First off – this particular Affiliate Summit (my 2nd summit) was made particular awesome due to two reasons.

1) Ian Fernando inviting me to his private dinner.

2) Adam and the EliteProfits.com team sponsoring part of the dinner and balling out at Club Touch.

I have to say that it was indeed quite an opportunity to take part in Ian’s dinner. If you ever get the chance to go, you’d be dumb not to. It was at a very unique and upscale restaurant only a few blocks away from the conference hotel. There were about 20 or so people in attendance including the sponsors and everyone got to share and learn from each other in a great setting. Really gotta give it up to Ian for letting me come through.

Now another thing that made the dinner so great was the fact that Adam from EliteProfits handed everyone in attendance a vintage 2000 bottle of Dom Perignon! I can definitely say without a doubt that everyone was very very happy with their gift. EliteProfits didn’t stop there though. After running into Adam at the exhibition hall, he invited me to come hang out with his crew at Club Touch in VIP. I thought for sure since I was going there anyway later on and he and his crew were super cool at the dinner.
Biz Markee was due to perform there although he made a quick one song appearance…lame. Nonetheless, that didn’t ruin the party for anyone who was hanging out with EliteProfits. Our table definitely had the grey goose flowing all night courtesy of EliteProfits. I think we had the best spot in the club too. It was definitely a good time getting to talk to Adam about AM as well as meet and talk with the rest of his crew.

Later on in the night we got to chilling in the upper level and I got to meet a lot of affiliates I had only read or heard about like Dennis Yu as well as chill out with Ian and Ad Hustler. This is pretty much the point of the story where the rest is forgotten or withheld haha.

I have to say though that it definitely wouldn’t have been as good of a weekend without EliteProfits throwing it down. Up until recently, they had been a completely private network. These guys have been in the industry since the heyday and definitely know how to look out for their affiliates and most of all they actually know what they are talking about. When I talked to Adam I knew he knew his stuff and that he had done it and continues to make stuff happen in affiliate marketing for himself as well as his affiliates.

I highly suggest you check out EliteProfits today and get in touch with Adam. This is one network you do not want to miss out on.

After you’ve done that, check out this slideshow from the party: Slideshow

So here’s the lowdown on ASE 09 in NYC  (I can’t believe it’s already time)

Truth is ASE is look like its going to be A LOT more scaled back than ASW Vegas was. The reason for this is likely that NYC is expensive as sh** to try to do anything on a large scale.

It seems as though there are a lot of private, invite-only parties/dinners and that’s the route most networks are opting to take. Nonetheless there should be some events here and there to keep your interest. Here are some things to look out for:

• ShareaSale is having a sick looking rooftop party on top of the Empire Hotel. Details for the party and how to get in are here. I don’t know much about ShareaSale except that I won a stuffed panda bear from them back at ASW 09 and they seem like a fun network.

• WF members are looking to have their own impromptu meetup at a lounge/club and if that doesn’t work out one of the members is just going to get us a suite and pay for all the “goods.”

• For a complete list of events, check out this post at Branding100.

• A good idea to remain in touch and up to date is to get on twitter. Just tonight, AdHustler posted a thread on WF for everyone to post their twitter usernames. It makes it MUCH easier to know what’s going on at the moment and where your friends are at/ people you just met. Twitter was huge back at ASW and pretty much everyone was either glued to that or the #cakes channel on IRC. If you’re on twitter, get at me: twitter.com/rohailr

• Meetup202 will be having a huge meetup during ASE, although details are still unannounced.

Even though the summit appears to be scaled back in terms of networks throwing events, I have a pretty good feeling there is going to be A LOT to gain just from attending. Even if you’re a newbie or a seasoned affiliate, networking in this industry is always a plus.