The Affiliate Summit 2006 in Las Vegas earlier this week was great. I met tons of interesting people doing innovative things. I think the final tally for the conference was something like 1,200 attendees with 400 more on a waiting list. Wow. That’s a far cry from the humble beginnings just three years ago when about 300 affiliates took a cruise to Nova Scotia.

While some of the “old timers” recalled those cruising days with fondness, most others claimed that being trapped on a ship with no escape, having a roommate in a cramped cabin and feeling seasick for three days wasn’t their idea of a good time. No one, however, seemed to mind being land locked in the desert with strippers, an abundance of booze and an infinite number of ways to lose their hard earned commissions. Go figure.

The whole shebang kicked off Sunday evening with a speed dating-like networking event. I was dreading this part of the conference. I opted not to meet with anyone but made myself available if people wanted to meet with me. Turns out that each participant had a total of eight “dates”. Four of mine were no shows. To the 50 percent that blew me off (you know who you are) I will be marking this down on your permanent record. You’re now officially on my list.

Thanks to our host Shawn Collins for pointing out my shame. I’ll be sure to call him next time I have another embarrassing moment that I want highlighted for all to see. However, fear not, I wasn’t sitting alone sad and pathetic as originally imagined. I actually ended up chatting with some other great folks who were also stood up – Brian Littleton, CEO of Shareasale.com , spyware expert Ben Edelman and blogging guru Dave Taylor among them. My conversations with those folks were far more interesting than what any of you no-shows wanted to chat about anyway. So there!

The keynote, which was generously slated for 10am to accommodate the late night imbibers, was enlightening. It was packed with fascinating facts and figures and keynoter Anne Holland, publisher of MarketingSherpa, had an engaging style. But one thing puzzled me. Anne appeared oblivious on stage to the bird (yes, a bird inside a Bally’s event hall) that flew in her path at least a dozen times.

Later she informed me that she had in fact seen the bird and was alerted to its presence even before she began her speech. The man who hooked up Holland’s wireless microphone told her that over the years he has often mic’ed Wayne Newton. Anne quizzed the AV man on how Wayne might handle such a situation. She was told that Wayne, being the consummate performer, would not acknowledge the bird and would simply go on with the show as planned. So, Holland explained to me that every time the bird whizzed by, she would just ask herself ‘what would Wayne do?’ then she would compose herself and continue without missing a beat. The speech was great, so all I can say to Anne – and Wayne – is danka schoen.

Following that keynote I was all revved up for the Future of Affiliate Marketing track. As mentioned in a previous post, I was expecting the sparks to fly since Commission Junction had recently ousted Azoogle from its network and executives from both companies were joining an esteemed panel.

I didn’t expect any screaming matches, but at the very least I was anticipating some lively and provocative discussion. However, the entire hour was disappointing and pretty lackluster. The moderator, Peter Figueredo, CEO of NETexponent, just could never get it together to ask a coherent question that didn’t have eight parts and require a two-minute preface from him. By the time panel members were called upon to respond, they either forgot the questions or the audience did.

That entire session was a can of gasoline and Figueredo only had to light the match. Instead I watched him spend an hour rubbing two sticks together with no resulting sparks. At the end, he called for audience questions. There were none. Not a surprise since most attendees just woke up from the snooze fest. Truthfully, I spent most of the session huddled with Edelman commenting on the questions we would have asked the panel.

However, it was clear from the session that LinkShare’s VP Steve Denton is likely the smartest guy regardless of what room he enters. Also LowerMyBills.com’s affiliate manager Beth Kirsch garnered a rousing round of applause for her comments about the technology she’d like to see in the future. Kirsch let CJ’s vice president of sales, Todd Crawford, know that it would be nice if she were able to see the actual contact information for her affiliates.

Speaking of Kirsch, the longtime affiliate manager’s friendly rivalry with consultant Jeff Molander was highlighted with T-shirts that said Kirsch vs. Molander. Prior to the show, attendees were asked to notify host Shawn Collins or FlamingoWorld.com’s Connie Berg whether they would like the back of their shirts to read “Team Kirsch” or “Team Molander.” Like a good journalist, I declined to take sides.

But I’m not afraid to take sides on the Affiliate Summit Legend Award. I’m squarely in favor of honoring Wayne Porter for his extensive work in affiliate marketing dating back to the 1990’s. I can’t even list all of his vast accomplishments. He’s a fascinating guy and I wish he could have made it to the show. Jim Kukral, publisher of ReveNews, was there to accept on Wayne’s behalf.

I also really enjoyed Edelman’s speech on spyware. It was great fun to watch several executives attempting to look unfazed as Ben took the audience through meticulously documented examples of how their respective companies played some role in facilitating spyware.

My entire table was grinning throughout the presentation – mostly because of Edelman’s delivery. The Harvard Ph.D candidate has a boyishly handsome appearance along with sweet and earnest demeanor. Honestly, he looks like a kid. But he’s whip smart and scary good at bringing the facts to solidly back up every point he makes. It was hard not to giggle just a little when he mentioned that in the past big, bad spyware villain Claria had planted two men outside his Cambridge apartment to document his comings and goings.

Later that evening, while dining at N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms, I ran into LinkShare’s Denton, who was hosting a dinner for 45 of the network’s top affiliates. For me thinking about being trapped in a private room for a lavish and lengthy meal with 45 people that do nothing but marketing all day long, is a little frightening – kind of like being on that original Affiliate Summit Cruise.

The day ended at the Shareasale.com party in the MTV Real World suite at the Palm’s. The party was packed and everyone was buzzing about how much bigger the apartment looked on TV. I was happy to know that I wasn’t alone in my guilty pleasure of religiously watching the Real World. But it seems like I left too early to catch a glimpse of the hot tubbing that went on in the wee hours. Since I know most partygoers didn’t bring a swimsuit I’m hoping there were lots of bubbles in the tub, not just bubbly.

Finally for me, the roundtable discussions on Tuesday morning were informative (albeit way too short). And at the show I also had the chance to chat with Matthew Lesko. You know him. He’s the guy with the brightly colored suit with question marks all over it. His attitude about making business fun and not worrying about failure was enlightening (for me), and from what he told me about his previous business experiences, liberating (for him) as well.

I headed home to SF before the excitement of Jeff Molander shaking his booty at PartnerCentric’s decadent chocolate party at the Wynn, but I think I’m okay with that. There’s always next year.

Enjoy Friday the 13th, but don’t forget to let me know your experiences from the conference. lisap@revenuetoday.com