Internet Geek Girl

Today marks the Fourth Annual LinkShare Golden Links Awards and my Third Annual Pre-Party to the Golden Links (I don’t know why I missed that first year).

This is a week powered by LinkShare! Tomorrow is the “X” Annual LinkShare Symposium in NYC. I can’t recall exactly how many years ago I began attending, but it was a very long time ago. As LinkShare describes:

For more than ten years, LinkShare merchants and affiliates have convened at the LinkShare Symposium to forge new business relationships and discuss issues facing the industry at large. Experience the power of the LinkShare Network to learn from industry veterans and network with the who’s who of the Internet community. This is the must-attend event for performance marketing professionals!

I couldn’t agree more. I have been part of this community for over 10 years and I value the opportunity to spend time with friends, partners, clients and colleagues. LinkShare has been a catalyst for supporting these connections, and they do so with a huge sense of style and elegance, making this one of the best events I attend each year.

Deb Schultz, my good friend and social media maven, speaks often about the Relationship Economy. We all attend so many conferences every year that it’s easy to forget the important role these events play in fueling our relationships. As Deb points out, it’s important for us to question how we weave in and out of these worlds:

* What is our intention with all these communities?
* How do we interact in a meaningful way with all of these connections?
* What is “meaningful” in this landscape?
* What is the definition of Community when affiliations are so loose and easily coupled/uncoupled?
* How do we build applications to maintain a good flow between clusters?
* What is the role of attention in the Relationship Economy?

I’ll be sure to chew on all this while networking and attending the excellent panels that will address the key issues facing performance marketing today.

I am sorry to be missing SuperNova this week. I still haven’t figured out how to be at two community events at exactly the same time. Big shout out to all my friends on the Left Coast! I’m sure we will be Twittering back and forth all week.

At the next event you attend, think about how you can maximize your time building better relationships and enhancing the quality of how we interact within our communities!