My day at Ad:Tech

I was up at Ad:Tech yesterday to talk on a panel about affiliate marketing.
Some quick observations:

>Lines to get into panels - I'd never seen that before, I'm assuming previously that people went to the exhibit hall; but due to the high attendance people wanted to make sure they got a seat.
>Not as much actionable material as some other conferences. I heard this from other folks - the sessions ideas were great, but it would have been more helpful if the moderators had pulled a few top ideas from each of the panelists.
>A chance to meet Warren Pickett in person. He'd done a great job organizing things, so it was nice to meet him.
>According to eMarketer, online sales will grow 18.5% this year. There's more growth in spending per person, than there is in the number of people going online to shop.
>Best viral marketing - the agency for Pleo, which had set one out on a table and was chatting with people stopping by. Apparently, they've been in damage control mode, since it's now coming out 2 years later than promised. Having never seen one in person, they're very cool.

Ad:Tech

I'm speaking at the very last panel, at AdTech on Thursday, on Affiliate Marketing. Aside from wondering how many people will be in attendance, I'm curious about the exhibit hall schedule. It appears the exhibit hall is only open Monday and Tuesday. I know in past years, that Hilton in NYC has appeared completely overloaded, but I've never heard of a conference with an exhibit hall that shuts down with two full conference days to go.

Speaking at Conferences

I'm speaking at ad:tech in November. I saw this post on the nature of speaking on panels at conferences. Some good thoughts on how you put a conference together, without relying too much on people trying to sell their products.