A few weeks ago I spent the entire week in the UK doing several talks (I still have to put my presentations online, will do that soon!). I was then at the conferences SMX, ISS and SASCON (check State of Search for the coverage there!). Next week I’ll again be taking the plane, over to Germany this time. To be more specific: Munich. I will go to A4U Expo Europe which, like last year, is held in the Hilton Munich Park Hotel. Last year I was one of the speakers there, but unlike then and unlike last week I won’t be speaking this year. That is because I am doing something else.

This year at A4U we from State of Search are trying out something “new”. At A4U Munich there is, as always, an Expo Hall in which sponsors can exhibit and people can network. Looking over that Expo Hall there will be a special booth in which I will be talking to people about A4U Expo, what their experiences are, but also what is keeping them busy in their day-to-day business. Off course we will also be getting speakers to talk about what they have been telling the audience on stage. For the duration of the conference we will be doing this in several ‘sessions’. This will all be live streamed on State of Search. Continue Reading »

As you might have noticed before when you have visited this (personal) blog before I was asked to speak at the Domainfest conference in Prague earlier this month. It was quite the experience! In a good way!

As you may have seen they put me in a hotel room which was astonishing. Huge and very comfortable. I almost didn’t want to leave the room! The evening also was interesting with a dinner party in the Czech National Museum. Not many people will have done that and as a former history student that was special! I missed the second day because I had to fly back but they actually went on a AK47 shooting contest…!

Next to that the conference was interesting itself. There were some interesting speakers, but the main thing which caught my attention was the actual domain-auction they did. I have never seen anything like it. Domains being sold as if they were paintings from Vincent van Gogh himself. Breathtaking to watch. And some domains really got some huge numbers. I understand that restaurants.com was sold for about $6 million… Watch here how pounds.com got sold for 35.000 dollars.

And what about my talk? That went very well I think. You always have to wait and see if your story really ‘catches on’. But I think it did, at least when I talked to people afterwards it seemed that way. Below you can find my presentation, those of you who have seen my presentations before will recognize things.

I’d like to again thank the organizers for a great event and say hi to everybody I met there. I’m sure we’ll be in touch!

As said last time I wrote here I was going to SES New York. Much thanks for the sponsors Leapfish and SEOSamba! It was a quick visit to the States, in on Monday, out again on Thursday. Next time I want to stay on longer, because once again it was brilliant. SES New York was once again one of the highlights of the year. Why was it so brilliant? The two main reasons: content and people.

The content: First of all the content of the show. Though the set up of the program was largely the same as in London, in New York you could see the American view on things. Which is, in many cases, different than the European view. It was interesting to hear the different angles. In general the content was good. Off course there were some ‘bad’ ones, but most of the speakers and sessions were good.

The people: I met up with loads of friends again, which was very very nice. We had fun in the bar, the restaurant, the lobby and in and between the different sessions. And not just that. I met many new people again and have made lots of new friends. Which will make the next conference even more interesting . Continue Reading »

“…I’ll make it, anywhere…” No, I’m not moving to New York, but yes, I am going there. This coming week its SES New York and I am very happy to attent! I found a couple of sponsors (amongst which Leapfish and SEOSamba) to support me in going there so I will be writing about and twittering about SES New York this week!

SES New York is THE biggest event to visit when it comes to search events and I was there last year, with amongst others Roy Huiskes, Johannes Markusse and Evert Veldhuijzen and had a fantastic time. This time sadly enough those guys won’t be coming along but I will be meeting up with a lot of good friends like Lisa and Jon Myers, Dave and Becky Naylor, Mel Carson, Matt McGowan and many more. And this time I will be looking to meet new people also!

I will also be doing a live radioshow coming from the Webmasterradio booth at SES where Brasco will be running things. We’ll try to get Roy in as well! I’ll keep you posted on Twitter (both personal and StateofSearch), maybe here but mostly on State of Search! Be sure to check it out!

Next week SES returns to Amsterdam. After a very succesful first episode last year the conference returns to the Dutch capital with an impressive line up. Next to several great Dutch speakers we also welcome more international speakers like Bill Hunt and Dixon Jones.

I myself will be leading the panel “News and Search”, which features Brent Payne and Julian Sambles (of the Daily Telegraph). The session will have a Q&A in it in which we will discuss the combination of news and search. I’m very much looking forward to this session because we can really dive into the subject. A subject which is very near to me.

I’m preparing the session now, so if you have any input, please let me know: what are your issues / questions when it comes to news and search? What would you like to hear from these two big names in the industry? Let me know!