Guys,
Look beyond the cost if you're serious about affiliate marketing.
At the last aff summit, although i didn't get to meet Linda, I met up with Jamie Fortunaso, who's one of nicest AMs around, and got to talking to the Copeac folks, and the meet and greet at the tradeshow, with the gathering of 30+ aff networks was phenomenal.
The best part was hanging out with the other affiliates and sharing ideas, and you'd be surprised how the flurry of IMs after the show translates into friendships.
I blogged about ASE 2007 here:
Affiliate Summit West 2006 Wrap Up at Andrew Wee | Blogging | Affiliate Marketing | Social Traffic Generation | Internet Marketing
The standout sessions were Pepperjam's Kris Jones' search engine arbitrage session and the Super Affiliate panel which had Shoemoney, Aojon and Andrew Johnson doing a brief presentation and doing a Q&A after.
I believe there're some scattered clips on YouTube.
But like they say "you hafta be there!"