This may sound crazy coming from me, but I don’t encourage you to go to the sessions at Affiliate Summit East 2012.

Now don’t get me wrong – we’ve got a packed agenda this August in NYC with dozens of great breakout sessions, as well as an interesting and important keynote panel on women in affiliate marketing, and three other keynotes from Sara Levinson, Ntiedo (NT) Etuk, and Dave Cupples.

But if you’ve got an opportunity to meet with another Affiliate Summit attendee that you wouldn’t usually have a chance to meet, don’t waste that opportunity.

Since 2006, we’ve been recording the keynotes and breakout sessions, so if you’ve got a Networking Plus, VIP or All Access pass, you’ll be able to see these sessions on video about a month after the conference.

While you don’t get the benefit of meeting the speakers after the session, networking with others in the audience, and asking questions to the elite roster of speakers, you can still benefit from the educational opportunities.

So, skip sessions or keynotes if you have a conflict (catching up on sleep isn’t a reasonable conflict), but if you can make it, the sessions and keynotes are a rich and valuable experience.