This year’s Affiliate Marketing Conference and Exhibition was so well organised and produced, if you didn’t attend you’ll have to take my word that a4uexpo 20009 was one of the best events I’ve ever attended.

Set in the ExCeL, which is a brilliant venue (FOWA was hosted here during 2007/8), the event covered several floors. There was the expo area, and 3 large conference rooms. Throughout the two days, the conferences rooms were pretty much full all day, with interesting talks and panels. What I enjoyed about a4u is that there wasn’t much of the one-man shows, there tended to be a panel of experts on stage at any one time, so you never got bored. There was so much variety, if you weren’t interested in a certain panel, you could easily attend something else in an adjacent room.

Panels, panels, galore! I must say, one of the most interesting panels I attended over the two days was that of SeatWave, GigLocator, Spotify and ShareMyPlaylists talking about launch strategies; VC Funded vs Bootstrap. How to survive, and when to market yourself and create a buzz.

The expo hall had free refreshments all day; fruit, chocolate and soft drinks. On the subject of freebies, lunch was a gorgeous home-made pizza, cooked fresh on the venue, I believe. Dinner was provided at the after party, a choice of fish and chips or chicken curry with rice, the bar was open all night (on Matthew Wood’s credit card I’ll have you know!). These little touches make a huge difference, and are where so many event organisers get it wrong.

It was certainly a different scene to the usual London Tech events, but everyone was doing something interesting, and it’s good to see a different crow. I highly recommend attending the next a4uexpo if you’re an affiliate or online merchant. You might learn a thing or two.