I am heading back to Las Vegas. It’s the first time since late January 2020 that I have visited and my first time without being a part of Affiliate Summit.
From 2005 through 2020, I was in Las Vegas every year, sometimes multiple times.
But this time it is different. I am going to have some friends, learn some things, make some memories and deals, and do absolutely no conference stuff.
I am excited to not have all of that pressure on me this time and to be able to take more time to enjoy the city. In a decade and a half, I barely wandered more than a couple of blocks off of the Strip.
When I left Las Vegas in January 2020, it felt like a huge chapter was closing after so many beautiful friends came together to give a couple of amazing sendoffs to Missy Ward and myself.
We were supposed to go to New York City for one last event in the summer of 2020, before my time with Affiliate Summit was up, but as we all know, there were no business conferences that summer.
It’s a weird sense of excitement and mourning as I make my way to Las Vegas. I am dying to see all of the people, but it’s also a time of reflection on an era that is over.
For all of those years, we were this big tribe together. We were part of something, all of us building it in different ways. It was a long, magical time that I miss.
It will be weird this time, but seeing so many people who are important to me will be wonderful. And then there are some people I won’t bother to seek out, but I have a song dedication for them…
See a bunch of y’all soon.