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Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, will keynote Affiliate Summit 2009 West.
Based on the success of his Wine Library TV show, he’s been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Nightline.
Gary’s love affair with wine began at a young age when he started reading Robert Parker and Wine Advocate and blossomed over the years as he traveled around the world to various wine-producing regions (his wife remains blissfully unaware of this affair).
But it troubled Gary to observe the stuffiness of the industry-conceited sommeliers, snobby shopkeepers unwilling (or unable) to educate their consumers, and seemingly mystical conventions all combine to make wine seem intimidating to the uninitiated. Wine Library TV seeks to change all that.
Aimed at anyone interested in truly learning about wine, from beginners to experts, young (above 21 of course) to old, Gary and the WLTV community embrace the notion that wine can be enjoyed by all.
In each episode, Gary tastes wines on the fly-it is unrehearsed, unscripted, and off-the-cuff. As Gary likes to say, he shoots from the hip, but always from the heart.
Affiliate Summit 2009 West is taking place January 11-13, 2009 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
5 responses so far ↓
1 andrew wee // Apr 2, 2008 at 12:46 am
Gary Vay-ner-chuk = Awesome!
2 Jason Lancaster // Apr 11, 2008 at 12:17 pm
So Vaynerchuk is famous (kind of, but only if you drink a lot of wine), interesting (kind of, but his bit gets old after a few minutes), and fairly successful. He’s a bit of an authority on building a brand for himself using video, and I’m sure he’ll be entertaining, but when I listened to him speak on a panel at this year’s ASW, his knowledge and insight didn’t compare to Tim Carter from AskTheBuilder.com. Tim isn’t as dynamic, but he struck me as more of an authority figure. Vaynerchuk seems like a hack when compared to Tim Carter.
Even more importantly, it seems like Vaynerchuck (or even Tim Carter) is giant step backward from having an industry middleweight like Calacanis keynote.
I think it’s up to Affiliate Summit to promote and help legitimize our industry - Vaynerchuck seems like a less than perfect choice.
3 Shawn Collins // Apr 11, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hi Jason -
We chose Gary, because he is a good example of somebody who leveraged social media to dramatically grow a business.
In my opinion, he is about a lot more than building a personal brand, and he reaches beyond wine drinkers.
Personally, I don’t care for wine and rarely drink it. But I watch Wine Library TV and enjoy what Gary is doing.
Anyhow, I respectfully disagree with your opinion and think Gary is a perfect choice.
And I hope to see you in Boston this August when we have Cory Booker, Mayor Of Newark, NJ, as the keynote.
Another keynote that may seem disconnected from affiliate marketing, and another that makes a lot of sense to me.
4 Jason Lancaster // Apr 13, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Fair enough. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.
I hope to attend ASE Boston as well.
5 Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins // May 9, 2008 at 7:50 pm
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