A4U Expo 2009 Roundup and Review

Another year, another A4U Expo down at Excel in London and what a fantastic few days of sessions, networking, drinking and generally catching up with people.

Matt and this team at Existem really do put a great event on and this year was no different, with over 1000 people heading down to the Excel over the 2 days.

I have to say the sessions from Conversion Rate Experts were probably my favourite and would’ve missed them, if it wasn’t for Keith Bond recommeding them, having seen them at A4U Europe in Amsterdam.

Affiliate Doctors were great too and good to get tips on how to improve,  which are always handy, as were the Search Cowboys.

Wasn’t too impressed with the Google Site Clinic and the guys from Google really weren’t for letting out any secrets….maybe we should’ve kidnapped them!

The hot food this year was very welcome and a massive improvement on the sandwiches provided by Excel last year.

Whilst we’re on the subject of food, many thanks to Clarke from Paid On Results for the all you can eat Brazillian meal at the O2 - I’ve never eaten so much meat and it certainly was a protein overload!

It seems like there’s always something that goes wrong on the first night party, following last years issues with the food on the boat.  First night gremlins re-appeared this year, with the Inc Club running out of beer and generally just giving terrible service and not to mention surly and rude bouncers.  The volume wasn’t ideal either and it wasn’t the easiest place to chat to people in, with plenty of people leaving and heading back to the Novotel as mentioned by Jason from Loquax.

To be fair to Matt, none of these problems were his and it must be extremely difficult to please everyone’s tastes, budgets and general perceptions.

The A4U Expo is always a great opportunity to meet up with people and this year I managed to catch up with lots of people who I’ve spoke to only via email, so it was great to meet face to face.  It’s always nice to catch up with old friends too and all the usual suspects.

It certainly helped having a bit more of a plan this year, as there’s so much to cover and people/things to see.  There were sill sessions that I missed, due to them clashing but the slides will be available shortly so I’ll catch up on them.

Thanks again to Matt and Existem for putting on a great A4U Expo and hopefully see you in Munich next year for A4U Europe 2010!