I was invited to the Google Affiliate Network (GAN) Client Summit, so I made a quick trip to Chicago earlier this week. Here’s just ten high points from my excursion…
- Sharing a room at the Swissôtel with enjoyable Tricia Meyer from Sunshine Rewards.
- Having dinner at Soldier Field. I almost had enough Rum Punches to dance to the 80′s cover band, Sixteen Candles.
- Meeting GAN merchants with private programs that wouldn’t even consider working with me before.
- Visiting with the pleasurable Dan Greene before I learned that he was such a big-wig at Google (and Navy fighter pilot).
- Listening to Avinash Kaushik compare web analytics to orgasms.
- Hearing “The Father of the Internet” Vint Cerf speak about the past, present and future of technology.
- Wishing I would have gotten Mitch Joel to autograph my copy of his book Six Pixels of Separation.
- Hanging with old friends (even if they skipped some of the event to take a private jet golfing) and making new friends.
- Seeing the filming of the Transformers 3 Movie in downtown Chicago.
- Eating dinner with the ShareASale gang (gotta love Brian, Sarah, Jessica and Grandpa David) before catching my flight back to the middle of nowhere.
Looking back, there are only a few things I would have changed about the trip:
- I would have accepted Connie’s invitation to Rock-Fest beforehand and drove to Chicago with the Schaaf brothers.
- I would have checked my bag on the way home instead of carrying it on – TSA confiscated my goodie bag from Footsmart.
- I would have looted more Kit Kats into my handbag from Google’s snack shelf.
