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.

I am grateful to both Affiliates4U and Linkdex, who is sponsoring this, that this can be set up, because I really believe this is an ‘extra’ in the conference coverage we usually do. This can really give readers (or viewers in this case) the opportunity to get some more out of it than the ‘regular’ blogposts.

As you know I do a weekly radioshow on Webmasterradio. Als I am a big fan of the TWIT-format and on top of that I really enjoy conferences which have ‘interview-formats’ like for example the D-conferences, of which version 9 is now live (Eric Schmidt spoke there, see an extract here). That mix, and stuff I saw here in Holland, made me come up with this format. I hope it works!

Speaking of new formats in this line: last night I saw a format in this line being launched in the Netherlands, fastmovingtargets. For the Dutch people out there: this is worth following. They are doing something similar to what Leo Laporte does with his TWIT, it is a known format: interviewing online, but they are actually very ‘open’ to the crowd, which means that as a viewer you actually have influence on the discussion. They take your questions and your feedback and immediately act on it, which is very difficult to do if you are doings something live. But it does give them that little bit extra.

So I will try and learn from them and be open to instant feedback next week in Munich! So if you have questions or feedback send it in and we’ll act on it! And off course if you are in Munich, come say hi! (If you still want to go, State of Search gives you a discount)

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

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!

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

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 .

Another highlight was the radioshow we did live from the webmasterradio booth at SES New York.

See you next year New York!

Check out all the posts on State of Search
Check out all the pictures on Flickr

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

“…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!

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

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!

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

Today I had a new experience. For the first time I took part in a jury for an award. And it was fun! I am one of the judges for the search engine marketing award in the Netherlands, which is being presented at Search Engine Strategies Amsterdam, later this month.

Being a judge is fun, it is a bit similar to looking at proposals, which I do for clients also. The big difference off course is that in this case the job is already done. When judging I took an extra good look at innovation. I believe its important that search marketing agencies innovate and  use the web to its fullest.

At the same conference I will be leading a panel on news and search in which amongst others Brent Payne. It will be a good conference by the looks of it. Joost de Valk together with BBP and Incisive Media has been busy with the program for some months now and I must say, it looks good! Bill Hunt, who I have seen several times this year, will come as will Dixon Jones and off course Mike Grehan. But don’t forget to look at some of the Dutch speakers like Eduard, and I am especially looking forward to hearing David Brinks & Ramon Eijkemans talk about SEO copywriting.

Are you going to be at SES Amsterdam? Come say hi!

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

After just returning from speaking at A4U a new challenge awaits. In two weeks time SMX London starts. This event is organized by Third Door Media, the company behind the Search Engine Land. Host is Chris Sherman who I met for the first time in New York a couple of months ago. I’m very much looking forward to this SMX for a couple of reasons.

Speakers
First of all the conference has got a lot, and I really mean a lot, of good speakers present on the speakerslist. Names like Rand Fishkin, Christine Churchill and Mike Grehan are always good to listen to. The quality is very high, which guarantees a good time.

Networking
Second at this conference I’m seeing a lot of people I like again. There’s Lisa Ditlefsen and Jon Mayers, both bloggers at Searchcowboys, which I really look forward to seeing again. And there are more people, both on and off the speakerslist who are great to meet up with. People like Dave Naylor, again Mike Grehan, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, Dixon Jones and Judith Lewis are great to talk to and hang out with.

Speaking!
Third, a very important one! I’m speaking myself! Originally I was supposed to speak at two sessions. The linkbuilding session, which I also performed in at A4U, got cancelled because SMX wants to keep more focus on the advanced track. They therefore canceled the entire track in which also my linkbuilding session was placed. But I’m scheduled to speak in another session.

On the first day I will talk in the Search Issues Track in the session "Searchscape: Latest Stats About The Search Engines". I want to give the audience a view on what’s going on in the European market: which search engines are the most used, what are the differences in Europe, how do people (differently) use these search engines and where are we heading. It’s a subject with a lot of numbers, but I will make something special out of it!

Finally why I look forward to SMX London is the final part: London. A great city where I always like to come.

If you want to see me speak or just want to be there because the conference is so good, come! At Searchcowboys you can get a 15% discount, I’m hoping to see you there!

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

Last week I spent two days on A4UExpo, a conference in Amsterdam focussed on the Affiliate market. It was one of the best conferences I have ever attended.

I was at A4U Expo to cover the event for Searchcowboys (look at the reports on the special event channel on Searchcowboys) and as a speaker. I was the last speaker on the last day, which normally means no-one is there. Not this time though, the room was filled with enough people .

At my presentation, which was part of three presentations about linkbuilding, I took a different angle on linkbuilding, namely the one of a publisher. I talked about how to (not) adress the media. Below my presentation!

I was going to talk about the same subject at SMX London, but sadly enough a track got canceled which also means my presentation was. I’m speaking on another subject also, but I’ll inform you about that later on!

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

I’m visiting Le Web at this moment. LeWeb is one of the biggest conferences about the Web in Europe. This morning the fourth edition kicked off. I wrote posts about it on DutchCowboys and Searchcowboys. There you can read the reports on for example the talk of Nikesh Arora, one of Google’s major players in Europe.

Until now (lunchtime) LeWeb has not yet brought that what I expected. The atmosphere last year seemed a lot better and inspiring. Somehow it seems as if the economic downfall has hit this conference too. The heating is off (cold!) and the food was gone very fast. And that was not because there are a lot of people here, but because there was litlle food… Finally getting online was a disaster. After almost two hours I succeeded to get online on a press-spot. Not through the ever slow wifi but through a cable.

Let’s hope things get better soon. The list of speakers could do it, and the visitors off course, because there are a lot of interesting people here!

Do you want to follow LeWeb? You can do that! Below you can see the stream and there is a live community on which you can follow LeWeb.

And off course you can stay tuned at Dutch Cowboys and Searchcowboys!

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer

SES Hamburg is finished! I’ve posted an article on Dutch Cowboys about the second day (earlier about day 1). Below my thoughts about SES Hamburg in video. With that I close these SES reports.

From Bas van den Beld Bas van den Beld: Speaker, Trainer, Moderator and writer