Another year, another Affiliate Summit East.
Today’s Business has been attending Affiliate Summit for nearly a decade, and every year we’re reminded why it’s one of the most valuable events in affiliate marketing. While virtual meetings have become the norm, nothing replaces sitting down face-to-face with partners, publishers, brands, and technology platforms. The relationships you build, conversations you have, and insights you gain simply can’t be replicated over Zoom.
This year’s event was filled with productive meetings, new partnerships, industry trends, and valuable conversations that will directly benefit our clients.
Biggest Takeaways
Everyone Is Selling AI Visibility
AI was impossible to ignore this year. Nearly every platform had an AI story, whether it was helping brands appear in AI search results, optimizing content for large language models, or building AI-powered marketing tools. The race to own “AI visibility” has officially begun.
Media Is Changing Quickly
Traditional search is evolving, creators continue to grow their influence, and publishers are adapting to new ways consumers discover products. Brands that diversify beyond Google and embrace multiple traffic sources will be in the best position moving forward.
You Learn More in Person
One of the biggest reasons we continue attending Affiliate Summit is the quality of conversations. With so many meetings being recorded today, people are often more comfortable sharing honest opinions, future plans, and industry insights during in-person conversations than they are on a video call.
Whitelisting Continues to Gain Momentum
Whitelisting remains one of the hottest topics in affiliate marketing. More brands are looking for ways to amplify creator content through paid media while maintaining authentic partnerships that drive measurable performance.
What We Accomplished for Our Clients
Affiliate Summit wasn’t just about networking—it produced tangible results for several of our clients.
For Molecule Sleep, we met with leading mattress publishers and gathered valuable insights into the current state of the mattress affiliate landscape. These conversations will help strengthen the program as we continue onboarding the brand.
For Fuel Meals, we connected with several high-quality publishers focused on meal delivery. One publisher mentioned that Fuel Meals was the only meal delivery brand that took the time to meet with them in person. By the end of our meeting, we had already agreed on a partnership, and they began onboarding the program within 30 minutes.
We also generated significant excitement around a newly acquired licensing opportunity for one of our clients. Based on the conversations we had during the conference, we believe this will become a major competitive advantage heading into Q4.
On the publisher side, we learned more about Penske Media’s acquisition of Vox Media properties and how those publications will operate moving forward—valuable information for brands looking to expand their editorial partnerships.
Throughout the conference, we met with top-tier publishers and media companies, including Future, The New York Post, and Penske Media, while discussing partnership opportunities across brands including WOLACO, Mugsy, State & Liberty, Ultimate Autographs, FOCO, Juvenon, Molecule Sleep, Sculpt Nation, Tomahawk Shades and Fuel Meals.
We also met with performance media buyers actively scaling offers in high-growth categories like NAD+ supplements, anti-aging products, GLP-1s, and other health and wellness verticals.
Discussed multiple collaboration opportunities with major media publishers for Braiden Shaw and his new website, GrowYourNetWorth.com, while also securing and teeing up new affiliate partnerships ahead of launch.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a brand running an affiliate program, you should be attending industry conferences like Affiliate Summit—or working with an agency that does.
Affiliate marketing has always been a relationship-driven channel. The strongest partnerships, biggest placements, and best opportunities often begin with a handshake rather than an email.
At Today’s Business, we attend these events not just to stay ahead of industry trends, but to create new opportunities for our clients. The conversations we had this week will lead to new partnerships, stronger publisher relationships, and continued growth throughout the rest of 2026.
We’re already looking forward to the next Affiliate Summit.