SEOktoberfest Wrap Up
Wow! I don’t know where to start. This was the event to top all events and by far the best city I’ve ever been to. Germans can party like no other people I’ve ever met. Not only that, they are super nice too. I mean the city of Munich is on my Top Ten List of cities you should visit. As far as Oktoberfest itself…what a party! The grounds are packed with standing room only unless you are lucky enough to get a table in the tents. If you don’t have reservations for this ahead of time don’t bother trying as it’s nearly impossible. Wearing traditional lederhosen and drindl is a must in order to experience the German culture, but don’t worry because you can buy the whole outfit almost anywhere in the city. SEOktoberfest was so phenominally awesome that I even gave it its own category on the blog.
As far as the actual conference part of SEOktoberfest…ehm…All I can tell you about what happened is that I can’t really tell you anything. I will say that Marcus and Quadzilla were unbelievably amazing hosts. I mean they were able to keep track of all of us all the time and nobody got lost. They took us to two elite clubs in Munich (after spending hours in the elite tents of Oktoberfest) and showered us with champagne (literally). They had five lovely German playmates there to entertain everyone after hours. We were provided with everything we needed from food, to drinks to the lederhosen and drindl. I think it’s safe to say this was a non-profit event.
As far as the picture of Greg in the lederhosen, all I can say is I
FAILED. It’s hard to think about stuff like that when you are drinking
multiple steins of beer and wearing a drindl. All I can show you is this picture that Marcus has on his blog. Greg is on the left and you can kind of see me behind one of the playmates.
Thanks again to Marcus, Quadzilla and Philip for dreaming this up and going through with it.
So with that, I’ll leave you to your imagination. The rest you’ll have to see if we’re friends on Facebook. 
Or you can go to Marcus’s post about the best SEO party in the world!!
(Bonus: If you go to my Facebook pics, you’ll get to see Dax in his lederhosen. I managed to get that picture. :P)
Auf Wiedersehen!
SES San Jose 2008
SES is still one of the bigger shows we attend and this year’s didn’t disappoint from the social aspect. Getting together with industry leaders at conferences is something I look forward to about every other month. Even though it’s the same people, same parties, there is always something new to talk about and learn. Connections made at conferences typically go a long way because meeting people in person that you may have been following virtually is extremely valuable.
Speaking of following people…This year the hot topic at the conference was Twitter. You’d have thought they sponsored each session, but nope. Each session I went to mentioned Twitter at least 3-4 times. The burning question was what is it and why use it? Waste of time or marketing nugget? My answer is simple. Tweet! If you haven’t joined the Twitterbrigade you are late to the party. Don’t wish a year from now that you shoulda coulda woulda. Just do it. How you use it is up to you, but seriously, just TWEET and be sure and follow @gregboser and @barbaraboser.
Once again the place where all the cool kids hung out was the Fairmont Bar. While the conference is at the Marriott, if you can stay at the Fairmont I highly recommend it. The rooms are nicer and the bar lounge is way better. You can usually find some of the top SEOs hanging around late in the evening there. Buy them a round of drinks and you never know what juicy tid bits they will give you. The Fairmont Bar has 523 martinis on the menu. Every year I say I want to try them all, but alas I always get the same one, but it’s damn good and easy for Greg to remember. We hit the Fairmont up the first might we arrived and enjoyed conversation with the crew from Shoemoney (Jeremy and Dave), Jeff Manson, Todd Friesen (unemployed Todd is much more fun than working Todd), Brent Csutorus, Chris Winfield, Neil Patel, Michael Gray , Marcus Tandler, David Klein and who else (whistles) oh yeah Cesar Serna (freelancer, creator of Tweetpro).
The week started out with the IMNY Charity party on Monday night. These parties are becoming a standard at each conference and for such a good cause, how could you not attend? The group at IMNY does so much work to put these together and the financial results are well worth it. This year they raised about 10k that will be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Aurora, CO and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There are about 15 New Yorkers that make this happen and we really appreciate it and look forward to the gathering every time. This year’s biggest raffle prize was a night out with Neil Patel. Guess who the lucky winner was?
Don’t worry Neil, Marcus quickly sold his prize to a willing Australian. Anything for a good cause right Frank? I also won a prize this year! I was the lucky winner of an SEOMOZ premium package. Can’t wait to get in there and see what that’s all about. It’s not like I could ask the Mozzers cause none of them were at SES. Apparently, they had their own conference they were holding in Seattle with about 150 of their closest friends. Anyway, thanks Rand for the prize and special thanks to everyone that worked so hard to put the night together.
Tuesday I attended the Social Media session with Brent Csutorus making a powerful presentation and dominating the panel. Brent gave some tips and ideas about social media that got the audience listening and taking lots of notes. Inevitabley he had a crowd of about 15 people standing around him after the session and for about 30 minutes into lunch. Brent talked about the power of a good network, the importance of good content and the link building benefits of social media. He stated a couple examples that received about 8k inbound links as a result of a Digg front page. He reminded us that many of these links are coming from PR8 or PR9 sites, so the benefit from a successful social media campaign is well worth the effort that goes into launching one.
After attending the keynote (I really just wanted to see Danny Sullivan) I headed over to the BOTW booth. Now really this is the place to be. Hanging around the BOTW booth is awesome. You get awesome shwag, free beer (not so free to BOTW) and you get to hang out with people like this…
BOTW has recently launched a kick ass local directory with Adam Sussman at the helm of this massive project. If you haven’t already registered do it NOW! I also overheard Greg talking about a big buy out. The details could be juicy, but I’d probably screw them up in translation so you’ll have to check his blog for the scoop.
The Google party this year is said to be the last Google party of the SESSJ. We’ll have to wait and see if Google can spare any change to put this event together next year, but as of now…this was it. The last Google shirt, the last bus ride, the party is over. RIP Google Dance. The dance itself was the same as last year. There were video games, beach volleyball, animated avatar making and lots of neon. Infact, too much glowing if you ask me. Some people should not wear neon glowing sunglasses. Seriously, the rings were cool, but the sunglasses…not so much. Sorry, I should’ve taken pictures, but was too busy talking it up with Matt Cutts about somebody’s eyebrow interests and recent celebrity sightings. Matt next time remind me to finish the story of when Greg met Madonna. I did however get a picture of this which I found in the Google bathroom. Good to know Google girls have clean bottoms.
The sessions I attended on Wednesday were completely different. The first one was SEO Rehab=FAIL. Sorry guys, but seriously not a great idea. There was no focus, no direction, lots of tangents. Enough about that.
The Black Hat White Hat session was another story. The room was packed and the discussion was deep. What is black hat, white hat? Everyone had their own opinions, but really I’d hope if you are an SEO you know how to do both. Wether or not you use certain tactics is up to you, but really it’d be good for you to know what the competition is doing (back or white). Big take away for Greg…do not repeat into the microphone anything that Michael Gray shouts out to you.
The last party of the week was Search Bash. Daron and Brandy never disappoint and this year they ditched the sumo wrestling and went with a Circ de Soleil style performance over the dance floor. And yes, Brandi did get up there and swing through the air. I know it’s a sucky picture, but if you look past the fan, that’s Brandy swinging over the dance floor.
We stayed at Search Bash until the end, then headed over to the other Greg’s room with about 75 other BOTW fans. He seriously had the largest patio in that room I’ve ever seen.
What’s next for us? SEOktoberfest, then SMX East and finally Pubcon.
SEO Vanity Contest Winner
I know I’m way behind announcing the winner, but I didn’t think of the fact that I’d have to provide some explanation for each answer. (I should have never done 50)
Anyway, the grand prize winner was Kris Farmer from RazorGator. Kris has been a regular listener of the extremely irregular Rockstar show, and also has been present at a few of the episodes that inspired some of the plates. That combination gave him just enough edge out Rebecca Kelley and Laura Lippay for the number one spot.
So without further ado, here are all the answers:
SMX New York - IMNY and BOTW Charity Event
If you are attending SMX social in New York next week, I hope that you will put this event on your agenda.
Internet Marketers of New York a non-profit group along with BOTW have joined forces to host an event where proceeds will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
The IMNY Charity Event will be held at the Town Tavern Bar & Grill at 134 W. 3rd Street/6th Ave at 7pm on Monday 10/15/2007 and all internet marketers are welcome. There is a $40 donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society that can be paid at the door. Your donation includes 3 hours of open bar networking (isn’t that the best kind?) as well as raffles and prizes at the end of the evening.
My son Ryan had a friend in kindergarten named Ryan Baker who was diagnosed with leukemia at 5 years old. They were in a bowling league together and Ryan Baker loved to bowl because it was one of the few sports he could participate in. He was very competitive and would get very excited when he’d bowl a strike, even on days when they’d come straight from him getting a spinal tap as part of his treatment (I was always amazed at his courage, he never let that bother him). At the end of the bowling season, the boys got a trophy that was almost as big as they were. It was their prized possession for a while until the excitement wore off.
A few months ago my son’s friend Ryan Baker passed away after a 7 year battle with Leukemia. He was 13. Our family cherishes the moments we had with him and the passion and zest he had for life at such a young age is inspiring.
Ryan Baker is on the left and Ryan Boser on the right.
My son still has that giant trophy and treasures it now more than ever since it’s all he has to remember Ryan Baker by along with a great photo and fun memories.
We all know someone that either knows someone with cancer or has an experience or story to share. This is a great cause and kudos to the group that put this together. Thanks to Chris and Danielle Winfield for letting me know about it this awesome event.
If you are going to SMX, I hope that you will attend this event and force the BOTW guys to break out that Black Amex because they are covering the party tab (because they are cool like that) so that even more money can go towards the fight of cancer.
Today’s Rockstar Show – SEO Vanity Contest Hints
Todd and I just finished recording today’s SEO Rockstar show. (We had planned on doing a live show, but we are both heading out today to attend MSN’s Searchifcation event).
The show will be broadcast today at 4:00 pm PST. At the end of the show, we spent some time giving out some good hints for some of the tougher plates from my SEO Vanity Contest. So if you are one of the people who decided not to submit answers because you didn’t think you knew enough of them, you might want to give the show a listen.