On May 20 and 21, Yerevan hosted one of Europe’s largest partner marketing conferences, the MAC Affiliate Conference 2025. As I wrote in the announcement, I went to it with pleasure. It’s time to share my impressions with you.
I prepared for the MAC this year in advance:
- I planned a week’s vacation so that I could arrive the day before and get some sleep after all the activities before leaving.
- I got a hotel room from which it was possible to walk to the venue in 30 minutes (and not stand in traffic for an hour, like last time).
- I have arranged meetings with various participants.
- 05/19/2015: prepati
- 05/20: first day of the conference
- Afterparty first day of MAC 2025 from Winline
- 05/21: second day of the conference
- Afterparty of the second day
- Video review of the MAC’2025 conference in Yerevan from “Gossips”
19.05: prepati
When May came, I went to the conference website to see all the details of the upcoming event, and I was just blown away by the number of partner events. The first prepati started as early as May 16 – 4 days before the MAC. This has never happened before in my memory.
Some of the influencers arrived in Yerevan a week before the Poppy. We rode around Armenia, posted content on Instagram. We had a cultural (and not very) rest…
Sanka and I left Gyumri on Monday. We were already there in the afternoon. We checked into the ibis Yerevan Center, in the city center, rested and began to gather for a private prepati (not from MAC).
At 8 p.m., we had an outdoor dinner at the Abovyan 12 restaurant. We ate delicious food, talked with colleagues about SEO, and more. Then we walked around Yerevan at night.
05/20: first day of the conference
On the first day of the Mac, I needed to get my VIP ticket, because I deigned to take care of the entire organizational part this year right before the trip (next year I will need to do everything in advance).
We arrived at Meridian Expo at 9 a.m. And as a result, they waited for about an hour for my contact, who was supposed to make a pass for me. Although, in fact, it could all be solved in 15 minutes. Lesson for the future: solve all organizational issues in advance, not on the day of the conference.
While we were standing and waiting at the entrance, we watched the queue grow for registration, and then for the entrance. Interestingly, this growth was not linear. After a while, the queue practically disappeared, and then grew again. Here, as last year, the recommendation is as follows: come to the conference 1-2 hours after the official start.
It took me the whole first day to meet. I wasn’t even able to get into the speaking hall until the second day of the conference. Although, in theory, it is generally assumed that activities outside the performance area always bring more benefits in the end.
As a result, all my activity on the first day was reduced to the following areas:
- I tried unsuccessfully to find SEO specialists to join our company. The shortage in the niche is growing, there are not enough people.
- I explained to the affiliate managers how an SEO agency differs from SEO teams that send them traffic to offers. As soon as the managers got the gist of it, they abruptly became uninterested (since they have a KPI for traffic).
- I told business representatives (including partners) about our behavioral factors, and how they differ from 99% of what is publicly available on the market.
- I asked the Chinese if they would be able to bring us equipment for scaling up behavioral factors (and more).
- I was surprised by the sellers of agent accounts that we need Google profiles in the amount of 100-300 thousand pieces (and not 10-15 pieces that they have).
In addition to work, I did not forget about the entertainment part:
- contests from partner companies (although it was difficult to participate in them due to the periodically falling Internet);
- food, drinks;
- merch;
- all sorts of unusual activities (for example, you could fly a helicopter from PARI Affiliates).
This time we were pleased with the practical jokes.:
- BetWinner (they play iPhones all the time at conferences);
- Royal Partners;
- MelBet Partners;
- PIN-UP Partners;
- Winline;
- 4RA PARTNER;
- OnClickA;
- Alfaleads Network;
- Trust RDP;
- 1xBet could I should add something else, but this is the second time I’ve missed the results of their contests, for some inexplicable reason: I arrive at the specified time, and they’ve already played everything.
Afterparty of the first day of MAC 2025 from Winline
At the end of the first day of the conference, there were so many afterparties that it was physically impossible to do everything (although someone tried to pull off such a trick in the MAC chat).
Most of the events were held behind closed doors: by affiliate programs only for their webmasters, advertisers and services. Or for potential partners.
We went to the Winline Partners Party, and we didn’t miss out (although MelBet also had a cool party). Unlimited drinks, food, DJ, and a performance by the band “LSP” (which passed me by at the time, so I was listening for the first time).
In fact, it was very similar to the classic after-party after the conference. I’ve never been to such events before.
We returned home at night, and decided to start the second day a little later.
05/21: second day of the conference
The second day of the Poppy passed in a calmer rhythm. Many were sleeping it off after a stormy night. There were fewer people in the morning. So we calmly walked around all the stands we wanted to see.
We went into the hall with the stage several times, but more to just relax than to listen to any particular report. Although there were a lot of interesting things in the program. If they upload the video to YouTube, I’ll make a selection.
We crossed paths and had a little chat with Vladimir (Contenteam, iGamingTextLab), whom we met at one of the previous conferences.
We met with representatives of Cpaexchange in the recreation area. I told them a little bit about Armenia: what interesting places are worth visiting next time (maybe on MAC-2026). We discussed another potential cross-promo.
Unexpectedly, I met a representative of Mostbet Partners, who, as it turned out, also lives in Gyumri now. He even reads me on Instagram.
We went to the Meridian Expo canteen for lunch. It’s an ideal option to eat regular food at the conference. For some reason, I didn’t find out about her last year.
That’s how the second day slowly ended.
Afterparty of the second day
Meladze was at the official MAC-2025 afterparty and a bunch more. But we ended up with a small SEO company and went to eat kebabs at Tun Lahmajo Tavern.
After working hard for two days of the conference, lighting up the afterparty until the morning is no longer about me. Although, it was rather the people with whom we could sit and chat in peace who became the decisive factor here (by the way, we also met with them the next day to have breakfast).
Video review of the MAC’2025 conference in Yerevan from “Gossips”
Even more photos and videos from the conference are on my Instagram.
To sum up: next year I will come to Yerevan for a MAC 100%, even if by that time I will already be living in Greece.