This year, four of our team ventured to Las Vegas to indulge in the mayhem of Prosper Show 2022, one of the biggest events in the Amazon seller industry. Our brigade of attendees recounted this event to me, elucidating the multitude of activities, talks and mishaps they encountered along the way. I will try and depict this as well as possible, while sifting through the hundreds of cocktails and beers.
The Journey
After an 11 hour flight from Heathrow to LA, George Roberts, Ariam and Tara spent Friday evening exploring Santa Monica. Without a booking, the team found pleasure in the infamous Cheesecake Factory restaurant before visiting the pier that marks the end of Route 66. After a long day of travelling, the team swiftly went back to their hotel in order to catch some zs and battle the jet lag.
The next morning saw the tired trio up bright and early as they picked up their rental car and headed for Sin City, a saying they seemingly all learnt the meaning of by the end of the event. Driving on the right-hand side of the road took some getting used to, with Ariam’s driving apparently leaving George Roberts screaming his life. After a few switches in the driver and a stop off at Peggy Su’s diner, they arrived in Vegas, dropped off the car and slumped into bed.
Sunday and the Set-up
Sunday was definitely not a day of rest in this case with the team going to the Mandalay Bay Conference Centre to unpack the booth and set up the stand. At this point, they were joined by George Marissa, our CEO, who tactically, and understandably, managed to avoid the long haul drive from LA.
The eventivities were now beginning, with the open ceremony consisting of the Prosper Pool Party. Filled with networking, partying and most importantly a free bar, the team had an amazing time.
As if this wasn’t enough, they had to make an early departure in order to make their reservation for the Joel Robuchon, 3 star Michelin restaurant. 16 courses later and the team rolled out of the restaurant.
Prosper Day 1
After arriving at the conference at 9 am, the flocks of Amazon sellers, agencies and more fled through the doors at 10 am, eager to hear about all things Amazon.
Throughout the show, at least two of the team manned the booth, alongside our trusty English Bulldog mascot, who can be spotted below.
Networking, exhibiting, talking to sellers and other agencies were only a few of the things on our agenda on Monday and Tuesday. All of the team shared how grateful they were to meet both sellers and agencies who they had only ever seen/spoken to online prior to the event, as well as meeting a plethora of new players along the way.
On top of this between the networking and exhibiting, the team attended lots of talks, the insights of which were fed back to the team when they got back to London. Some of the most informative talks they saw were delivered by Tim Jordan, Destaney Wishon and Lazar Žepinić.
Our own CEO, George Meressa, also participated in a panel discussion called ‘Scale Up With Diverse Amazon Ad Types and Strategies Across Product Lifecycle’ which was apparently very successful.
After a jam-packed day, on Monday evening, the team got ready and went to the Helium 10 party, where they were able to hear Mark McGrath play live and continue the networking. This was followed by the Teikametrics party at the top of Mandalay Bay before the four called it a night.
Prosper Day 2
Tuesday at Prosper followed very similarly to day 1, with talks, panels, networking and discussions constantly flowing. Tara, one of our newer account managers on the Clear Ads team, took full advantage of the talks and attended 4 on Tuesday.
She said that Danny McMillan’s talk on the A9 algorithm was useful and helped to understand the technicality of ranking on Amazon. Alongside this, the seller panel with Brandon Fuhrmann, Kevin Sanderson, Lovella Padgett, Radu Oboroc and Stan Friedlander called ‘Selling in the EU, the UK, Canada and Japan’ gave interesting insight into expanding into new marketplaces.
That evening was filled with ‘boozing’ as described by George Roberts. Firstly, the team attended the Fortunet party, which we were co-sponsoring. With Danny McMillan behind the decks and the drinks flowing, a heavy night was inbound.
George Roberts followed this by going to Casino in the Clouds before they all reconvened at the clubbing network event, OMNIA, which was kindly hosted by Tim Jordan and ran into the early hours of the morning.
The Aftermath
Though the event had sadly come to an end, the team stuck around to explore Vegas a bit further and attend some more intimate after-parties. This entailed a cacophony of: breakfast at Hashagogo, networking events, Howard Thais after party, tequilas, more ‘boozing’, Thursday night at Fremont Street, chilling at Danny Mcmillan’s pool and a flight over the Grand Canyon.
They then reluctantly boarded a flight home on Friday evening and finally landed on Saturday morning, overwhelmed with stories and insights to share with the rest of the team.
