The first-timer's guide

AGS Rome 2026 Welcome Kit, first-timer edition · the desk, the first hour, the volume question, one company and one question, going alone, the Best Value for Money Guide, and the Match App

The reason you haven't gone to an industry event isn't the cost. It's the picture in your head: standing in a corner among real business owners, waiting for someone to ask what you run. Here's what actually happens.

The desk

There's no portfolio check. There's a badge with your name on it and a lanyard. The person behind the desk scans a code and says "enjoy." That's the whole gate. A pass is a pass, and a Standard pass gets you the floor, all the sessions, the welcome reception and the Match App, the same as anyone else who isn't a sponsor.

Take the photo. Badge, lanyard, the hall behind you. Send it to the chat where they ask how the business is going. It's actually real.

The first hour

You'll walk in and feel exactly like the picture. Everybody does. One first-timer wrote afterwards: "Day one I was excited and nervous; then I realised loads of other first-timers felt exactly the same." That's the most useful sentence anyone has written about a trade show. There are always a lot of first-timers. They all feel like frauds for the first hour. They mostly find each other by the coffee.

So the plan for the first hour isn't to talk to anyone. It's this: walk the floor once, slowly, with the list from this kit, and just look. Match the names on stands to the categories. That's a marketplace. That's a network that pays per sale. That's a traffic source. That's the platform you've never been able to get a human from. Nobody's going to talk to you while you're walking, and you don't have to talk to anyone. You're letting the industry become real in your head. By the end of the lap it looks like a trade show, not a court.

"What's your volume?"

It will get asked. Here's the honest answer, and it works:

"I'm not running anything yet. I've been building front ends and I've come to understand the other side before I spend more. What do you look for in a new partner?"

Or, if you've had a result:

"Small. A few sales in [month] on [category], then it stopped, and I want to understand why. What do you look for in a new partner?"

Read what that does. It's true. It's not apologetic. It flips the conversation to them, which is what people at stands want anyway. And it tells them you're serious, which is the only qualification that matters to someone whose job is finding new partners. Nobody at a network stand expects a beginner to be running big numbers. They expect a beginner to know they're a beginner and to have a question.

Some people will lose interest. That's fine. It's information about them, not about you.

One company, one question

Not ten companies. One. Pick it from the list before you go, and spend the first day on it.

Good first picks: a network or a marketplace, because their stands are staffed by people whose job is new partners. Good first questions:

• "What does a new partner need to have ready before you'd approve them?"
• "For your [category] offers, what kind of traffic works, and what doesn't?"
• "What do the affiliates who do well with you do differently in their first few months?"
• "If I've had a few sales and then nothing, what's usually the reason?"

If the one conversation goes well, the day was worth it. If it goes badly, you learned what they look for, which is the thing you came for anyway. Day two, a second company. Day three, a third. That's the whole plan. It's enough, and it's more than any course gave you.

Going alone

Most first-timers do, and going alone is easier than going with a friend, because a pair talks to each other and a single person gets talked to.

• The welcome reception. Everyone's standing around with a drink and nobody knows anyone. Say "first time?" to the person next to you. Half the room will say yes.
• The queue. Coffee, registration, a session. Queues are conversations that haven't started. "What do you run?" is the standard opener, and you now have an answer.
• Sessions. Sit near the front. Talk to the person next to you before it starts, not after; afterwards everyone's leaving. The brand-side speakers (Nick Shackelford of Brez, Marisha Lakhiani of Mindvalley, Dayu Yang of EcommOps) draw people who run real things.
• Leaving a conversation. "Good to meet you, I'm going to do a lap." That's it. Nobody's offended. Everyone's doing the same.
• The other first-timers. Someone who just started an affiliate site. Someone whose print-on-demand made nothing. Someone who did the store thing and is working out the rest. They're standing where you're standing, thinking what you're thinking. That's your network. It starts there. One first-timer, afterwards: "The amount I learned about ecommerce, e-marketing and affiliate programs blew me away." Not from a stage. From the floor.

The Best Value for Money Guide

The pass is paid, and it's the smaller part of the trip. The next page, the Best Value for Money Guide, sets out which pass a first-timer gets the most from and what it includes, budgets the whole trip with your own numbers, plans the days so each one earns its place, and says what a good first visit looks like when you have no sales yet. Read it before you book anything.

How the Match App works once you hold a pass

The Match App is the event's meeting tool. Access comes after you hold a pass. Once you do, the app opens for you: you search for a company, send a request with a short note, and they accept or decline. Accepted requests are meetings with a time and a place at the venue. The Standard pass gets the Limited level, which is enough for what you need.

Request one meeting. The note is your volume answer plus your one question: "First time at AGS. Not running yet; I've been building front ends and want to understand what you look for in a new partner in [category]. Ten minutes?" If they accept, that's your day-two meeting. If they decline, walk up to the stand on day one anyway. Both work.

What's actually real

Nothing in this guide asks you to believe anything. It asks you to go and look, with a list and a question, at people who do this for a living. The picture in your head, the corner, the waiting to be found out, gets replaced by a hall that looked like a trade show, a person at a stand who answered your question, and a name you can message afterwards.

The door into this industry isn't a secret Discord link. It's an open room where the people who own offers and the people who run traffic stand around and talk. It's open 2 to 5 November. You're allowed in.

We update this kit from time to time as confirmations, prices and event details change. This page is current as of 12 September 2026.