Last year I was lucky enough to speak at SMX Sydney on the main stage to talk about the subject of Effective In-House SEO where I talked about my time working for Virgin Mobile as a lead SEO. This year I have decided to attend as a general guest. It is going to be interesting seeing the conference from a speakers point of view and then from an attendants point of view.
* For those who do not know I have also decided to set up my own consulting business and also work direct with a few select businesses and start ups via http://professionalseo.com.au
Now I have looked over the agenda for next Wednesday and Thursday and have picked out the speakers I will be seeing.
Day 1 – 3rd April
1. Optimising Humans! The Art of Data-Driven Social Marketing – Marty Weintraub (I have seen Marty present before in videos he is great, so this will be an interesting presentation.)
2. SEO Tools of the Trade – Andre Weyher (I know Andre quite well, I have actually interviewed him here on my blog and shared many beers with him over the last year, lets see what he has to say.)
3. eCommerce SEO, How to Avoid Common Pitfalls – Jon Quinton (I have read some of Jon’s SEO posts in the past, he seems to be quite decent, have never met the guy so we will see what he has on offer.)
4. Successful In-House SEO – Motoko Hunt (I presented on in-house SEO last year, so lets see what is on offer in 2013 from Motoko Hunt)
5. Google Webspam – What are they looking for? – Brian White (It will be interesting too see what Brian White has to say in his session, may have to ask a few questions)
Day 2 – 4th April
6. Behavioral Psychology Meets Web Marketing – Rand Fishkin (Been using SEOmoz for years, know Rand is capable of some great ideas so hope he pulls out the goodies for this presentation)
7. Conversion Rate Optimisation for SEOs – Richard Baxter (Have seen Richards posts on numerous sites in the past so it will be good too see what he has on offer.)
8. Advanced WordPress Optimisation & Security – Bastian Grimm (Have been told by a few European contacts at Bastian is the man to see in regards to WordPress optimisation, as I run like 30 sites on WordPress it will be worth seeing. So lets see what he has on offer.)
9. Programmatic Optimisation – Bill Hunt (Have been told that Bill Hunt is worth seeing as he has a wealth of knowledge on SEO so will be worth checking out from an in-house SEO point of view)
10. Ten Link Building Tools, How to use them to get links – Paddy Moogan (Paddy Moogan is well known for link building, and as I have been doing link building for 8+ years it will be good too see what he has to say.)
11. Link Building Post Penguin – Richard Baxter (Will be good too see what Richard has too say about link building.)
12. SEM + CRM = ROI Heaven – Mark Vozzo (Have seen mark present in the past, he knows his stuff. If you want to see a data driven and informative presentation, I advise you check out Mark Vozzo)
Two other speakrs I will try and see if time allows are also: Dejan Petrovic (Day 1) & Akiva Ben-ezra (Day 2) (both worth seeing in my eyes as they are very experienced SEO’s)
I will also be attending the following networking events:
* Pre-SMX Meet up – 2nd April – Sign up here: http://www.meetup.com/Sydney-SEO/events/104204182/
* SMX Sydney Networking Cruise – 3rd April
So yeah if you are at any of the above events, feel free to come up and have a chat about any thing SEO related or random things like what is good to do in Sydney.
