10e20 Blog

I just got back from the excellent SMX Advanced show in Seattle. Danny and the whole Third Door Media team did another excellent job of putting on a first-rate conference.

Over the next two weeks, I will speaking at three different conferences. The nice thing is that each of the conferences will have a completely different audience to reach. Here’s a quick rundown:

Millennial Financial Services Forum [June 9th] — I will be speaking alone on a panel called Authenticity is the Key to Providing Value/Social Media Marketing:

The importance of an authentic marketing campaign is dire to attracting these Millennials. This session will guide you through the advantages of social marketing networks and social news sites and how to truly reach to reach GenY (or social media/news digg.com). This is your one opportunity to gain a client for life, regardless of their account balances right now. Don’t miss it!

Here’s a quick run-down on where I’ll be speaking during April. One thing that I have tried to do is vary events up a bit so that I can come in contact with all kinds of different people from different industries. Here’s a look at April:

SEO Class. This Friday (April 11th) I will be helping out Jim Boykin with his SEO Class. This is the first one since Jim took it over and brought it under the umbrella of his Internet Marketing Ninjas program and features some amazing presenters. I’ll be presenting on social media marketing tactics and attendees will also get to learn from Michael Gray, Greg Niland, Ted Ulle (tedster), Kim Krause-Berg, Barry Schwartz and of course - Jim Boykin. I think it’s pretty much sold out but if you really want to go, email me (cwinfield [at] 10e20.com) and I’ll see what I can do.

If you’re at Pubcon in Las Vegas today, I’ll be speaking at 2:45 on the Social Media and Search panel.

Is the intersection of search and social media a train wreck waiting to happen or is it the “not search” based traffic we have long been seeking? This session will look at that intersection from the webmaster/site owner/publisher point of view.

My presentation will be on Google & Digg and how they differ but work so well together. If you’re out in Las Vegas please be sure to say hello!

Last week I presented at SMX Social Media in NY on the Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites panel (with Neil & Tamar). The conference was excellent and I thought our panel did a great job.

Luckily there were lots of live bloggers there who did an amazing job of recapping everything:

* Live Blogging “Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites” at SMX Social Media * SEOmoz

* Social News Sites: Digg, Diggers, and Dugg *aimClear Blog

* SMX: Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites * WebProNews

* Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites: SMX Social Media New York Day 1 * Unofficial SEO Blog

* Live Blogging: SMX Social Media - Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites * Search Engine Land

* SMX Social: Extra Extra Social News Sites * Search Marketing Gurus

* Duping Digg Hot Topic At SMX Social Media * Social Media Explorer

I’ve got a great memory. It can be my greatest asset and my biggest curse at times because there are some things that I just cannot forget.

When I was in the first grade I had a best friend named Noelle. We did everything together, played together, hung out together, I just remember her always being around. And then after the summertime one year she wasn’t. And when we got back to school, a few weeks into it, we found out that Noelle was no longer with us and that she had died of leukemia. I don’t think I even knew what that meant at the time, but it’s stayed with me.

When Chris told me what the charity for the Internet Marketers of New York party was this time I was really happy. Happier even to see Marty at Aim Clear share his experience and story of survival. It means to me that great strides have been made over these past 23 years since my first acquaintance with the disease, and that things are getting done.

In a little over 2 weeks (October 16th & 17th) some of the brightest minds in the social media world will be converging on New York City for the first ever SMX Social Media conference which is being put on by Danny Sullivan and co-chaired by Neil Patel. I am speaking on the first day as part of Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites panel along with Neil and Tamar. Here’s a quick overview of the panel:

Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Newsvine and others allow community members to share and rate news stories. They are primary news sources and influential outlets that must be considered by marketers. But don’t expect to post your old-school press release and get a good response! Learn how these sites work and how to best tailor your message for maximum visibility on them.

Last week Chris and I went to Search Engine Strategies San Jose. This was my second conference and my second SES. The first was a bit of culture shock. I had no clue what to expect. This time around it was great to meet new people, get to know people better that I had met briefly last time, and really start to feel like a part of this SEO community.

We arrived on Sunday and on our plane were Michael Gray & Family, and Danny Funk and Kevin Newcomb. It kind of felt like we were kids on a class trip.

San Jose is a beautiful city. Any where you look you can see the mountains and the first thing that struck me was the lack of humidity. One of the great things about San Jose is that you don’t seem to need a car to get around. Whatever we did that was local we were able to walk to which just makes everything easier. It was almost like we were on a huge college campus because every few minutes we would run into someone we knew.

My wife Danielle and I are getting ready to head out to California for Search Engine Strategies San Jose which starts Monday. If you are going to be attending please be sure to say hello if you see me. I have a pretty loaded week with a bunch of meetings already setup but the majority of my time is always spent networking and meeting new people. So if you’re around be sure to say HI and let’s see how we can help eachother out.

Hint - mention this post and the first drink is on me

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When I got back from the latest Search Engine Strategies show in NY, I was talking to my colleagues about the fact that in order to truly learn at a conference you really need to be in a smaller, more individualized setting. SES, Pubcon, AdTech, etc are excellent conferences and well worth the money but for many reasons besides intense learning (networking, learning new ideas, seeing new products). That’s why the smaller conferences that are popping up are successful and well worth the money.

Danielle and I are at Search Engine Strategies this week. I have been completely unplugged (since my Blackberry keeps dying) and am just now getting a chance to check in. I just went to download my email and there are almost 2,000 since Monday (ugh). This is Danielle’s first SES and she is really loving it and getting a lot out of it.

Monday night was the IMNY Charity Party and Greg let me know that we were able to raise over $5,000 to help out the Ronald McDonald House. On top of that, so many people told me that it was the best party they have ever attended at a conference - not the fanciest but just a great vibe all night. Check out Greg’s recap here.