Up bright and early on the second morning for a quick 5 mile run before breakfast and down to the RAI for 9.30. Unfortunately I missed the first session as we had to have a meeting to discuss our upcoming presentation. I was disappointed not to be there for Auke and Menker’s session on where they see the role of media agencies going forward.
Second up on was the panel session that I was involved in, Standardisation, Self Governance and Self Regulation as an industry – can it become a reality, catchy title eh? Joining me on the panel were Alistair Nichols of Webgains, Helen Southgate of DGM and Pete Wilson of PLatform A’s buy.at. I felt that our presentation didn’t really match the topic but that was only a starter to the main course of the Q+A, which was really lively and informative. Topics discussed included should last click win, should affiliate managers be allowed to be affiliates and who should be responsible for policing the industry.
Moving on, I attended the cashback session which I found a little disappointing. After an excellent intro from Kevin Edwards of Affiliate Window the session went a little stale and the final quarter was a sales pitch for Nectar. I thought this was a real opportunity to discuss and overcome some of the concerns merchants have about working with cashback sites and I’m sorry to say, an opportunity missed.
After lunch I attended another session that I really enjoyed. Transparency and Affiliates – is there a benefit? 
Chaired by fellow City fan Ewan Darby of neo@ogilvy, accompanied by Lori from Kodak, Sebastien from SonyStyle and Albrecht from CJ. I know I bang on about it a bit too much, but I think transparency both ways is vital to growing this industry and this was a balanced look at the issues with significant opportunities for audience participation, which I took advantage of.
The final session of the day was Chris Tradgett of AOL’s Ad.com’s Platform A’s buy.at talking about The Use of Video in Performance Marketing. Again, another sales pitch and didn’t really answer the questions regarding the benefits to affiliates of integrating video within their sites.
After that a quick hour or so at the Beach Party which was a really nice way of rounding things off, before I had to dash to Schipol to fly back to the UK.
Overall, another great success and I’d like to add to the multitude of voices who have already thanked and congratulated all at Existem for another great show. Matt, Chris, Ingrid, Claire, Nick, Pete and Darian worked tirelessly in making everything run smoothly and even managed to fit a bit of fun in along the way.
Roll on London in October…
