Tuesday morning and it is time for us to pick up the rental car. Avis is just a short walk from the hotel, straight up Chopin Place and on up NW 2nd St.

We have hired a two door silver colored Cobalt. So after receiving instructions on how to get back to the hotel off we go. Well thank goodness most of the streets are one way, it gives me time to work out where to make turns, as I am now sitting in the car on the left hand side and driving on the opposite side of the road.

I keep turning on the wipers as the indicators are on the opposite side to what I am used to.

We have to go around the block to get back to the hotel, easy – right – ha, wrong.

We come close to Biscayne Boulevard, there are no traffic lights and the traffic shows no signs of clearing because the bridge is up and the traffic is not moving. So we do a U turn and head off in another direction and end up having to go around the block a few times to work out how to get across the main road to the hotel. Signposting is at a minimum so it is simply a matter of taking note each time of how the road system works.

Finally – we reach the hotel and guess what – no parking is available so in the end we take the valet parking option even though we are only go to be at the hotel for another couple of hours.

Okay so far so good, we head off to breakfast to contine networking with the affiliate marketers.

Unfortunately it is time to go and we have to head off. When we first decided to come to the conference we didn’t purchase the full pass, because of the cost so we thought two days would be enough. It was only after we had booked everything that we were then sent a coupon code to get the full pass at a reduced rate. What this meant however was that we couldn’t stay at the conference for the full three days so it was on to Orlando that morning.

The main reason for our trip to Miami was to attend the Affiliate Summit which is held twice a year in the US.

We are up bright and early and off to have the continental breakfast where we meet Tara from Link connector.

After breakfast we attend the keynote address by Ze Frank. This is one very funny guy who uses humour to get his message across. Ze was jettisoned to fame on the internet when he posted a birthday invitation named ‘How to Dance Properly’ which received a massive web response.

Unfortunately with both of us being unwell we weren’t able to make the most of the day but even so we managed to get through a number of sessions and networking at the exhibitor stalls. Breakfast and lunch was included with our Summit pass and for dinner we got room service in as we were still recovering from our colds and didn’t feel much like going out.

Here are a few of the stands that were represented.

Today we were intending to have a nice sleep-in but ended up getting up early anyway. We had pre-ordered our breakfast for 9am and it arrived right on time and was brought in on a table on wheels and set up in a corner of the room. The breakfast was just wonderful. I had ordered an American breakfast and Wanda ordered Eggs Benedict. It also included orange juice, green tea and a variety of bakery items.

We then headed down to the Mezzanine to register for the Affiliate Summit. This is the main reason for our trip although any excuse to travel and we are off. We received a big bag of goodies and went back to our room to go through it all and work out what sessions of the conference we were going to attend over the coming days.

After making our choices for the next day we got our walking shoes and headed out to check out the monorail that was zipping around just across the road from us. Upon reading the signs at the entrance we realised that it was free to use which was a bit of a surprise.

Here are some of the attractive buildings in downtown Miami:

We took a couple of different trains and then got off at the Macys stop and headed on into the store. Well that was a mistake. A couple hundred dollars later and laden with our shopping bags we finally exit the store and walk up Miami Avenue to check out the rest of downtown Miami.

Unfortunately, being Sunday, most of the stores were closed. This was a little surprising to us as in Australia the shops in most major cities are open on Sundays and we just expected it to be the same here.

As we were getting hot and tired we got back on the Metromover and headed back to the hotel. After a quick break we then headed up through Bayfront Park to the Bayside Centre to see if we could find somewhere for lunch and we finally decided on the Hard Rock Café. The food here was delicious and the atmosphere was great although the music was way too loud at the start. I think they realised it was too loud and finally turned it down to a reasonable level.

Paula was feeling a little merry after one and a half cocktails.

I stuck to the fresh fruit juice which was refreshingly cool and full of fruity flavour:

We brought the glasses as a memento.

After our lunch we headed back to the hotel which is where we are now watching Harry Potter on the TV. This is probably where we will stay for now. Neither of us is in the mood to go anywhere at the moment – Wanda is still getting over her cold and I have caught her cold as I am sniffing away here as well. We were going to head down to the start of the conference but with neither of us feeling well we are going to stay in so we are feeling well for tomorrow.