It shocks me to this day that every affiliate manager on the planet is not flocking to Affiliate Management Days first chance they get. Some of the worlds biggest brands and most brilliant minds come together to share their expertise, network in an intimate setting and grow their skill sets together from an affiliate management and growth standpoint.

This was All Inclusive Marketing's fifth time speaking at AMDays. In my opinion, this was the best show yet, and if you're an affiliate manager or marketing manager responsible for your affiliates, do not miss another show. 

The food was great, the people even better, and the content was bang on. I spent the first day with my clients from Norton (Symantec) filming industry veterans on the value and benefits of affiliate marketing for businesses today. The gold nuggets that came out of every corner were incredible and I was elevated by the potential this industry will bring to the world once the positive message of what we do, that no other channel can do, gets out.

On the second day I was able to listen to some fantastic sessions. I also spoke on the second day and had three of the greatest compliments of the last decade shortly after my presentation, all of which meant the world to me:

1. The Global Affiliate Manager of one of the world's most loved brands (which rhymes with Snapple) told me he found my session extremely useful and that he took a lot out of it, only to follow up with an invitation to have my book, The Art of Performance Marketing (coming out later this year), set up in their bookstore.

2.  A Gentleman who works for one of the largest camera brands in the world told me he started reading my blog about two years ago, when he felt he already knew everything, and one particular post I put up made him start thinking about things so differently, he was able to change his mindset and learn exponentially more over the last two year because of a shift in perspective, which he got from this blog.

3. Todd Crawford, Co-Founder of Impact Radius, who I find one of the smartest people in our industry and who Keynoted at AMDays this year, told me he learned about 10 new things from my session. I thought he was being sarcastic but he assured me he was being entirely sincere. There were multiple pieces of information in my session he had never heard or thought of before. As someone I truly admire for his accomplishments and contributions to this industry, that meant a lot to me.

All in all, between the opportunity to meet phenomenally smart people who I learned more from, the relationships I built with key industry leaders and the opportunity to give back to truly push this industry forward made this event incredibly worthwhile.

If you're like to see the notes from the show, check out hashtag #AMDays on twitter. Congrats to Geno Prussakov for putting on such an important and useful event.

If you are a merchant in the affiliate marketing space and you haven't been to this show yet, this is a must attend event. It covers everything you need to be successful as a program manager and team leader. I hope to see you there!