three

Tuesday morning began with a great opening keynote by Brian Solis from FutureWorks. Brian discussed social media and the incredible changes it is making at all levels from affiliates to major companies. The keynotes really did a great job of getting your mind going and with a topic as pertinent as social media – my mind was racing!

brian_affiliatesummit_west2011

After the keynote I booked-it to the seminar rooms so I could attend Google Analytics: Stop Wondering And Start Measuring. Even though I use Google Analytics every day it’s seminars like these that provide tiny golden nuggets that can really help me improve upon what I’m currently doing. Just seeing how someone else analyzes and parses the same data shows a different way to look at things.

google_analytics_seminarThe speaker for this seminar, Joshua Ziering, was a very entertaining speaker and did a great job keeping the audience engaged. With a topic like analytics you can really go in either direction and I’m glad that Josh put his energy and excitement into the seminar.

After the seminar I headed back to the exhibition hall for my last set of meetings. After three days at the conference I managed to book 30 meetings with some of the top affiliate companies out there! If I were to try to book these meetings in-person without a conference like Affiliate Summit it would definitely cost north of $20,000…that’s why these conferences are really worth every penny!

david_taylorThe closing keynote at Affiliate Summit West was hands-down one of the best talks I’ve ever been to in my life. I can honestly say that the talk did change my life and outlook in 2011 and David Taylor made it all possible! The topic for the closing keynote was Listen to This! Achieving Work/Life Balance.

In this seminar David touched on some points that directly related to my life and how I balance my time. At one point during his talk he asked the audience, “How many of you have a weekend day where you do absolutely no work,” a small percentage of the crowd raised their hands. I thought to myself…well really no day goes by with absolutely no work…but that’s going to change!

David explained how overworked we all are and for good reason, many of us are working for the toughest boss in the world – ourselves! I find that I always push myself, which is a good thing, but sometimes I can go to far. Getting a good night’s sleep, spending time with family and friends, these are things we need in life but sometimes deprive ourselves of.

After leaving the closing keynote I had some great ideas for how to better balance my life this year and I’ll be sharing those with all of you in a separate post. I left Affiliate Summit West on a chilly Vegas afternoon more inspired than ever. Not only did this conference set my business up for 2011…it really helped me realize what’s important and how to set realistic priorities in 2011.

I would like to give a huge personal thanks for Shawn and Missy for putting on one of the best conferences I have ever attended. Many conferences are fun and educational, few change your life, this conference changed my life and put me in an incredible place for 2011. So if you’re thinking about attending an Affiliate Summit stop thinking and start doing – Affiliate Summit East is coming-up in New York City this August…will you be there?

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton