The Best BrightonSEO Yet?

Dave was quick to highlight how marketers all too often focus on the Persuasion component without any consideration for Impact or Communication, so the message fails – only when all three components are delivered does an advertisement work.  He mentioned the need to know two different languages in advertising, one for clients and another for punters.  Speak to your clients in a way that leaves them thinking ‘this guy wrote the book’ on marketing, whilst delivering a message to your consumers that leaves them thinking ‘they’re actually talking to me‘ – something I failed to deliver so seamlessly in my presentation through ’Know your audience’ – speak their language.

Dave Trott was undoubtedly the highlight of a great day for me.

Unfortunately I missed a few other talks during the morning session, although I did make it in to see Rebecca Weeks deliver her debut presentation about Chasing the Algorithm and Will Critchlow (who was standing in for the artificially intelligent Tom Anthony) discuss API’s and the future of search.

 

The afternoon sessions flew by at lightening fast speed, kick-started by Richard Baxter who (I’m pretty sure) was still writing his talk when I saw him rehearsing backstage.  Richard took the stage and outlined How to be a Better SEO, offering some really great advice to any SEO worth their weight, including…

1. Get your comfort zone on a regular basis
2. Learn how to pitch yourself
3. Learn something new once a week
4. Understand the perception people have of you
5. Realise when you’re distracted and learn to refocus yourself

I missed his slides, and some of the tips, as I was waiting in the wings to tag team him for the stage, but  he left to a monster round of applause, no pressure then.

Why did I have to follow a seasoned pro like Richard!?  Thanks a bunch Kelvin.
I was blinded by the lights, nervous to be on stage at such a great venue as the Dome, where artists including Ziggy Stardust, Massive Attack, The Go Team and ABBA had previously performed.
I’d hinted to Pete Handley that my talk would involve music to some degree, but thankfully no Karaoke on this occasion, to the relief of the 1,500 strong audience.

I was here to preach the virtues of SEO Deliverance, or how to secure SEO changes at big brand websites, but to maintain a musical theme I had incorporated a selection of music artist names, song titles, lyrics and albums.  Hhhhhmmm, could that be enough ‘Impact’ that Dave Trott had referenced?  Maybe, although I forgot to ask the audience to raise a hand if ‘You’re not from Brighton’ (Fat Boy Slim) right from the start, oops.  So ‘What’s the story, morning glory?’ (Oasis), get the full low-down on delivering SEO change here.

Lynne Murphy was up next, but by the time I’d figured out how to escape from my lapel mike and navigated my way back to the auditorium through the backstage labyrinth, Lynne was half-way through her slides.  From what I could hear it was a real treat for the audience, a breath of fresh air for SEO’s who all too often get caught in the nitty-gritty technicalities of keyword research and digital marketing.  Hearing about the form and history of the English language was great – language is interesting, and Lynne an excellent speaker, fact.

James Little followed Lynne and swiftly enticed the crowd with an upper body striptease, risking life and limb as he revealed a Crystal Palace (arch rivals of Brighton & Hove FC) football strip beneath his smart white shirt.

Unfortunately the rest of my afternoon was somewhat fragmented, but I did manage to catch presentations from Aleyda Solis (Mobile SEO), Yousaf Sekander (Competitor analysis through Social Media), Jason Woodford (Changing the industry for the better) and Anna Lewis (Google analytics) – all of which were excellent in their own right.  To save me from re-inventing the wheel, take a look at the Silicon Beach summary of the afternoon sessions.So as the day turned into evening the BrightonSEO party kicked-off  in the Corn Exchange with a range of entertainment

including table football (on which Michal and @ToastedTeacake remain un-beaten!), roller cycling, a velcro human-fly wall, a selection of old skool games consoles and of course a bar (essential).  In additon, following the success of SEO Karaoke on the pier last time around, there was also a live band Karaoke stage ready for the budding singers and swingers, oh dear.  Justin Taylor provides an excellent summary of the evening elements on the Graphitas blog.