Our Community's First Offline Meetup at GTC Shenzhen

On Wednesday I asked in our community whether anyone was going to the traffic conference in Shenzhen.

Quite a few people are based in Shenzhen anyway, so it was a good chance to get together offline and swap ideas and resources.

The response was pretty good; several people said they’d come. I quickly made a meetup poster with GPT-images2 on the spot:

GTC Global Traffic Conference

The GTC Global Traffic Conference: anyone doing cross-border business has probably been. It’s mainly games, apps, e-commerce and ad tech, with platforms and service providers of every kind making up most of it.

This year, traffic sources we know well, like PropellerAds and Adsterra, came to exhibit too. They hand out some small gifts as well.

But for our Affiliate circle, its biggest value isn’t the expo itself. It’s that it gives you a reason to get the people you normally only chat with in the community or on WeChat out for a face-to-face meeting.

Cross-border plays of every kind

The community members who showed up were all meeting for the first time:

One focuses on Brand Bidding, with a very mature playbook, an old hand at it. Another does white-hat cross-border e-commerce, focused on his own resources and looking for more ways to play.

There were also people running Sweepstakes, and some insider plays in this industry you only hear about offline. One member even drove over from Foshan especially for it.

We also talked about how exactly AI tools can power media buying and e-commerce. That’s the hottest topic in the circle right now: everyone is using them, but everyone comes at it differently.

The value of meeting offline

The biggest difference between offline and online isn’t what new knowledge you pick up.

It’s that you can feel the different rhythm each person brings when sharing their own play. We’re all running ads, but some lean on tech, some on creatives, some are heading toward brands.

You can’t get these differences out of an online chat. Only when you sit down face to face can you really feel them.

One last word

A thousand chats online aren’t worth one meeting offline.

The traffic conference was the excuse to pull together some members I’d long wanted to meet. What you run doesn’t matter; the thinking does.

Finally, thanks to Mr. Liu for treating everyone to dinner this time. Until next time.