Chris Dessi - Vice President zanox, Inc

Today was a great day. i competed in a 4 mile New York Colon Cancer Challenge in honor of my grandfather Guy W. La Rosa (Papa). If he were alive, he would have celebrated a birthday today which helped to make the day even more special.

Things started out on a pretty funny note. Laura and I woke up at 6 am so we could leave the house by 7 am, and get to central park by 8 am, in order to have time to register, get situation etc...I popped out of bed feeling excited about being able to make this little dream of mine come true (this wasn't a marathon, but still, what a great step in the right direction)! So, I get up, go downstairs to make coffee, and notice that the clocks are all sorts of messed up. I was prepared to the night before and manually changed the clock on my blackberry forward an hour. Little did I know that my blackberry would update on it's own (via satellite), so now we were a full hour early. A silly start on a great day. Laura and I laughed at ourselves, and headed down to central park.

I had my zanox winter hat to keep my head warm, and my custom New York Road Runners shirt (it said "In Loving Memory ...
Papa, I miss you)....

I blew through the 4 miles with a smile from ear to ear as I competed. I was shocked. I had been training indoors, and thought that running in the park would be so much harder. I think the combination of adrenaline, and the awesome positive energy of everyone in attendance helped me out.

I'm gonna go take a nap now.

This Sunday I'll be competing in the New York Road Runners New York Colon Cancer Challenge. This is a first for me (although I did run in the corporate challenge about 200 years ago), I've never really been one to do the "organized race thing"....I think that's going to change. The reason why I'm running is to help raise money for a Scholarship that I started (as a gift to my mother) a few years ago. The Scholarship is awarded every Spring at my Alma Mater (Mahopac High School). We try to give the award to students that are in good academic standing, and are planning to study music in college. It's a really cool thing because I get to say a few words of remembarance about my grandfather. Keeping his legacy alive is very important to me and my family. Also, since his wife (my grandmother) passed last week, this year is especially important. I'll be sure to share some photos next week.

Every once in a while, (even as a New Yorker) you have to stop and smell the roses. The other day I was sitting at my desk when a beam of light hit me out of the corner of my eye. As the sun set, I took a minute to turn my seat and look out the window. Thought I'd share the amazing view with you guys. Pretty cool right?

VEGAS VEGAS VEGAS!! After a 5 hour delay of my flight in Charlotte (my own fault for taking a connecting flight from NY), I ended up in Vegas at 6am. A quick run to the Mirage for a hour nap, shower, and on the affiliate summit show floor by 10am. zanox was out in full force with our super star director of sales Adam Pattison being a trooper and flying in all the way from our london offices...and I thought I was tired when I hit the floor!! Rani Nagpal our VP of Affiliate Management, and Chris Loonan our Director of Operations all joined me at the booth.

zanox was easily the only international performance based ad network at the affiliate summit. It was exciting to talk to affiliates, as well as advertisers about our easy to implement solutions. It's shows like this that make me want to pop out of bed in the morning. There are so many exciting things going on at zanox (opening our New York office, as well as opening an office in Poland) that there is truly nothing stopping us. We're making our first real in roads into the US market, and you could feel the energy at out booth.

This year, we had a great contest running - Win two tickets around the world to the zanox office of your choice. Remember guys, we have offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris, Stockholm, Shanghai, and now Warsaw! All an affiliate has to do is sign up with zanox, and generate $10,000 in commission in the month of March, 2008. You obviously need to be of legal age, and have a valid passport, but c'mon, this contest is phenomenal! I'm sure a few of the guys that we spoke to are well on their way to winning the prize as a write this. Shoot me a note if you want more details. christopher.dessi@zanox.com

So, now that the affiliate summit is over, we have lots of follow up work to do. There were so many affiliates that are interested in running our international offers I'm sure that Ad:Tech in San Fransisco is going to be just as, if not more successful.

The zanox team is heading to sin city for our annual trip to Affiliate Summit!

Shows are usually fun, but I have to admit the Affiliate Summit in Vegas is going to be a highlight in 2008. As zanox continues to grow it is essential that we cultivate strong working relationships with our current publisher base, as well as expand and grow with new publishers. We're throwing a cocktail reception with Dragon Media on the Monday the 25th at 4pm in the masquerade suite at the Rio Hotel. Stop by if you want to learn more about zanox.

Performance based marketing, and affiliate marketing are the hottest things online currently. I can't wait to hear about all of the new things going on at the Summit. Also, please come by our booth if your interested in winning a FREE trip for 2 to any destination where zanox has an office. That includes, Barcelona, Milan, London, New York, Shanghai, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris!