What a fantastic couple of days it has been at the London A4U Expo. It genuinely does seem that each year gets better, with the usual faces and fresh new faces in abundance. The event must be one of the best networking events in the UK. We are usually such a reticent bunch – comparing US (where power networking is the norm) events to UK ones just highlights to me how bad we tend to be at chatting to people we don’t know. None of that has ever been in evidence at the A4U Expo’s though – where the atmosphere is always very welcoming and relaxed.

That said – the first thing I saw when I ascended up the escalator on the first morning was a short, menacing squirrel. Scary, really scary. The picture is blurry because my hands were literally shaking with fear!

It felt very familiar when we all got to the stand. We have had the same spot for a few years now and most of the CJ staff have been with us for all the Expos so we all knew what to expect. This year we were next to our good friends and client Argos who had their own stand for the second year running so that they could meet with existing and new affiliates.

David Harding at the Argos Stand

Daniel Powel was speaking in two sessions. The first, on the first day was ‘Feeds can do WHAT?!’ which basically went in depth into the importance of feeds in the industry. He spoke with Robert from FusePump and Charlie from Thomson about the new Thomson feed. Any worries about scheduling conflicts with the Affiliate Doctors proved unfounded – the room was packed out. I am sure that the Existem boys and girls will be sharing the presentations if you missed out, or if you want a copy just email on admin@cjblog.co.uk.

The second session was the IAB panel about what the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council does for the industry. Lots of hot debate here – a bit disappointing that there wasn’t more time to field more questions but a good session none the less.

We had a good CJ crew out for all the networking, some sore heads were on display both in the office and on the stand. Lots of excited chatter about ‘I had a great conversation with so and so….’, ‘did you know that this person is developing…..’ as well as the obligatory industry gossip so all in all a great show once again.

As always A4U team, a job well done. Congratulations on another great show and thanks for keeping us involved!