This is an open thank you to everyone involved with running, sponsoring and organising the a4uevents affiliate marketing event hosted by DFDS Seaways on board the m.s. Queen Of Scandinavia.The event was a well balanced mix of guest speakers, general networking and all round good fun.

Day 1

The day kicked off at the DFDS Seaways ferry terminal at North Shields near Newcastle Upon Tyne, after registration and embarkation the delegates were served coffee and pastries and DFDS UK Managing Director made a welcome speech, which included a draw for one delegate to win a weekend driving an Aston Martin DB9, winner was Chris Frost of Coldsnail, affiliate, blogger and charity runner (more about that another day).

The day continued with the first of the guest speakers Martin Murray Chief Executive of Interactive Return who spoke about SEO, I will not go into details because hey you should have been there.

Lunch was a sumptuous buffet in the ships Seven Seas restaurant.

After lunch the speakers resumed with a talk by Neil Halpin of Yahoo Search Marketing which focused on Search Submit Pro.

Next up we had Heather Hopkins of Hitwise who gave a very illuminating talk about web trends and statistics.

Last but not least was Elena Koudreiko who gave a presentation “Travel Sector for Affiliates - Today and Tomorrow” unfortunately before the end of Elena’s talk, due to earlier proceedings being delayed, the Ships tannoy was screaming for all delegates not travelling to disembark and as one of the expert panel was not sailing things became hurried.

The evening kicked off with a few drinks before and after an excellent dinner, entertainment was provided by Shirley Bassey impersonator and 1990 Stars In Their Eyes winner Maxine Barrie and the Ships resident entertainment show group.

Other evening highlights were the fantastic networking (despite a lack of merchants) a4u casino, James Avery and his team who entered into the spirit of things by attempting world dominance Moonraker style.

Day 2 Amsterdam

Appreciated the ships announcement at 7.30am at least I’d managed about 5 hours sleep which is 3 more than some :o)

Everyman for himself day, however a good few of us opted for the Heineken Brewery trip, thanks to Ray (Befuddle) for an excellent rendition of “Tulips from Amsterdam” on the Karaoke, then back into Amsterdam centre, lucky we had Jasper from Jackpot Joy (who speaks the local lingo) to ensure we caught the correct tram (eventually), for some food and a beer, then the obligatory sightseeing tour around the red-light district, and there was a few sites, unfortunately it was “BIG MOMMA” hour.

Couple more beers then it was time to return to the ship, for another evening of good food networking and fun. Kudos to the county music singer who was not afraid to try something different even honouring a request by Helen Latto for a U2 song in the style of Johnny Cash, afraid it was my turn to be one of the dirty little stop outs who only managed the 2 hours sleep before the wakeup call.

Special thanks have to go to Claire Hoyland of A4uEvents, Matt Wood of A4uForum and the rest of the a4u team, DFDS Seaways especially Lynda Stenton and Tom Fotheringham for sponsoring the event and being excellent hosts above and beyond the call of duty, thanks also Equator for sponsoring to Tradedoubler for sponsoring as well and sending along Elena who herself needs congratulating along with the other speakers on day one who all did an excellent job and helped make it an event to remember.

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