For the last sevaral weeks, we’ve been preoccupied with matters of health and matters of state. Dealing with bouts of on and off again illnesses and making constant adjustments to the much changed economy along as well as an ever changing business climate has pre-empted our blogging efforts recently. But, finally, having caught our breath we’re pretty back on track and marching forward once again!

Looking back over the first couple of months of the year, we start with a final recap of our crazy trip to the Bay Area and Las Vegas for the a series of trade shows and conferences. We previously offered up our overview of the MacWorld Expo, Consumer Electronics Show, Social Media Jungle and WordCamp Las Vegas. Our two weeks in the Bay Area and Vegas culminated with our attending AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST, a great conference targeting those making (or wanting to make) gobs o’cash online with affiliate marketing, blog marketing, social media marketing and other forms online monetization. Even with economy spiraling downward at the beginning of the year, strategies to enhance online marketing efforts have emerged as the true bright spots in an otherwise dismal economy. In fact, attending Affiliate Summit, you’d never guess we were near the bottom of a serious recession.

There was a lot of valuable information at several of the conference’s breakout sessions. The first day’s “Meet Market” and then the “official” exhibits during the second and third days of the event were literally abuzz with the chatter of internet commerce and online profits. Monetization was the overwhelming keyword of the whole event and the scent of money was definitely in the air, literally. In fact, one company, had one of those “grab for cash booths” filled with paper bills and a big fan and let lines of people in to grab as much dough as they could in thirty seconds and one of the event’s organizers, MISSY WARD, was handing out her own customized hundred dollar bills!

New Media Creative associate Brett Bumeter and and I did some intensive networking, made some great new contacts and laid the groundwork for a number of new deals and campaigns. Hats off to organizer Summit organizer SHAWN COLLINS and his team for staging their latest very successful event, which was attended by nearly 3,500 people, with hundreds of exhibitors from the wide world of affiliate marketing.

Of course there were a few more posh parties on Sunday and Monday night at a few of the strip’s hot cubs. including the Moon at the Palms and the Voodoo Lounge at the Venetian Hotel. Probably the wildest was thrown at an established Las Vegas “party mansion” in the middle of the city (off the strip by a few miles) and came complete with the obligatory bare breasted beauties!

Here is a cool little video recap of Affiliate Summit West 2009 in Las Vegas…..

 Here are a few photos from January’s event……

 
 

GARY VAYNERCHEK AND JIM KUKRAL	JOEL COMM

BRETT AND TED MURPHY PARTY WITH THE IZEA INSIDERS	JOE AND WARREN WHITLOCK

JOE WITH IZEA INSIDERS	BRETT WITH THE INSIDERS

SHAWN COLLINS ON THE TRIKE	MISSY WARD TAKES A SPILL

MISSY WARD AND JOE	JOE, SHAWN COLLINS AND BRETT

Our trip to San Francisco and Vegas (plus a few additional stops on the way made the start of the year truly memorable.

In the couple of months since, we’ve experienced so much…….the inauguration of our new president, the Super Bowl, a new season of American Idol and the ongoing evolution of new media, social networking and affilitate marketing. There have already been several smaller new media conferences and meet-ups during February and March, culminating over the last couple of weeks with the always awesome and massive South By Southwest gathering in Austin, Texas. We couldn’t make it to SXSW this year but, thanks to the current presence and prevalence of Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, UStream, Qik, Brightkite and a few other social media services, we feel like we we’ve been in the middle of it all! Many sessions and some of the hottest parties streamed live online as they were happening, and we even chatted with some of our friends in attendance as they stepped up to the cameras. Being able to experience events as they happen and even interact with those there is a rich and rewarding new media experience to be sure.

We’ll be doing a bit of travelling over the next week or two and, no, we don’t plan to do any live streaming ourselves as we move about, but we’ll be back with more commentary and observations about this very eventful first quarter of the year. Of course, our blog will also have news about upcoming events and projects for New Media Creative.

We really do hope to blog and, yes, even tweet more often in the coming weeks and months, as this should be a most interesting year to be sure!