Affiliate marketing is a rapidly expanding industry. As a result, there are a variety (and increasing) amount of affiliate marketing events popping up all over the world. All these gatherings present ecommerce brands with incredible opportunities for gaining industry knowledge, learning new techniques for increasing affiliate marketing revenue, making connections with top-tier affiliates, and other valuable benefits.
However, as most would correctly assume, most of the best affiliate marketing events are not free to attend. Thus, it is essential to establish which events are the best and most beneficial for ecommerce brands to show up for and mingle with other attendees in the hopes of making profitable connections.
To help save brands the legwork of sifting through the growing number of affiliate marketing events taking place each year, today, we are going to cover the top 10 affiliate marketing events that ecommerce brands should attend in 2023.
But before we dive into our list, let’s take a quick look at what brands stand to gain from going to such in-person get-togethers.
The Benefits of Attending Affiliate Marketing Events
For those who have never been to one, affiliate marketing events are usually structured as conference-style gatherings where attendees get to hear industry experts discuss specific topics related to industry trends to watch, practical tactics and strategies, promote helpful products and services, and generally share valuable information with guests.
At the same time, affiliate marketing events often feature educational workshops and dedicated networking opportunities where brands, affiliates, and others within the industry can meet and begin to form potentially fruitful relationships.
Some of the primary reasons that ecommerce brands should try to attend affiliate marketing events in 2023 include the following:
Meeting New Affiliates
While different affiliate marketing websites are great for bringing together brands and affiliates, nothing compares to making connections face-to-face.
The fact is that networking is likely the single most popular reason that brands and affiliates attend such events, as this setting presents all parties with throngs of individuals who have actively invested their time and money to be at the event in the hopes of learning and cultivating new relationships. Thus, affiliate marketing events are full of deeply engaged brands, publishers, influencers, industry experts, and other folks who are committed to growth and expansion.
Affiliate marketing events are unique opportunities to connect with world-class specialists across various verticals and niches who are all invested in a common goal, which is the furtherment of affiliate marketing as a whole.
Learn Cutting-Edge Techniques from Industry Experts
Affiliate marketing events are a premier destination for obtaining the latest information about techniques that are making their way to the forefront of the industry. Being present at these kinds of gatherings can often give ecommerce brands and affiliate marketers a leg up on the competition as they have been exposed to these kinds of trends and insider tips from industry experts earlier than the masses.
The fact is that most experts don’t share many of their most important insights online until a topic or technique is on the cusp of making it big. Instead, this kind of knowledge is reserved for those who are willing to pay a premium to gain access to the most effective tactics and strategies of the moment.
Therefore, purchasing a ticket to an affiliate marketing event not only gives brands access to high-quality affiliates but access to contemporary marketing techniques that could prove incredibly profitable.
A Greater Focus on a Brand’s Affiliate Strategy
Going to an affiliate marketing event, learning cutting-edge new strategies, and making connections with top-performing affiliates often result in a heightened sense of focus, optimism, and inspiration about how to push an affiliate marketing program higher and cultivate more affiliate revenue.
While this is undoubtedly less tangible of an event than physically meeting potential new partners, this sense of enthusiasm and motivation should not be discounted.
On that note, let’s go ahead and take a look at the 10 best affiliate marketing events for ecommerce brands to attend in 2023.
10 Affiliate Marketing Events to Attend in 2023
There are tons of new affiliate marketing events cropping up every year, some of which blossom into important, must-attend conferences.
As of this writing, the events that ecommerce brands should strongly consider attending include:
1. Affiliate Summit West
Affiliate Summit West will take over the Caesars Forum convention center in Las Vegas, NV, from January 23 to 25, 2023.
For those who are with this affiliate marketing event, Affiliate Summit West, which bills itself as the “biggest affiliate marketing event in the world,” brings together thousands of different brands, affiliates, advertisers, publishers, media buyers, influencers, coupon publishing partners, and other industry experts to learn, mingle, and co-create.
During this three-day event, Affiliate Summit West 2023 will host more than 6,000 attendees and provide nine different “content tracks” for events goers to learn contemporary tactics and strategies in various arenas, including (but not limited to):
- Content and commerce
- Brand to brand
- Enabling ethical ecommerce
During this event, brands can access workshops, keynote speeches, networking parties, and loads of other valuable opportunities.
Tickets are on sale now, so be sure to reserve your spot at this massive event.
2. TES Affiliate Conference
From February 22-25, 2023, in Cascais, Portugal, TES Affiliate Conference will bring together more than 1,500 affiliate marketing professionals spanning ecommerce, gaming, health, dating, and various other industries.
Over the course of this three-day affiliate marketing event, ecommerce brands will gain access to unparalleled networking opportunities, as cultivating personal relationships is one of the primary focuses of TES Affiliate Conferences.
Attending TES means that brands will be able to be present for a slew of different structured and informal networking sessions, roundtables, presentations, and other fantastic opportunities for developing chance connections.
3. Affiliate World Dubai
On March 1 and 2 of 2023, Affiliate World Dubai will take place in the United Arab Emirates. During this two-day conference, ecommerce brands will get the opportunity to attend presentations from some of today’s leading minds in affiliate marketing, including New York Times Bestselling author Neil Patel, Simpleology CEO Mark Joyner, A4D Performance Network CEO Jason Akatiff, and other industry leaders. During this two-day event, brands will get the opportunity to be present as these luminaries discuss valuable information about affiliate marketing, ecommerce, and the digital ecosystem at large.
At Affiliate World Dubai, the event’s 4,500+ attendees will split their time between illuminating and educational keynote speeches on new insights and data-driven strategies, a myriad of networking events, happy hours, and other fantastic business-building experiences that are unlikely to transpire in any other setting.
4. LeadsCon
If Affiliate World Dubai is not a viable option, LeadsCon 2023 will be taking place in Las Vegas, NV, just a few days later, from March 13-15, at the MGM Grand hotel and casino.
LeadsCon, as is implied by its name, is a conference that is focused on the art of lead generation and customer acquisition. However, it does also lean heavily into affiliate marketing trends and conversion tactics, thus making the event an important one for ecommerce brands invested in using affiliate marketing to power brand growth.
In 2022, LeadsCon brought together more than 2,500 industry professionals and experts for over 30 different workshops, roundtable discussions, presentations, keynote speeches, networking sessions, parties, and other opportunities to learn, connect, and grow.
In 2023, LeadsCon is expecting just as big of a turnout across its three days, so it is sure to be an event that ecommerce brands won’t want to miss.
5. PI Live
For more than 20 years, PerformanceIN (PI) has been putting together incredible affiliate marketing events and other types of performance marketing conferences in various locations around the world, which has cemented PI Live as one of the leading affiliate marketing events in the world.
On April 2-4, 2023, the PI Live affiliate marketing event comes to Miami, FL, for a three-day gathering that brings together ecommerce brands, affiliates, technology publishers, agencies, and content creators of all kinds from across the world to “build profitable partnerships,” as the is the mantra to which PI Live adheres.
During these 72 hours, ecommerce brands will get the chance to learn from over 40 presentations from thought leaders in the industry (spread across two different stages), partake in a multitude of networking events, participate in laid-back Sunday sessions, and much more.
PI Live has a strong focus on affiliate marketing and ecommerce, so this affiliate marketing event should be quite high on retailers’ list of must-attend events.
6. Affiliate Huddle
For ecommerce brands that are looking for something a bit more low-key and inexpensive, Affiliate Huddle 2023 might be a good option. The only free-to-attend option on this list, Affiliate Huddle is slated for April 19, 2023, and will take place in Brighton, United Kingdom.
This one-day affiliate marketing event is put on by brightonSEO and is heavily focused on helping brands and affiliates to make connections. However, there are still expert panelists that brands can hear speak about important topics related to affiliate marketing.
Additionally, unlike some of the other events mentioned thus far, this affiliate marketing event is dedicated exclusively to affiliate marketing, which makes it far more focused and the crowd much more refined.
If your brand is interested in a more intimate, immersed, and inexpensive affiliate marketing event to attend, Affiliate Huddle is a good one to consider.
7. AWSummit
Taking place May 7-10 in Bucharest, Romania (and then again on September 21-24 in Ibiza, Spain), AWSummit 2023 is a massive European trade show where more than 2,000 of the top names in affiliate marketing congregate to network and discuss all facets of digital marketing, particularly affiliate marketing.
At this three-day affiliate marketing event, brands can connect with a panoply of affiliates, ad network associates, reps from a variety of service providers, web admins, and just about every other kind of industry professional imaginable.
AWSummit has been designed with the express purpose of encouraging business growth through the cultivation of profitable relationships, so attending this event means that ecommerce brands are sure to walk away with new partners and potential revenue streams.
8. Affiliate World Europe
The European counterpart of Affiliate World Dubai, Affiliate World Europe is set to take place in Barcelona, Spain, on July 12-13, 2023. While the Affiliate World website has the dates and location for this much-anticipated affiliate marketing event revealed, tickets have yet to go on sale, so keep an eye out for when this changes.
This two-day event gives those who missed Affiliate World Dubai another chance to attend one of the leading affiliate marketing events in the world, hear from industry leaders, and connect with high-level affiliates and business partners in the world of ecommerce.
Without belaboring the point too much, Affiliate World Dubai or Europe are top-tier affiliate marketing events that are likely to prove incredibly fruitful for brands that choose to attend.
9. Affiliate Summit East
Much like the aforementioned Affiliate World events, Affiliate Summit East is the correlative east coast equivalent to Affiliate Summit West.
Affiliate Summit East is poised to be held in New York City on July 31 and August 1, 2023. Much like its west coast version, Affiliate Summit East brings together several thousand ecommerce brands, affiliates, influencers, technology solutions providers, media buyers, and other ambitious industry professionals under a single roof.
Just like Affiliate Summit West, this affiliate marketing event offers attendees a variety of powerful workshops, keynote speeches, presentations, and other discussions that will help raise the awareness and performance of those present. Of course, Affiliate Summit East also offers a slew of different scheduled and after-hours networking opportunities for brands and affiliates to leverage.
No matter if you are eyeing Affiliate Summit East or West, this is one affiliate marketing event that ecommerce brands are strongly encouraged to attend.
10. DigiMarCon
For brands that are looking to frequently attend smaller affiliate marketing events instead of a couple of blowout conferences, then DigiMarCon events are an excellent option.
DigiMarCon events take place in 40 cities across 18 different countries worldwide and can be attended at various times from April to November. No matter if you are looking to participate in an event in North America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, or somewhere else entirely, DigiMarCon likely has an event happening soon.
These two-day events are packed with panel discussions, keynote speeches, workshops, networking opportunities, and loads of other valuable and likely serendipitous affairs.
During a DigiMarCon event, ecommerce brands can gain valuable insights into digital marketing, trends, best practices, strategies, and other knowledge and data that can help inform their affiliate marketing strategies and bolster their business’ bottom line.
Affiliate Marketing Events to Catch Throughout 2023
In the digital age, there are tons of conferences and events that can be viewed online. However, these do not offer brands the same networking opportunities or inspirational energy that in-person events provoke. Thus, it is vital to invest the time and resources necessary to attend affiliate marketing events that could prove profitable for a brand.
Fortunately, among the various options presented above, brands are likely to find at least one affiliate marketing event that can fit into their schedule and budget.
And if you are ready to up your affiliate marketing game and start connecting with top-tier affiliates online, be sure to reach out to Refersion to discuss how our industry-leading platform and affiliate marketplace can drive significant revenue gains for your brand.
