A4U Expo Europe Round Up From Optimus Performance Marketing
The first international A4U expo took place last week in the RAI center, Amsterdam and the Optimus Performance Marketing team decided to head over and see how the Europeans do it. So at 4am on the Monday morning our long journey began. Mark, Lorraine (Mark’s wife) and myself headed to Dover to pick up Bruce and catch the ferry over to Dunquerke. After a long drive, the ferry journey consisted of a lot of coffee, some food, work and a last minute run through of presentations.
We finally arrived at the Novotel just over 12 hours later after a great drive through France, Belgium and Holland (with a few stop offs for more sweets and petrol). We headed straight over to the RAI center to set up our stand – see below;
The first night was a casual party where you could register and pick up your wrist band, lanyard and expo brochure whilst saying hi to a few old faces and a few new faces. The venue was great and provided the ideal opportunity to relax into the beginning of the event and begin the week of serious networking!
We were all up bright and early the next morning to finish off the stand and catch the opening speech. Mark gave yet another well received presentation ‘Affiliate Managers Toolkit‘ then headed back to the stand to relieve me (Hannah) to go and give my presentation on effective content writing. The rest of the day was spent chatting to various industry people and getting a real insight into the various European markets.
That night provided yet another chance to network with another party! After the football we all headed over to the venue ‘Escape’ and partied the night away!
Day 2 of expo saw a few hung-over faces appearing and lots of coffee being drunk. There was another great day of presentations to attend and we managed some meetings with various merchants, affiliates and leading UK networks. Yet another networking party to round off the expo that evening and a few well deserved drinks later and it was all over! Although we did manage to catch the beginnings of the Queens Day celebrations!
Overall it was a resounding success so a massive thanks to Matt, Claire, Ingrid, Julie, Chris, Pete, Darian, and Nick who all worked so hard to ensure the smooth running of the event. A4U expo Europe was not just a chance to go abroad and see old friends, but it was a great chance to meet key affiliates, merchants and networks from the UK and Europe, helping to get a better understanding of who they are, how they work and the different markets and needs. It was a jam packed few days with lots of hard work, lots of laughs and lots of new friends and contacts. Here is to the next one!
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