5th February 2008

Pomp & Ceremony – A4U Awards 2008 Black Tie Event on June 5th at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London.

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With fanfare & intrepid nature, Existem who last brought you the first ever affiliate industry awards, A4UAwards, as an integral part of the most excellent A4U Expo in the ExCeL Center, London … Boy those fish & chips did taste good … drum roll …

This year a special night has been organised for the 2008 A4UAwards formulating with an evening ceremony which will be a formal black tie event at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London on June 5th. I wonder if a black tie will go well when adorned with fashionable, trend setting affiliate pyjamas. It certainly would look eclectic.

“It is apparent in this rapidly growing industry that there has, until now, not been an award ceremony that appreciates Affiliate Marketing in its entirety and for what it represents to the entire marketing mix as a whole.” Mr Matt “Sotf” Wood 😉

However, rather than forum members being permitted to vote on all the relative categories, all bar two have been left to a panel decision which is where my gripe is.

It’s commendable to see lavish jolly in the pipeline to create that corporate persona with a bit of pomp & ceremony and for those attending will no doubt have a “most excellent” time like previous well organised events. A extravaganza of this sort is I guess a natural progression & evolution of the affiliate marketing industry, whereby unless you have one some blue chips & media publications don’t take you seriously.

However, the forum roots is based on a community, it’s the injection of opinions & discussion on a forum by the “members” which create the forum, by isolating and alienating those affiliate members with similar & contrasting opinions of the industry by denying them a vote will add minimal illustriousness or significance to the awards for the appropriate recipients. Granted there may have been some dodgy voting which had to be weeded out in the last bout, but there are better solutions which could be examined into by looking at those parties which engage on the forum rather than a stance which suggests that organisers are looking down their nose (yes singular not plural) at those members which make the forum.

Why call it a4uAwards it certainly won’t be a reflection of the a4u “members”, it might be appropriate to call them something else.

It’s all starting to become too much sitting on the fence, political correctness & pretentiousness in some quarters. All corporate diarrhoea if you ask me. Can we nominate a Raspberry Award to this process based on the alternative awards ceremony suggestion?

Perhaps I had better put those rose tinted gl-ASS-es on to see a contrastingly different realm of everyone holding hands skipping through the daisies & buttercups on a glorious spring morning.

On a side note why London?

Yes, I agree to having this as a seperate event is a good idea, so that attendees are all refreshed & fully charged for when attendees fully charge their glasses at the event.

“We felt the awards has the potential to be its own annual summertime event, logistically its hard to organise at the a4uexpo – as you know that in itself is a huge task to manage and it lets us concentrate on the conference and networking opportunities which I promise will not dissapoint this year.” Mr Matt “Sotf” Wood 😉

So back to the voting:

Sour grapes, yep, I have kicked off my shoes & socks, rolled the trousers up my leg and I am trampling grapes with my bare footed size 12’s in a massive barrel full of them. To exclude the forum members is simply wrong & the awards themselves will be relatively meaningless. As for the evening I reckon it will be a “most excellent dude” event for those making the effort to attend.

Will I be attending … I doubt it … but I do hope it’s a “most excellently excellent” event for you dudes & that you enjoy yourselves … Party on!

Now, I expect to be slapped vigorously, so instead of being a happy clapper, be my guest at being a happy slapper.

It’s with intrepidness I quote the following : “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!” – Sir Winston Churchill

And if that is a little too far back in history for you, for those who remembers Citizen Smith aka Wolfy … “Power to the People”?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 2:16 AM and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 10 responses to “Pomp & Ceremony – A4U Awards 2008 Black Tie Event on June 5th at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London.”

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  1. 1 On February 5th, 2008, David Fiske said:

    I agree with your point “why London?”.

    Most events are held in London which is fine if you live on the east coast of the UK or the south. But more of an effort is required from those north of Manchester or West of Bristol.

    Birmingham seems more central in my opinion, though it too may still be too far south.

  2. 2 On February 5th, 2008, Rob Berrisford said:

    Don’t hold back Paul, let it all out.

    I think you have some valid points, but there are some things i don’t fully agree with.

    a) Don’t even suggest moving it outside of London. I am a little annoyed it isn’t in South London to be honest. But you can’t win them all. Though I am thinking we should have the Affiliate Raspberries in my local, The Falcon, Clapham North, Great Pub!

    b) I agree that Matt and A4U were built by the community and without the forum members neither would be what they are, but, and try not to flame me here. I suspect that posts on the forum and commission paid are not directly proportional. I know that isn’t the be all and end all of affiliate marketing but maybe more should be taken into account than a simple one vote each.

    I am sure Matt has some good reasons for using a panel rather than a voting process, maybe Matt could let people know, or was it just to stop triple J canvassing for votes?

    c) I would love to open the Affiliate Raspberries to voting, but that seems a little too much like hard work, it will probably just be a show of hands and a few beers!

  3. 3 On February 5th, 2008, Why Not Have Two Sets of Affiliate Awards? | One Little Duck - Affiliate Blog said:

    […] digressing! I appreciate the need for such an event, and like many of my peers would question the voting system in place. However, that is what has been decided, and as Kieron suggested to me last night it is a […]

  4. 4 On February 5th, 2008, Jesse said:

    I agree, I thought the awards last year was a very good idea – recognising the achievement of publishers, networks, merchants and agencies within the affiliate marketing industry.

    The a4u awards are after all called the ‘a4u awards’ I interpret that to mean awards voted for by a4u not a panel – maybe they should be called the affiliate awards?

  5. 5 On February 5th, 2008, Jules said:

    Rob, in reply to your point 1, why not move it out of London? The majority of affiliates live outside London, personally I live 15 miles outside central London yet I’d rather travel to Bristol, Cardiff or even Glasgow. The people that work and live in London are generally the Networks, Agencies and Media companies – who’s getting the better deal here? Certainly not the affiliates and what some people fail to realise is that this is AFFILIATE marketing – not Network marketing or Agency Marketing. True we all need each other in this to a certain extent, but at the end of the day take out all those people, leave in the merchants and affiliates and you still have affiliate matketing. As for the raspberries just let me know the date and tme and I’ll be there to pick up my award!

  6. 6 On February 5th, 2008, Rob Berrisford said:

    Because Jules I am from London and therefore think it is the centre of the known universe and don’t like leaving.

    I don’t even go north of the river if I can help it, they are all a bit scary up there.

  7. 7 On February 5th, 2008, Shane said:

    yup I agree, london is home of the networks and agencies which does seem to ignore the “affiliate” part of “affiliate marketing”

    Yes London is the capital and yes 90% of the networks and agencies have a base there but 90% of the affiliates don’t and whilst regional events cater in some small way I too feel that Birmingham is a better option for some bigger events which suits far more people for access, is less hassle to get to and generally better value for money.

    If the networks and agencies can’t be bothered to travel to non London based events then it just shows what value they hold the event in then doesn’t it.. seems affiliates have been making far too much effort in this relationship for years as it is !

  8. 8 On February 5th, 2008, a4u Awards 2008 · Affiliate Quanda said:

    […] get to vote and nominate for two of the fourteen categories. I posted my feelings about this on Mooses blog but to repeat – the awards are called the a4u awards, my interpretation of this is that the awards […]

  9. 9 On February 7th, 2008, Ralph said:

    We are based in sunny chester and it is a fair trek to london, maybe there should be a vote for next years awards location?

  10. 10 On February 8th, 2008, Around The Affiliate Blogosphere (w/e: 8th Feb 2008) · Affiliate Quanda said:

    […] This week I can only kick off with the 2008 a4u awards – in short it’s changed a bit since last year. With different categories, different venue and a different voting system it’s caused a bit of a stir this year. You can read more about the awards at the official site here and read the various opinions on it here, here and here. […]

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