What Happened at ASW ’08?
Alrighty, Nickycakes is back from Vegas. It was awesome to say the least. Having never been to Sin City, it was pretty overwhelming at first. Nothing ever really closes, and it’s very hard to keep track if time, or even what part of a casino you’re in, so the entire week seems a little like one long ass day.
The airline related drama continued as United airlines proceeded to lose Nickycakes’ girl’s luggage. It ended up going back to Boston rather than Vegas, and stayed there till last night when she was able to pick it up. That meant a day of shoppin for new clothes and stuff at the outlets.
Anyway, here’s an overview of what happened at ASW. The Cakes wasn’t able to take as many pictures as he’d like, but there are a few here, and some are stolen from Andrea.
Day 1 (Saturday):
Nickycakes arrived in vegas around noon or so on Saturday, took a cab to the hotel after finding out that the retarded shuttle bus could take up to 2 hours to get there. Gold Coast hotel was a little on the ghetto side compared to some of the big expensive ones, but at $60 a night, with a bingo hall and bowling alley, you can’t lose. Met up with the girlfriend who had been on vacation for a month or so, made up for lost time, hit the Gold Coast buffet. Vegas buffets are awesome, btw. They will do pretty much anything to get you into their casino and spend money, so the food is always really good and really cheap. Had to go to the outlets to grab some clothes for the girl since united airlines lost her luggage, and then went out to dinner.
Geoff and a few other guys from Advaliant were nice enough to take Nickycakes and his girl out for dinner Saturday night at Nove Italiano. Food was bangin, and Cakes’ girl got sloshed off of 2 drinks. Chatted about affiliate type stuff like customer service and what factors set an affiliate network apart from the rest, which would set the theme for Nickycakes’ discussions with pretty much every other network for the rest of the stay in Vegas.
After dinner, Cakes headed back to Gold Coast to meet up with Nate, one of the dudes that hangs out on Wickedfire and IRC. Word on the street was that Eli from BlueHatSEO and Andrea from PlanetAndrea were hanging out at the Venetian, so thats where the crew headed. The Venetian is awesome, and kinda overwhelming at first. It’s got huge Sistine Chapel style ceilings and tons of fake sculptures and fountains everywhere. After meeting up, everyone ended up playin some video poker at some random bar while trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the night.
(nan,nick,eli,andrea,nate)
 
(nan,nick,eli)
 
(nick,eli,nate,andrea)
Nate, Eli, and Andrea ended up doin’ a bunch of jagerbombs before hearing that about 10-20 wickedfire people were hanging out around the Rio or the Palms which are basically adjacent casinos about a mile off the main strip. After spending about an hour trying to track them down, it was obvious they weren’t going to be found, so everyone just ended up in this lounge near the entrance to the Palms. Cakes and his girl stayed there and hung out for a couple hours before packin’ it in and heading back to the hotel for the night
Day 2 (Sunday):
This is the day the actual conference started. Nickycakes woke up about noon, grabbed some brunch with the girlfriend and Nate, and headed over to the Rio for the conference. They had the “Meet Market” going on all day, which was pretty much a bunch of fold up tables in a giant room where the networks and merchants could pitch themselves to the affiliates. Pretty much just a bunch of networks telling you they have the highest payouts and best customer service. Great. How about something original for a change. Give affiliates a real reason why they shouldn’t just go work direct with the merchant. It was really cool to meet with all the networks Cakes had been doing business with already, though, and there were a few networks that he will be signing up for as a result of meeting them there at ASW, for sure. At 2pm, there was an impromptu Wickedfire meetup, but it was a little disappointing, especially after learning that Jon (owner of WF) had gotten in a car accident on the way to the airport, was in the hospital, and wouldn’t be able to make it to the conference.
After the Meet Market, everyone pretty much headed back to get changed or whatever for the parties that night, and there were plenty of them. First on the list was the Copeac/WF private party in the G suite at the Palms. It was pretty nice. Pool table, open bar, stripper pole…pretty much everything you could expect in a dream condo. Overall very fun to hang out with those peeps.
Most everyone from the Copeac party headed up to Ghost Bar, but Nicky was fcking starving, so he headed back to the hotel room to grab the girlfriend and go get some grub at Ping Pang Pong, a chinese restaurant in Gold Coast where they serve Dim Sum like 24/7.
After dinner, it was a near-futile attempt to meet back up with the wickedfire people who went to the Ghost Bar. Being on the guest list for the Copeac thing meant free admission to the Playboy club in the palms too, so Cakes and girlfriend met up with Nate and headed up there. Tons of hotties, but really expensive and very few of the WF people ended up actually being there.
About to head back to the hotel, since it was pretty late, Cakes and the girlfriend decided to check out the Shareasale party. It was pretty much over at that point, which is good, because there would be nothing worse than partying with a bunch of douchebags like John chow and getting put on one of his retarded youtube videos. It was really chill. Nicky met up with a couple of the dudes from Advaliant again, and hung out for an hour or two. The owner of Shareasale was playing the grand piano in the middle of the lower level of the suite, right outside the swimming pool. There was a spinning bed, austin powers style, on the top level. There was a gorgeous view of the city, so after chatting with the Advaliant guys for a while, Cakes and the girl sat and looked at the city for a while before heading back to the hotel.
Day 3 (Monday):
Monday is when the actual booths went up in the conference. Kinda like Sunday’s Meet Market except many more networks were represented. Cakes rolled in late-ish and talked to a bunch more networks and picked up a bunch more free stuff. They generally all hand out t-shirts, hats, pens, etc.
There were a bunch of parties Monday night, but the biggest one was the RocketProfit one at Tao, a club at the Venetian. The Blue Man Group was scheduled to preform there so it seemed like the one to go to. Nickycakes went there a little late, after having dinner, and met up with a bunch of the WF dudes again. Everyone smoked some cigars and hung out until the performance.
 
(smaxor,tmoney,crypt,cakes,c0ck)
 
(cakes,nan)
So the Blue Man Group would have been awesome except for one thing. The place was really packed, and the stage was a little bit low, so it was already hard to see. On top of that, 7 foot tall John Chow was standing in the very front blocking everyone’s view and pumping his fist in the air like a retard the whole time. It wouldn’t be so bad if the dude didn’t have a 4 inch flat top. Imagine Guile from Street Fighter II. So yeah, with that ruined, everyone decided we needed something a little more enjoyable.
The crew went where anyone in Vegas would go if they were bored, head to the Spearmint Rhino gentlemens club. Definately worth hitting up if you’re in Vegas. Cakes’ girlfriend probably enjoyed it most out of anyone.
Day 4 (Tuesday):
Cakes wakes up to a call from Jon, owner of Wickedfire, asking him to go down to the exhibit hall and grab business cards from every single booth in the exhibit and mail them to him. Man, was that ever a pain in the ass. You couldn’t even just walk up and get cards from them without getting trapped and hounded by these people.
That was pretty much it for the actual show. Most everyone went home on Tuesday, and Nickycakes spent the rest of the time hanging out with the girlfriend and playing a little hold-em (ended up winning about $100 overall).
Day 5 (Wednesday):
Met with Jaeson from Neverblue for lunch before heading to the airport. That was pretty good, and he talked about some good offers they got coming up that would be good for promoting on Facebook Ads.
Overall it was great. There was so much to do, and so little time. Vegas is a great city, and there’s always something fun happening.  There were a few people Cakes was hoping to meet but didn’t end up seeing. Paul from Uberaffiliate, Zac Johnson, and Wes/Larby from tracking202.
The next Affiliate Summit is in Boston apparently, where Cakes lives, so he’ll be at that one for sure.
Nicky would like to give special thanks to Advaliant, and especially his AM Geoff for being so awesome. After finding out about the airport drama the previous day with Cakes’ girlfriend, they offered to hook us up with whatever she needed in vegas, which was great. Thanks guys.
Keep it real.
Lol I loved the way you wrote this post, was a great read. Yeah I’m still scratching my head we missed each other shoot, well I’ll be at your home town Boston it looks like.
Maybe you can come down to my new town to San Francisco now for Ad TECH San Fran, April
yeah i’ll try to make it down to that one
Hey Nicky, was hoping we’d meet up as well… unfortunately we didn’t run into each other this time. Let’s make it happen at the next summit!
yeah, for sure.
Damn cakes, I’d hardly recognize you without the horns and the clock.
Tight. threw me for a curve
Nice recap. Thanks for the lowdown on the showdown.
Great Post Nicky, it was awesome to finally link up and your girl is great too! The show rocked and thanks again for the cigars and props!!!
Geofferson
Classic:
” Imagine Guile from Street Fighter II”
lol
Was so great hanging out with you and Nan! Looking forward to next time!!!
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