Event Wrapup

On Tuesday 20th April LinkShare held its second annual Symposium UK at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre amidst the stunning views of Westminster.  Over 230 managers and executives from our Advertiser and Publisher partners attended a combination of networking and learning aimed at Targeting Your Efforts – in 2010 and beyond.

Tuesday morning’s events began with opening remarks from Liane Dietrich, Managing Director of LinkShare UK.  Liane welcomed the audience and made a shout out to all those that were unable to attend due to the air travel disruption caused by the Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced “Hey, ya fergot La Yogurt” courtesy of the New York Times) volcano earlier in the week.  Undeterred, many attendees had travelled large distances despite the disruptions. 

Liane re-capped some of the highlights of the past 12 months through the mantra of Easy, Fast and Open which has been defining how LinkShare has been enhancing the Advertiser and Publisher experience.  Liane highlighted #tweetshop as an example of how Fast LinkShare was in creating a solution for affiliates to make the most of the much discussed Social Media advancement and the Bento Box as an Open way for us to give quick access to tools such as Voucher Finder and 3rd Party Apps that can speed up productivity.

Liane then looked ahead to the future explain some current themes that LinkShare have been seeing – how consumers have evolved into information shoppers, how social media enthusiasts are leading the way in affiliate marketing and how the development of the mobile internet will increase the importance of a continually connected consumer.

Charlie Osmond, the founder of social media agency FreshNetworks, then led our TrendWatch session on Social Media: Trends and Opportunities.  Charlie provided great insight into the breadth and depth of social media and online communities.  I was most struck by the announcement that Facebook is visited twice as often as Google in the workplace.  With some fantastic anecdotes and case studies Charlie showed just how you can use social media to drive traffic and conversion. Charlie received numerous questions about these trends as it became clear how important it is to develop an ongoing conversation with your audience.

Next up, Liane lead a lively thought-leadership panel discussion on current issues affecting affiliate marketers today.  The panel included Georgie Coleridge Cole, founder of luxury directory SheerLuxe; Simon James from MoneySuperMarket.com and Duncan Popham founder of the agency Total Search Solutions. They discussed advancing the never-ending conversations regarding the attribution question and meeting the needs of evolving consumer behaviour.

After a reviving lunch break we heard from Wishpot, OSOYOU, TheNod and PeToBa on where their businesses are and key learnings garnered from their affiliate marketing experience.  Interestingly, many of them highlighted the need for precise product feeds to advance affiliate marketing practices.

One of the highlights of Symposium is always the afternoon’s DealMaker networking session.  DealMaker offers a rare opportunity for Publishers and Advertisers to meet face-to-face, discuss plans and opportunities for 2010 and help strengthen existing business relationships to drive more revenue.  The DealMaker room was packed with more tables then ever as attendees spent three hours meeting new contacts and getting reacquainted with their peers. Advertisers benefit from meeting face-to-face with Publishers to understand the value of their Websites and their business models.  For many Publishers, Dealmaker represents an opportunity to meet Advertisers in person for the first time and convey to them why they can be a valuable asset in helping them reach their online objectives.

LinkShare Symposium UK 2010 ended with a night of drinks and nibbles at The Mint Leaf Bar & Restaurant for the energetic after a long and successful day of networking.

A special thanks to all of our sponsors for making LinkShare Symposium UK 2010 such a success!

More photos here