SEO Roadshow review

[davidatweboptimiser]

That was great, nice to see everyone again. I have written out a review of the SEO Roadshow (http://www.weboptimiser.com/search_engine_marketing_news/6056435.html) for those that could not make it, see you all again, soon. Thanks to the organisers.



David

[rustybrick]

David, thanks for the quick review.

Can you or someone else give us more detail?

Scotland sounds cool...Will it be on a Saturday? What are the expected dates?

[robwatts]

Scotland is cool, especially this time of the year and thereafter.

K'in freezing in fact.

[Mike Grehan]

Day 1

Enter hotel, RC Jordan thrusts beer into my hand and explains the speaking schedule for the following day:

12.00 pm [Name censored] Presents "Everything I know about SEO"

12.01 pm Mike Grehan presents "Everything I love about SEMPO"

12.02 pm Let the drinking begin.

I spot my buddy Nicholine Hayward and greet her with a hug. This will become the theme for the entire weekend.

Next I hug Barry Lloyd and his wonderful wife Hilary. Swiftly followed by a round of hugs for Jim Banks, Ammon Johns and Shak.

Peter Da Vanzo arrives and I'm already limbering up for more hugging. I start to drink "little girly" white wine spritzers while the butch and manly black hats guzzle REAL beer.

Shak arranges for a fleet of taxis to take a crowd of us to an eaterie in the west end. Here, I drink more "little girly" drinks, randomly hug people and introduce Aaron Wall to his first real curry.

Eating over and done with, we head for the tube, here I begin to hug people and say goodbye to those who are leaving. The rest head back to the hotel. I decide to buy everybody in the hotel a drink, many of whom are not actually with the SEO roadshow crowd, but are happy to accept free drinks from me nonetheless.

At some point everything goes black.

Day 2

I wake up to a couple of little surprises:


1) Ammon Johns is in the room with me (no we are not doing any kind of hugging at this time). I ask him what he's doing in my room - he answers, "how do you think you got back here last night."

2) I find the receipt for the last round of drinks I purchased the night before. I sit on the edge of the bed and begin to weep a little...

12.00 pm or thereabouts, we enter the Citte of York pub. I spot my dear friend Fantomaster and the hugging begins. Within minutes I have hugged Danny Sullivan, Barry and Hilary (again) Shak (again) David White, and possibly even NFFC. And by now I'm back on the "little girly" drinks.

I pop downstairs and ruin Danny Sullivan's lunch by entering into a very secret and private conversation between just the two of us... and JenStar who is sitting right next to me ear-wigging everything.

I go back upstairs where I start randomly hugging people at the entrance to the pub... only to discover they have absolutely nothing to do with the SEO roadshow. Nonetheless, they are happy to be hugged anyway and hug me back with much gusto.

I have some more "little girly" drinks and decide that Danny Sullivan looks like he needs another hug. I then introduce Thomas Bindl to Fantmaster... this will be the first of four times I'll introduce them to each other during the course of the afternoon.

More "little girly" drinks and then it's back to the hotel for... more "little girly" drinks"...

Fantomaster, Dirk, Barry Lloyd and Hilary step out to dinner with me in a swanky Chinese restaurant. I have some more "girly drinks" and then begin to bore the arse off everybody by talking absolute, total crap for about an hour. I then decide that I should pay for dinner.

Back to the hotel and some more "girly drinks" and I realise something wonderful... I can now speak fluent Swahili - no English - just fluent Swahili. Unfortunately the barman doesn't seem to understand Swahili as I attempt to get him to give everybody in the hotel a free drink on me.

Everything goes black again.

Day 3

I wake up to some more surprises:

1) Ammon is nowhere to be seen.

2) My wallet contains only half a 20 pound note for some unknown
reason.

3) Someone is banging a gong inside my head.

I find the receipt from the Chinese restaurant the night before and realise just HOW MUCH dinner had cost me. I sit on the edge of the bed and begin to weep uncontrollably...

Fantomaster texts me with an invitation to join him for breakfast. The mere thought of breakfast has me convulsing. I need some air so I cross Bayswater Road into Hyde Park, where sickeningly healthy looking people are jogging.

I find a park bench, sit down... and promptly fall asleep. I wake about an hour later, looking and feeling like a vagrant. People are still jogging and someone is still banging a gong inside my head.

I head northwards to my home. My wife greets me late afternoon with "how was the conference darling?" - "what conference?" I reply as I head to the bedroom with an Alka Seltzer... and someone still banging a gong inside my head.

Everything goes black again...

[Elisabeth]

best "conference" report, ever, MIKE!

added - of course, those of us that didn't attend already knew exactly what we were missing;)

[Mike Grehan]

And some random pics here:

http://www.search-engine-book.co.uk/seo_roadshow/

[I, Brian]

I was only able to make it for the "Citte of York" event - being a newbie to the professional world, my objective was simply to meet the people in the industry and get to know it a little better.

What was great was not simply the informal nature of it all - but also how approachable everyone was. I was honestly astonished that you could walk up to everyone and - no matter who they were, or what background, experience, or income, they had - they seemed happy to engage anyone in conversation.

Glad to see the pictures I took on Mike's camera were also the best ones - then again I was probably the only one sober enough to keep people in the center of the frame. :D

[creativecraig]

All the people I had a chat with were all friendly.

Best get together I have been to, a good number as well - too many people and you can not hear what people are saying, not enough people and your voice echo's.

Looking forward to the next one.

[Jill Whalen]

What's funny is that knowing Mike as I do, every word he's said is surely the god's honest truth!

Mike, you have to learn to stop buying drinks for the whole bar...how many times do I have to tell you this!!!

<added>Great pics, Mike!

[bethabernathy]

http://www.integratedresourcemgmt.com/images/seo-roadshow-rocks.gif

I like the part about falling asleep on the bench.

[rustybrick]

Awesome coverage, Danny, think you can republish that at SEW this Monday? :) Makes for great reading. Damn, I wish I could of been there.

[seobook]

I had a ton of fun talking to everyone. Thanks for finding the amazing curry Mike :)

[seobook]

Can you or someone else give us more detail?

Scotland sounds cool...Will it be on a Saturday? What are the expected dates? I also think there is going to be a mid cycle one in the states (somewhere in the Carolinas if memory serves)

[4eyes]

This was an awesome event - talked myself hoarse and left with my head spinning with ideas.

Not enough time to talk to all the people I wanted even arriving a day early - clearly next time I'll have to arrive two days early (and stay a day later)

Edinburgh will be a weekend in September 2005 - which one is still to be decided.

As I understand it, the US one is yet to be confirmed.

[MakeMeTop]

Great summary, Mike - but you forgot about the part when you introduced Hilary to me before embarking on a eulogy on Penny's outstanding assets to the company over dinner.

Next time we are going to confiscate your credit cards before going for a meal!

A great time, great people, superb atmosphere and a return to a modus-operandi that I thought might have gone forever. Free sharing of information, ideas, suggestions and "war stories" in an amiable atmosphere with no sales pitches. A meeting of friends (even if we had never met personally previously) and minds.

To be continued soon, I hope!

Hats off to the organisers for a job very well done and to all the participants for creating an environment where no-one felt out of place.

[Mike Grehan]

Great summary, Mike - but you forgot about the part when you introduced Hilary to me before embarking on a eulogy on Penny's outstanding assets to the company over dinner.

Barry!!!!! How could you - Penny reads this forum sometimes!!! :o

I'll never be able to look her in the eyes again... and it was difficult enough to do that in the first place ;)

Next time we are going to confiscate your credit cards before going for a meal!

Not before the bank manager does I'm afraid :(

A great time, great people, superb atmosphere and a return to a modus-operandi that I thought might have gone forever. Free sharing of information, ideas, suggestions and "war stories" in an amiable atmosphere with no sales pitches. A meeting of friends (even if we had never met personally previously) and minds.

Couldn't agree more!

Hats off to the organisers for a job very well done and to all the participants for creating an environment where no-one felt out of place.

Absolutely, well done guys... now remember your image and get those hats back on again :D

[searchengineblog.com]

Excellent summary, Mike.

Fantastic conference. I have a sore head, sore throat and sore bits I didn't even know existed. I now realise it's possible to have a sore liver, too.

Talked to so many great people - all friendly, generous, and dead clever. Came away buzzing with ideas and opportunities to explore and an overwhelming desire to relocate to the UK, if only to ensure a timely arrival at Edinburgh next year.

Thanks to the organisers, you did a top job. See y'all again soon.

[NFFC]

Well...what a fantastic time. A big thanks to everyone who attended and made it happen.

Hard to pick out any highlights amongst what was one long highlight but three stick in my mind.

Mr Sullivan graciously putting a few quid in the pot so that Cre8aSite could celebrate their second anniversary in style with a toast of champagne.

And then THE moment...out of the corner of my eye I saw littleman and fantomaster lean towards each other and shake hands. Maybe others noticed but the room seemed to wobble a little, I think we witnessed a small rift in the time-space continuum. Still can't get the theme tune to the Omen out my head. :)

The third...well lets keep a few secrets for those that were there.

Looking forward to Charleston in April [hopefully!] and Edinburgh next September [100%].

[mick g]

excellent event and well organised, looking forward to the next one

[DianeV]

From those of us cre8 folk who couldn't attend, I'd like to thank everyone, and Danny, for the kind comments and attention.

Now: why the East Coast for the U.S.? We do have another coast ... and, if you're talking about the winter, it's generally warm here then. :-)

[dannysullivan]

Very glad to have made it. Love shows where I don't have to cross time zones! Great to see everyone and just wish I could have stayed longer!

I thought the best part was the custom content delivery of the drawing prizes, where Fantomaster just happened to keep winning :)

[jetboy]

Very good indeed. Thanks to all involved in the organisation. Job well done.

[DaveN]

What a blast, don't think i have laughed so much in Years, great to see old faces and really old and worn out faces like (4eyes) ;)

good to meet Danny and actually have a conversation instead of heated discussion on the boards ;)

only downside I did spend 2 days looking for the sempo rep could not find them anywhere, and the lift in the hotel broke down with me, chris_r jenstar, the Vikings and go60guy.....

good times ahead

DaveN

added Nffc form how many different countries turned out

[george]

Just wish I could have joined you :)

Next time perhaps.

[NFFC]

>how many different countries turned out

Mrs rcjordan will have the full list but I can think of at least 8 off the top of my head. Had more than one planet there too ;)

And BTW, thanks for the contibution DaveN!

[DaveN]

thanks for the contibution .... it's nice to give something back to the blogg owners... they have given so much to the darkside in the past ;)

DaveN

[4eyes]

great to see old faces and really old and worn out faces like (4eyes)

Great to see you again Dave, particularly as there is so much more of you to see these days.
;)

[mivox]

it's nice to give something back to the blogg owners... they have given so much to the darkside in the past

And we're all so happy to do our little bit for you as well. ;)

Fantastic event, two-days-before-start to finish! I'm putting SEOroadshow head-and-shoulders at the top of my "not to be missed" events list. Great to have a chance to really talk with people instead of watching people talk at you all weekend.

[fantomaster]

2) My wallet contains only half a 20 pound note for some unknown reason.
So in case you're wondering where that missing half is, Mike, I can tell you
it's well-cloaked in Belgium, where we just might - should you ever actually
make it here - take up Barry's excellent scheme of confiscating your credit
card just to make sure you don't end up with a torn 100 Euro note as well
next time.

Great event, though perhaps a mite too short (he he) - will make sure we
make it to Edinburgh next year, where the beer's even better. :)

Kudos and thanks to the organizers, too - a wonderful job of creative chaos
at its very best, very much befitting our profession!

[rustybrick]

Great event, though perhaps a mite too short (he he) - will make sure we make it to Edinburgh next year, where the beer's even better. :)

In that case, would a Saturday & Sunday event be cool with everyone?

[NFFC]

>would a Saturday & Sunday event be cool with everyone?

No :)

It tends to start the Wednesday and carries on until at least the Sunday.

The Saturday is the focal point but by no means the jewel in the crown.

[fantomaster]

Seeing that some of us are still subscribing to the somewhat untrendy
(and certainly unhealthy!) habit of actually working for our money, :)
and more often than not during weekdays at that, if only to cater to
all those corporate clients we like to make our living from, perhaps
implementing a bifocal format for Saturday and Sunday just might be a
bit more convenient.

Of course, as an alternative we could also set up a cover-for-all SEO
hotline on location if someone were willing to take turns at staying sober,
poor blighters ...

[rustybrick]

Ok, so no chance of making both Saturday and Sunday the focal point of the roadshow?

So we get a nice distribution of people coming in, lets see if I can draw this out in text. You got number of people along the left and days across the bottom. :) :)

alright, so I started laying it out in text, hit preview and it turned out to look like this:


****************
** **
** ***
** *
*** *
****** *
****** *
***** *
** ***
__________________________________________________ ___
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY


So now, I just decided to screen capture what it should have looked like in text:

http://www.rustybrick.com/pics/misc/good-distribution.gif

:rolleyes:

[Affiliate Program Manager]

rustybrick:

That looks way too sophisticated for the road show crowd who only wants deal with FULL BODY NETWORKING.........

On another board someone asked for a summary...it can't be done!

[mivox]

Friday night and Saturday are the traditional focal points... with Thursday for the seriously addicted crowd, and Sunday for 'afterparty' brunches...

But from what I've seen, all the "big" conferences tend to have ridiculous schedules like starting on Tuesday and ending on Thursday or Friday, and those are targeted at the corporate crowd...

Surely there's a way to convince the corporate clients you've got important business to attend to one or two weeks a year? They ought to understand if they ever attend conferences themselves. (And if they don't, maybe you just need more understanding clients... hehe) ;)

[DaveN]

Friday night and Saturday......hehehe I got there Thursday and left Tuesday

[mivox]

So you go beyond "seriously addicted" straight to "hardcore junkie," that's all. ;)

[rustybrick]

The serious conferences are meant for training, not necessarily so much for networking (although networking is huge at them). Big companies and small, pay for their employees to spend a week at a conference to learn, network and come back with new leads. This is a business venture for the big conferences.

That is why the roadshow is so fun, very little business going on. More of a big get together of people who like the same topic.

[DaveN]

rustybrick I tend to go just to make friends and drink NFFC under the table (he's such a pretty girl).... But i reckon i have got more Business from seoroadshow type Conferences than anything.

I set a goal to make two new best friends people I can trust and share ideas with ( my ideas are usally pretty crazy at best ) but people like to listen and share.

[fantomaster]

Surely there's a way to convince the corporate clients you've got important business to attend to one or two weeks a year? They ought to understand if they ever attend conferences themselves. (And if they don't, maybe you just need more understanding clients... hehe) ;)
Hehe indeed: of course they'll have to understand - after all, there's
preciously little they can do about it when confronted with a fait accompli, is
there?

But it can actually be a bit more complicated than this. E.g. if you're
monitoring traffic for clients more or less on a realtime basis, or if you have a
search engine spider list to monitor, updating it four times a day (as we do),
or - probably more typically - if you're maintaining a hotline for the
panicky "two of my fiftyeight domains have suddenly dropped from pos. 1 to
pos. 2 - what shall I DO?!?! HAVE I BEEN BANNED????" crowd, it's not always
that easy, to put it mildly. :rolleyes:

Plus, there's some cultural hangups at work here as well: in most parts of
Europe, for example, the principle of not working weekends is somewhat akin
to a holy cow, which tends to boost clients' "understanding" for a weekend
outage no end.

In any case, the actual question was whether the more formal part of the
event could/should be extended to the full weekend, which I would second.

Of course, there's nothing to be said at all against people meeting two days -
or even two months for that matter :) - earlier or after as well if they can
match it with their respective business schedules.

[davidatweboptimiser]

Looking forward to Charleston in April [hopefully!] and Edinburgh next September [100%].

Well guys, it looks like the SEO Roadshow is definitely on.

RCJordan says Edinburgh next September, NFFC seconds that - and Charleston in April too?

I could sell y'all both locations. Charleston is off the track but on the map, there is a whole lot of stuff going on down there, with some good local SEO presence too. Surfing, shark fishing, great food (by American standards, at least), creepy Spanish moss, weed growing wild by the roadside (now I really am getting carried away)... There's even an aircraft carrier with jets and helicopters to play with. Oh, and a submarine, too. Kids, you'll love it.

Edinburgh's cool too, but in a different way (OK, it's freezing). Leave your shorts behind, embrace cold, you'll want to stay indoors, drink beer, talk SEO.

All we have to do now is bagsy a comfy park bench for Mike G to crash out on. (Mike, I bet you never thought you'd be sleeping on a park bench at this stage in your career). How about a whip round for a commemorative plaque?

[bethabernathy]

I hope to get an invite to Edinburgh. I am a Scot - Town of Abernethy.

[fantomaster]

Edinburgh's just fine - excellent beer, the best whisky in the world (ask for
single malts only!), good food (well, Haggis and turnips may not quite be up
to everybody's taste buds, but ok, there's plenty of alternatives), good
venues, medieval through Victorian architecture - very much Old World in the
best sense -, nice and friendly people (unless you mistake them for
Englishmen ...) and for sightseers and the more culturally biased crows lots of
interesting historical sites to visit, castles galore both in town and in the
vicinity, the seaside, extremely fresh and windy spot, possibly a mite cheaper
than London (not sure about that as I haven't been there for quite a while
now), etc. etc.

Plus, we could probably carry Mike (along with his park bench!) home in a
whiffy, unless we want to can him for keeps after he's frozen stiff ... :)

[Mike Grehan]

So in case you're wondering where that missing half is, Mike, I can tell you it's well-cloaked in Belgium, where we just might - should you ever actually make it here - take up Barry's excellent scheme of confiscating your credit card just to make sure you don't end up with a torn 100 Euro note as well next time.
Ahhhh... now I remember... It was a 20 pound note that YOU redirected!

And when I do pop over to Belgium for dinner in the very near future, I'll be happy to bring my half with me, we can stick some tape over both halves, and turn them into pints! [Or even the odd little girly spritzer ;) ]

Plus, we could probably carry Mike (along with his park bench!) home in a whiffy, unless we want to can him for keeps after he's frozen stiff ...
Here's a better idea... Pick me up on a bench in Newcastle on the way there, stop over for some beers around here and then carry me up to Edinburgh for the curry!

That's what I love about SEO - sex, dru... er... actually that's beer, curry and cloaking (own park bench optional). Very suitable combination I think :cool:

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

beer, curry and cloaking

I remember an old rock'n roll movie where one of the true rock heros was asked: "Now, back to the "Sex, Drugs & Rock'n Roll" - could you have lived without any of it?" And the rock hero replied ... "Yes, rock'n roll" :)

[fantomaster]

Here's a better idea... Pick me up on a bench in
Newcastle on the way there, stop over for some beers around here and
then carry me up to Edinburgh for the curry!
Hm, which begs the question of how you're going to get to that park
bench in Newcastle in the first place ... :confused:

[Mike Grehan]

Hm, which begs the question of how you're going to get to that park bench in Newcastle in the first place ... :confused:

Why Ralph, dear friend, where am I likely to end up after I've been to Belgium for some beers with you :)

And the rock hero replied ... "Yes, rock'n roll"

Damn... there goes the cloaking then ;)

[davidatweboptimiser]

Dear Mike

There we were kicking a ball across the park when lo, we found your bench (http://www.weboptimiser.com/mike-bench.jpg)

[fantomaster]

Dear Mike

There we were kicking a ball across the park when lo, we found your bench (http://www.weboptimiser.com/mike-bench.jpg)
ROFL! That's the, er, ticket ... :)

[searchengineblog.com]

Edinburgh

Can't wait.

And the rock hero replied ... "Yes, rock'n roll"

Spinal Tap (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/quotes), I believe :)

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

Yes, exactly :)

Mick Shrimpton : As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.

[Marcia]

Hey, wasn't there another one just recently?

[evilgreenmonkey]

Hey, wasn't there another one just recently?
Sssshh, it's meant to be a secret ;)

The venue was fantastic, a lot of people thought that Matt Cutts had arranged for the "ghetto style" building to be demolished with all us SEOs still inside :D

Here's some photo's that I took:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16627920@N00/sets/72157594297203588/

My first time to one of these events, so not sure what the deal is with talking about it. A good time was had by all - from what I remember anyway.

:cool:

Rob

[egain]

Looks a good craic

Noticed the leaving pictures Rob, where have you gone to?

[evilgreenmonkey]

Noticed the leaving pictures Rob, where have you gone to?
You'll only find that kind of inside information out by subscribing to my blog ;)

[egain]

Congratulations on the new job

[evilgreenmonkey]

Congratulations on the new job
Cheers, my new work buddies are who I went to SEO Roadshow with :)

[rcjordan]

>secret

Let's just say that it's an elegantly understated event.

More pix of Notabene's excellent choice of venue and some of the early arrivals here: http://www.seoroadshow.com/wp-content/

The group kept coming in all afternoon, and I have no idea when it finally broke up --I guess some stayed when the club opened in the evening. The old "regulars" agreed that it was the longest sustained meeting at the actual event (though for those who know how it works, the event itself is just a focal point). I'd estimate that there were 55-60 attendees with a significant number from the US (5 or more from North Carolina!) and UK. Italy and Israel were also well represented.

[evilgreenmonkey]

(5 or more from North Carolina!) and UK.LOL, I think that I met your wife and didn't meet you. You're a popular man ;)

[rcjordan]

>met your wife and didn't meet you

That's the way it usually goes, I'm afraid. If there's a flaw in the plan, it's that we SEOs tend to be shy by nature and aren't very good at mingling. By the 2nd or 3rd meet-up, attendees are more at ease ....for instance, I really spent some quality time at this meet in Copenhagen with several who had gone to the previous one in Edinburgh.

BTW, I've been contacted by Wolfy, who says he & his company hope to host the roadshow in Milan in 2007. Rather than trying to maintain 2 threads on the subject, I'll link to the one on threadwatch: http://www.threadwatch.org/node/9103