One thing you can always guarantee is that there will be plenty of parties to attend at affiliate trade shows.

Affiliate Summit West 2010 was no exception.

The challenge when it comes to parties at trade show are many.

The first thing is knowing which parties are going to be good.

The second thing is to be invited to the parties that are going to be good.

The third thing is not to make a horses arse of yourself by getting hammered.

The fourth thing is knowing when to call it a night, after all you are there for a trade show, not to lie in bed with a hang over.

As a general rule I don’t bust a gut trying to get invited to parties hosted by people I don’t work with now and have no intention of working with in the future. I also don’t dash round the floor getting wrist bands for parties and then don’t show up. The organisers of parties go to a lot of trouble to put them on.

I heard people walking away from some parties saying they sucked because not every drink was free.

If the only reason someone goes to the party is that they have a free bar, then you are a little on the shallow side.

The other thing, if you do go to a party, don’t drink something you wouldn’t be prepared to pay for yourself. So if you normally drink Coors Lite, don’t go drinking Patron just because it is a free bar.

One of the biggest challenges for us Brits going to West Coast trade shows is having to contend with an 8 hour time zone difference.

To combat that this time I switched my working hours in the UK a week before the show and I had been going to bed at around 5am GMT in the run up to Affiliate Summit West 2010, so by the time I got to Las Vegas I was pretty much in the right time zone. Admittedly 5am is like 9pm in Vegas, but it still helped my body clock a lot.

I arrived in Vegas on the Friday, had a few drinks in the bar with Lyndon Reid, Michael Martin and many more besides.

On Saturday night was the party that I always look forward to and always have a great time at.

The party is thrown by buy.at. I think this is the 3rd US Affiliate Summit buy.at party I have been to and they have yet to disappoint.

I know the UK buy.at network was under-pinned by their ability to throw great parties, and other networks could learn a lot from the way the party is organised.

This year’s venue was Rain at The Palms hotel, and it coincided that their resident world class DJ Paul Oakenfold was playing that night. He did a 3 and a half hour set from 1am.

I heard a few people complain that it was too late when he started, but the buy.at team had no control over when he went on. The club itself was rammed, the line to get in I am told was enormous, but as we were guests of buy.at we had none of that to contend with.

Charlie Calabrese and his team really know how to throw a great party, they rented the entire top floor VIP area, they had soundproof cabanas so if you wanted to talk a little business you were not going to have to shout. They also realised that it was better to invite women of the industry rather than hire in females to look the part.

I shot some video footage of Oakenfold at various stages in the evening. I always forget I have my Flip camera with me. Must try harder in future.

Enjoy the footage and thanks again Charlie and the team, you guys are orsom .

Paul Oakenfold Opens His Set During The buy.at Party At Rain In The Palms Hotel

Paul Oakenfold At The buy.at Party – Snow, Then Fire At Rain In The Palms Hotel.

So, in the blink of an eye another Affiliate Summit West has come and gone.

It seems there was a record number of attendees (in excess of 4,000).

This was the first Affiliate Summit where I travelled alone. Previously I had worked for other companies, been representing my own company or gone to the show with colleagues. I was 100% on my own.

The main reason for being at the show was to speak on a panel which I originally suggested on CPA affiliate marketing in Europe.

I also shot some video footage at various parties including the video below which has @kristy and @cshel in a bath tub with Nick who I had met at previous trade shows but for whatever reason I couldn’t remember meeting. Maybe it’s the first sign of old age…. no wait, grey hair has beat the lost memory to that claim.

Anyway, I am going to post several times about the show, I just wanted to get the video up as I had promised the girls I would do it.

The bath tub (for those that are interested) was in the Hardwood Suite at the Palms – the one with the basketball court. For an exclusive party it seemed weird. I met more than a handful of people who were nothing to do with the industry, they had somehow talked their way in to get free booze, which is a shame for the sponsors of the party.

Right so here is the vid.

Let the girls and Nick know what you thought of their performance in the tub by leaving comments.