Infinamic Attends CJU Conference
09.19.2008
Infinamic takes a few days away from the office to make a trip to California for the CJU Conference.
CJU, Commission Junction University, is an annual conference located in Santa Barbara, Cal. The conference is organized by Commission Junction, which is a company that brings online advertisers and publishers together in an easy to use online format. This conference allows Infinamic to reconnect with current advertiser relationships as well as work on starting new relationships and projects with new advertisers.
The CJU conference was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, September 16. Infinamic used Monday as a travel day as well as for sightseeing. Two of the four attendees from Infinamic had never been to California before and were able to stop and see Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica on the way to Santa Barbara for the conference. The drive from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara included a trip along the Pacific Coast Highway with views of the ocean and the mountains throughout southern California.
Once settled in Santa Barbara for the conference, long days of networking, meetings and seminars were expected. Infinamic was ready to experience the conference and learn more about the new tools and goals in the online advertising community.
CJU - Day One
At the first day of the conference there was a small introduction of activities to participate in at CJU. With several seminars and the CJU Expo taking place Infinamic was able to split up and attend everything that the conference had to offer.
The CJU Expo was located outdoors where select advertisers set up booths and discuss their products with anyone who might be interested in working with them. This event made it possible to network with a lot of different advertisers in a short amount of time.
To finish off the first day of the conference a welcome reception was held at the Santa Barbara Zoo located near the hotel. With food, music, train rides and the opportunity to feed a giraffe this event turned out to be a night filled with entertainment and networking at the same time.
With day one of CJU coming to a close, the second day of the conference was approaching with a plethora of events on the schedule.
CJU - Day Two
The second day and longest day of the conference began with a welcome session with speaker Kerri Pollard, the general manager at CJ. Following the welcome, the keynote speaker of the event, Guy Kawasaki, made his presentation. Kawasaki is the managing director at Garage Technology Ventures. The afternoon was broken down into several sessions with various speakers and topics to choose from. We were able to attend most of the sessions by splitting up and attending topics that interested us the most.
Following the afternoon sessions there were several networking events and cocktail parties to attend. These ran from before dinner all the way through the late evening. These events were great opportunities to talk to potential new partners for our ongoing web projects.
CJU - Day Three
The third and final day of CJU progressed at a slower pace than the days before. With most of the networking events finished in the days before the last day of the conference was wrapping up. A few final sessions were held in the morning and the schedule would end with a final lunch. Right before lunch the CJYOU Awards were presented to those advertisers and publishers who had performed exceedingly well in the last year and were recognized by CJ and their peers.
During some downtime after lunch we were able to sneak away from the hotel and visit Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. We were able to drive there, park and walk around and visit the local shops and restaurants on the wharf.
After CJU was officially over, Infinamic was pleased to attend an invitation-only event that afternoon. The event was held in honor of publishers who work with CJ and are known as CJ Performers. A CJ Performer status is classified as a top performing publisher with CJ with a consistent record of results. As a CJ Performer, Infinamic was invited to attend a polo match at the Santa Barbara Polo Club. The afternoon consisted of food, drinks and an afternoon enjoying a polo match.
Once the polo match concluded, Infinamic had completed another CJU conference. The information and contacts gathered at CJU are only the beginning of generating new online projects and ideas. This valuable experience brought Infinamic in touch with old and new contacts and sparked interest in new ventures.