We’re Back! Affiliate Summit West Recap & Recoup

We’re back from Affiliate Summit West and ready for a little R&R – Recap & Recoup! After a big conference it’s important to take care of both the business side of life as well as the personal side of life. Here is our list post-conference must-dos.

Recap the conference

Take a moment to write down your thoughts on the conference. What were you favourite sessions, parties, restaurants, moments, et la? What were your least favourite parts of the event? This is good information to have next year when looking at your conference schedule.

Look at your notes!

I have amazing brainstorming sessions at conferences with my fellow team, clients and new contacts. Typically I write notes down on anything I can find – business cards, napkins, scrap paper, etc. It is so important to gather all these notes up when you get back and review them. Otherwise you are going to forget what the heck you were talking about!

Sort contacts and follow up

I’m sure you have an overwhelming stack of business cards staring at you right now. Do yourself a favour and sort them by interest level. Follow up with the most important contacts on Monday, then work your way through the rest of them. Need some advice on follow ups? See below…

For Merchants – motivate new signups!

For those of you who had time to setup a Co-Branded Page with a built in Auto-Tag, do you have a few new affiliates tagged with SIGNUP FROM – ASW14? If so, check out a great way to activate and motivate these new affiliates with incentives via Commission Rules by Tag!

Review your goals

In my previous post “10 To-Do’s Before ASW“, I mentioned the importance of writing down goals. If you did write down your goals – review them! Not only will this bring you full circle with the conference, but it will also be great information to share with your boss or team.

It’s impressive work if you can present the following to your boss:

• Your pre-conference goals
• What you learned and how you can apply it
• Who you met and why they are valuable
• A comparison of your pre-conference goals and actual accomplishments
• Your post-conference goals

No doubt there was someone or some company who treated you nicely at the show – whether that was taking you out to dinner, hosting an event, sponsoring the show, or otherwise just giving you a great idea to help you in your business.

Email them and say “Thank You”!

This does 2 things.

1. It is one of the easiest ways to follow up and gives you a great icebreaker to also either ask a question or propose a business deal.
2. People remember who reaches out – it makes you look good, and it makes you look professional.

I’ll even give you a place to start!  Here are some people you should thank:

1. Missy Ward and Shawn Collins – co-founders of Affiliate Summit, they put together an amazing show and while yes, you do have to pay to attend, they do a ton of extra work to make sure that you get the most bang for your buck.
2. The show sponsors.   This is often overlooked, but these sponsors are a big help to the show being put on.  If you get a lot out of attending, you should thank them for their involvement – as it will reinforce their good feelings about sponsoring and make it more likely for them to do so again (thus allowing you another opportunity to attend!)

Go to sleep

Sleep will help your body recoup from a week’s worth of indulgence, mental strain, talking and whatever else you did. If you have to be in the office today, here are a few tips for pulling off a nap at work…

Get some exercise

Not only will it help you sleep better, but it will invigorate your body and clear the mental fog you have right now. If you are used to the same routine, switch it up a bit. Try one of the thirty-minute workout routines from Shape.

Take a mental break

It’s true that sleeping and working out could be considered a mental break. But I mean – go out and do something fun in your town or city! Stroll down the lake path, go for a hike, play board games at your local pub, meet up with your friends, visit a puppy — just get out!

Do your laundry immediately

Don’t roll your eyes. As soon as you walk in the door, unzip your suitcase, sort your clothes and put a load of laundry in the washer. You will feel so much better. Plus, you will be able to start sleeping, working out and taking mental breaks without having to worry about the messy suitcase.