11-12 September The Second Russian Affiliate Congress and Expo (RACE'2013) organized by Smile Expo was held in ECC "Sokolniki", Moscow.

Global brands, direct contacts with foreign companies, unique target business attendees, professional coaching staff of the conference – this is how attendees and participants of RACE'2013 saw its renewed program.

More than 1,000 delegates from Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus, China, Italy, the UK, Malta, Germany and other countries visited the event. 55 affiliate marketing professionals were speaking at RACE conference, and the exhibition featured 45 Russian and foreign companies. 

Newcomers of this year: lead generators Finline, Veinteractive, eGentic, LeadsMarket, ActionPay, LeaderMedia, International Financial Holding FIBO, Holding Saas.ru, affiliate programs ViKing Studio, MMCIS, 2GIS, Leads, mobile advertising network MobiAds, food delivery service - company FoodPanda, applications developer MyApps etc.

"At this time, compared to the previous year, I want to note the high level of the audience. We managed to bring together even more professional list of participants and visitors. The value of such contacts is much higher. This is not just an exhibition; it is three streams of conferences on the narrow topic of affiliate marketing. Compared to last year, market has grown and our exhibition surely confirms it", Oleg Vlasov, director of the exhibition, said.

RACE'2013 has become the largest international event in the affiliate marketing of Runet, annually presenting affiliate industry trends, new modern marketing technologies and SEO mechanisms, customers acquisition models, ideas and business solutions.

Advantageous exhibition format, comfortable lounge area, conferences RACE and iGRA, and ceremony «RACE Awards» brought together leading players of affiliate market. This year representatives of foreign companies have chosen RACE as the main tool to develop their business in Russia, expand their business contacts and exchange operational experience.

In 2013 exhibition format and business program were significantly improved: conference halls were formed according to audience interests; subject matter of reports has expanded as well. At the same time at RACE platform were held:

• Igaming Russia Affiliate iGRA.

Speakers at the conference: Roman But "Affiliate Marketing in online gambling" and Maria Lepschikova (Legal justification of gambling marketing in Russia), Sergei Efymenko (International success. How to succeed the affiliate project at the international market) etc.

• International affiliate marketing conference RACE

More than 60 reports on various aspects of affiliate marketing, SEO, creation of mobile applications and market trends and monetization features: Online shops – what do they want (Vsevolod Strah, Sotmarket) , Secrets of Successful non-trading Forex (Sergey Alexandrov, InstaForex), Conversion mechanism inaffiliate marketing - CPA Funnel ( Ploskonosov Maksim and Bazhenov Daniil, LPGenerator), work shop «Offer real entertainment. Online and mobile games in focus» of special guest - speaker from Germany Alicja Borucinska, Marketing tricks of affiliate programs of Forex companies (Denis Korolev, FreshForex), Secret formula of successful SEO (Sergey Koksharov, Devaka), Commercial research for the site: Analyst for the site : What marketing analysis on the Internet can give? (Leonid Grokhovsky, Element), Why do Western advertisers more effectively work in the Russian CPA (Alexander Bachmann, Admitad GmbH), Launching B2B affiliate program (Mikhail Garkunov, independent expert), Youtube in Russia (Tatiana Noskova, Google), Rejection of the shopping cart in e -commerce: how big the problem is and how to fight it (Jonathan Rivers, Ve Interactive, UK), The evolution of affiliate marketing by means of Mobile (Vyacheslav Semenchuk , MyApps), and many other.

· Unique Training "Improving efficiency of contextual advertising" from RACE partner company SEO-STUDY.

· Round Tables in SEO, CPA and Forex sections.

Conference was moderated by Arkady Sandler, Leonid Rumyantsev , Basil Tkachev, Sergey Efymenko, Alexey Yakovlev.

"This is second year straight we are taking part in RACE. It’s a wonderful exhibition; it gave us many new contacts. We met our partners we have worked with (SeoPult, Sape) and met a few more here. I think affiliate marketing will be always relevant, because there will always be a demand for those who find customers. As the speaker of the conference I was lucky, my audience was filled with people, I got a great response, I was asked a number of questions from potential partners and competitors. Plus there is a moderator for each session now, which is really very convenient. The result was a very constructive conversation, I liked it.

As for the awards ceremony «RACE Awards», everything was just amazing: organization, beautiful interior, girl Gorchitza, it was the first time I saw her and I liked her music very much. The very event allowed an informal chat with our competitors. And now we are not just competitors, but good friends", speaker of the conference RACE Denis Korolev said.

To celebrate the opening of the first day of exhibition and summarize affiliate activity over the past year, on 11 September as part of RACE awarding ceremony «RACE Awards 2013» was held - the first award in affiliate marketing in Russia and the CIS.

On this occasion luxurious capital restaurant "Falconry" hosted gala-evening for all participants and guests of the exhibition. The clou of the evening was performance of well-known singer of international hits - Olga Dibrova (Gorchitza) performing in electronic, dancerock and funkyhouse style. The atmosphere was relaxed, favoring to amicable meetings and socializing, guests enjoyed a magnificent interior of the restaurant and gourmet refreshments.

This year's participants competed for the title of best affiliates and affiliate marketing specialists, best agencies and affiliate programs aggregators; best affiliate programs on the market Forex, tourism, e-commerce, online gaming, gambling, Internet services, as well as financial market and insurance.

So crystal figurines "RACE Awards 2013" and title "Best!" were given to:

• Mikhail Garkunov - "Best affiliate manager"

• Ploskonosov Maxim - "Best lead manager"

• MMCISpartners - "Best Affiliate Program in CIS"

• Forex-Market - "Best affiliate program on Forex"

• Forex4you - "Best Forex company in affiliate programs"

• OptionRally - "Best affiliate program on the market of binary options"

• AdmitadGmbH - "Best aggregator of affiliate programs"

• Optimizm.ru - "Best SEO agency"

• C-Media - "Best Internet advertising agency"

• Webmoney - "Best Payment System"

 • eGentic GmbH - «Breakthrough of the Year on leads generation market»

"We are very pleased to win this prize. We have been doing this affiliate program for more than 5 years and objectively currently we are probably the most successful, honest, open and competitive program for partners on the market. So I think we deserved this award. Thanks to the organizers for a good evening, we loved live music. It was a pleasure to talk with colleagues and those who work as we do", Igor Moshkov, representative of Forex4you, the winner in nomination "Best Forex company in affiliate programs", said. 

Another pleasant surprise at the show was the presentation of new information portal for communicating and conducting business for online brands and partners - Race-info.

RACE-info is the largest in RuNet information community of affiliate marketing that provides the most timely and objective information on affiliate market: how to compete for traffic for search engines, how to increase conversion of your website and affiliate program, profitable advice and suggestions for partners, interviews with industry professionals, educational videos about online earnings, as well as the news of major business sectors, articles on legal and regulatory topics, all relating to acquisitions , rumors and more.

RACE- 2013 with great success once again proved its high status as the main platform for communication and business contacts exchange for affiliate marketing professionals in Russia. Company Smile Expo, organizer of the exhibition RACE, is grateful to all exhibitors and partners for their participation and assistance in organizing and conducting exhibition arrangements.

 

See you at RACE 2014!