On January 30, 2020, I boarded Southwest flight 1713 from Las Vegas to Austin. I woke up with an empty feeling. I always came this feeling as an Affiliate Summit terminated, and I knew it would be a while before I witnessed all of these parties that I’ve come to know and affection. I missed them already.
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<p>The night before, there was a beautiful sendoff at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar& Grill with so many friends who became family in the time since Missy Ward and I started Affiliate Summit in 2003. My heart was full from that night, but there was a feeling of sadness as I thought about how some of these people wouldn’t be in NYC for Affiliate Summit East 2020. </p>
<p>It hit me that I may well never consider some of these beings again. But I found consolation in knowing I would still attend a assortment of others. </p>
<p>Well, that proposal came COVID-1 9’d, didn’t it? </p>
<p>That expected shutdown after this 17 -year journey wasn’t meant to be, and I still have a lot of unspent hugs to give out at some future era and location.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I smile about all of the shared strivings and successes and suffers across 50 Affiliate Summit happens on three continents. The late lights and early mornings. I never did come down with “conference crud” like so many of you, unless it was just a really bad hangover all of this time. </p>
<p>Building Affiliate Summit with Missy and all of you was the best thing I’ve ever done. All of you! We certainly didn’t get here alone. We never could have. From the very start, there were great parties helping us stuff handbags, carry boxes, and spread the word.</p>
<p>So many people spoke and wrote utterances, shared suggestions, stood with us, and supported us through all of these seasons. When entrants came as us; the Great Recession reached; parties were needed to speak out against legislation that would harm the industry … you were there. You always were. A huge big-hearted, dysfunctional, beautiful household. </p>
<p>I wish I were going to see that family this July in New York City. There are so many little things that add up to a rich know there every time. </p>
<p>I’ll miss stocking up on my Diet Dr. Peppers at Duane Reade, serendipitously congregating people in the Marriott Marquis smoking area, having guzzles in the Broadway Lounge and the Playwright Celtic Pub around the corner, hanging out with people for the first time in a while, the hotel floored out with Affiliate Summit signs and banners and check-in kiosks, walking through the Meet Market before it opens and getting butterflies, mystifying which line-up to go to for an up or down escalator, heading to the Copacabana for Affiliate Ball, late-night street meat, looking out the window from my apartment to Times Square, visualizing all of the people excitedly doing business together, catching a Yankees game, and then the goodbyes. </p>
<p>So, I suspect this is my goodbye. Actually , no. Let’s make this my “until I see you again.” </p>
<p>This anonymous quote genuinely reverberates with me right now … “At some spot in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time, and none knew it.”</p>
<p>I miss y’all.</p>
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