Event Highlights

This year’s Symposium East brought over 500 Advertisers and Publishers together at New York’s Chelsea Piers to put their networking skills to the test, and to celebrate the best and brightest stars of online performance marketing. A combination of learning and deal making, LinkShare Symposium East 2010 provided Advertisers and Publishers with incredible opportunities to discover Fresh Ideas and New Relationships. There were some significant changes to this year’s event that had attendees talking and many attendees remarked throughout the event that this was the best Symposium ever! 

LinkShare University

First, the day prior to Symposium East, there was LinkShare University held at the the luxurious Trump SoHo in downtown Manhattan. About 20 Advertisers participated in a full day of best practice sessions designed to help Affiliate Marketing Managers increase revenue while understanding the needs of Publishers. What better way than with hands-on training combined with lively discussions with Publishers. There was no shortage of questions as attendees acquired best practice information just in time to plan for the second half of 2010.

Symposium East Keynote Address

Symposium East started bright and early the next day at the standing room only general session where LinkShare Event Manager, Sara Gorlick, kicked the day off by welcoming the crowd and introducing Yaz Iida, the CEO of LinkShare. Yaz welcomed the crowd, thanked the sponsors of the event, and briefly spoke about future global opportunities that LinkShare's parent company Rakuten is creating through its acquisition strategy. Then Yaz introduced Ben Harris, Director of Product Management who spoke about recent product advancements including enhancements related to deep linking and a new feature called Additional Link Parameters for integrating LinkShare data with 3rd party Web analytics applications. Ben also covered highlights of the product roadmap with the highlight being the announcement of the new Advertiser Dashboard Beta which will be available this summer.

The next speakers were Melissa Feemster, Vice President of Performance Marketing Services and Adam Weiss, Vice President of Network Development. Melissa and Adam provided the crowd with examples of how Advertisers and Publishers are using LinkShare's latest product enhancements to increase revenue and drive conversion. They also highlighted innovative promotions that Advertisers and Publishers are using today to grow their Affiliate Marketing programs and their overall business. Melissa cited promotion examples including one from The Limited and Savings.com. Adam highlighted how Publishers are getting the word out about their sites including through TV Commercials (Ebates) and advertising at professional football games(Fabulous Savings).

Our first keynote speaker was Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. Sucharita’s presentation focused on the evolving dynamics of E-Commerce and why the future is bright for performance marketing. This presentation provided guests with some great insights into why E-Commerce will continue to grow at a fast pace and some practical advice on how to leverage those trends. Many attendees commented throughout the day on the value of Sucharita's presentation and the insights it provided for their online marketing initiatives.  

Trendwatch 2010 

The second keynote session was a panel discussion titled Affiliate Marketing in today's E-Commerce Landscape. Moderated by Scott Allan, Senior Director of Marketing at LinkShare, participants included Drugstore.com, The North Face, Extrabux, Crocs and TheFind. The discussion spanned a wide variety of topics including conversion rates, data feeds, coupons and discounts, mobile commerce and the panelists plans for going global.

2010 Golden Link Awards Luncheon

After a busy morning, the audience made their way to the beautifully appointed ballroom for the 2010 LinkShare Golden Link Awards. The room was at capacity for lunch as Symposium attendees continued networking through lunch and anxiously awaited the announcement of the winners. Following lunch, hilarious opening remarks from our hosts.

This year the Golden Link Awards were hosted by members from the comedy troupe called the Upright Citizens Brigade. As they introduced the presenters for each award they cracked jokes and interacted with the audience keeping them laughing throughout the event. As always the winners were thrilled and spirits were high as everyone made their way to the DealMaker session in the afternoon.

New award categories included Affiliate Marketing Manager of the Year (winner: Gus Brito of TigerDirect) and OPMAgency of the year (winner: The JAR Group).  There was wild applause for all the winners and nominees as CheapOair and Savings.com collected their awards in the Publisher and Advertiser Choice categories. Check out the complete list of award winners.

DealMaker

As always the DealMaker Networking session was crowded as attendees made their way through over 55 different sponsor tables in the Lighthouse Room of Chelsea Piers. This space provided attendees with a great view of the Hudson River as they put their networking and deal making skills to the test.

A great mix of Advertisers and Publishers new to the network as well as long established partners provided for an exciting and vibrant afternoon of discovery, information sharing, and of course DealMaking!

Even after 3 hours of DealMaker the room was still full at 6:00pm as several sponsors closed the session by raffling off some fantastic prizes including phones, software and lots of gift certificates for great products and services.

Celebrating in Style at the Biergarten at the Standard Hotel

To wrap-up a fantastic day, attendees gathered on this stylish indoor & outdoor venue in the meatpacking district of Manhattan. The fabulous ambiance, food and music provided the perfect backdrop for wrapping up great day.

Many attendees commented that LinkShare Symposium events just keep getting better and better! And not only did the event meet the expectations of sponsors and attendees, it was also a lot of fun!

The entire LinkShare team would like to take this opportunity to thank our generous sponsors for their support, enthusiasm, and dedication to making LinkShare Symposium East and the LinkShare Golden Link Awards the premier Performance Marketing event in the industry.