Guest Blogger, Liz Gazer, Affiliate Manager, Rugman.com

In the high-speed, virtual business world of Affiliate Marketing, it’s easy to forget that there are live bodies and real people behind the merchant names, behind the online message board posts, and behind the network account IDs.

Thanks to the hard work and initiative of industry leaders like Shawn Collins and others like him, symposiums like the Affiliate Summit bring the driving forces behind e-commerce together for an adrenaline-laced stretch of unbelievable encouragement and inspiration.

All angles and levels of expertise aside- networking and schmoozing seemed to be the names of the game for all convention attendees. As participants forged relationships by sharing thoughts & insights in the corridors, cafes, and bars of the antiquated Riviera casino & hotel, the mounting energy was nothing short of tangible.

A heavy mix of merchants, networks and solution providers, Affiliate Summit 2005 (Las Vegas) was a four-day whirlwind rush of networking events, panel discussions, and presentations.

Topics ranged from the ever-popular: What Affiliates Want, to the controversial: Affiliates bidding on Trademarks, to the standing-room only: “Recruiting Affiliates”. They ebbed from the all-powerful: Effects of CAN-SPAM on Affiliate Marketers, and flowed to the contentious: Stephen Messer of Linkshare’s debatable warning that Google is not our friend.

Although most of the discussion topics were advertiser-oriented, a large handful of enthusiastic affiliates braved the dry desert heat, for the chance to shake hands and clink glasses with their merchant counterparts, to strengthen existing relationships, and of course- to forge new ones.

Next year’s Summit may profit from splitting seminars into tracks by level of savoir faire, and by attracting a more balanced ratio of merchants to affiliates, or solutions providers to merchants. And while Summits thereafter may benefit from bigger, color-coded name tags, a more prestigious venue, and more timely presentations and discussions, let us all be reminded that despite the fast-moving nature of our business, the Affiliate Marketing industry as a whole is still in its infancy, as are industry meetings like the Affiliate Summit.

It’s been rumored that we all have to start somewhere, and I for one am inclined to agree. I look forward to being a continuing part of such an exciting, progressive industry as it sits peeking, on the verge of adolescence.

As the politicians of the Affiliate Marketing world continue to seek out legislation in efforts to blur lines between online and offline business standards, people like Shawn Collins and his network of initiators lead the way with flaming torch. They provide remote and/or secluded online marketers, a chance to get away from behind our monitors, to have our voices heard, and to recognize that we’re not in this thing alone.

I look forward to the day when we can all look back and reminisce about the times when the Affiliate Summit was at the ‘archaic’ Riviera, when ‘only’ 500 people attended, and when we had to ‘squint to read each other’s name tags,’ wondering who were the advertisers, who were the publishers, and who were the solutions providers.

My number one take-away from Affiliate Summit 2005: Relationships are more than just a buzz word. They take real effort and real work, for real results.

It may be easy in the virtual business world to turn the other cheek, and to pretend our online partnerships are no partnerships at all. But is that smart marketing? Ola Eversson, (CEO, Performancy Inc.) Affiliate Summit 2005 speaker on Partner Marketing for the Long Term would shout a resounding, “Absolutely not!”

Here’s to hoping we get to shake hands and clink glasses at Affiliate Summit, 2006.

Click here to find out what makes Rugman.com one of the most trusted home décor partners on the web today!