Adult Intersects With Mainstream Tech at Affiliate Summit East

LOS ANGELES—The tech side of adult entertainment came out in force for the recent Affiliate Summit East as more than a dozen companies sent executives to the annual show in New York. The conference hosted more than 5,500 attendees for three days of multiple tracks of educational sessions delivered by digital industry experts July 31-Aug. 2 at the Marriott Marquis. Attendees at Affiliate Summit events come from six main categories: affiliate, affiliate management, advertiser, OPM/agency, solution provider, and network. Affiliates typically account for about a quarter of attendees at Affiliate Summit. Shawn Collins and Missy Ward, co-founders of Affiliate Summit, bring more than 32 years of combined experience in the area of affiliate marketing to the show which launched in 2003. The Affiliate Summit Inc. brand now also includes Performance Marketing Summit, FeedFront Magazine, GeekCast.fm, AffStat.com and ReveNews.com. Among the adult companies present this year were Mindgeek, Traffic Partner, Traffic Stars, Affimobiz, VIP Offers/Iballers, Click Ballers, Media Reps, Mobidea, Exoclick, DateYard, Mistral, Advidi, Glize/BrokerBabe, MojoHost and AVN Media Network. “I enjoyed Affiliate Summit East,” said Brad Mitchell, CEO of MojoHost. “I thought it was a refreshing change to interact with a broader base of vendors and affiliates. We found it extremely productive for MojoHost and I expect to have a continued presence at future shows.” Mitchell added, “I was happy to make new relationships, prospect new leads and even ended up doing business with more than one company whom I had met previously at Internext. I was surprised by the sheer volume of attendees and had never been to a conference with so many before. Having experienced almost 200 conferences in the last 17 years, I believe I was able to identify a great strategy for attending future Affiliate Summits and generating substantial returns.” Roy Salter, vice president of AVN Media Network, echoed Mitchell’s sentiments. “After attending Affiliate Summit East for the past 10 years, it's nice to see that adult is being accepted and there are synergies between the mainstream companies and the adult companies,” Salter said. Meanwhile, Missy Ward, co-founder of Affiliate Summit, acknowledged the robust adult presence, noting the influence these executives have in their respective fields. “While we do not permit adult companies to sponsor/exhibit, we appreciate the role these companies play in the performance marketing space as pioneers and innovators,” Ward told AVN. “We also recognize that a segment of these marketers also promote mainstream products and services. It's great to see their strong showing each Affiliate Summit." Visit AffiliatesSummit.com for more information about the show.