2013: What a Year I’ve had!
Category:Events,Personal,speakingThe year is almost over, about time for a little recap. Yes, I know, there are many out there, but this one is different. Why? Because it’s about my year :). On my final trip of the year, back from Istanbul, Turkey, to Amsterdam, I had some time to reflect a little on what has been one of the most amazing years in my life. This year I have seen a lot of this world, more than ever before, met a lot of great people, was inspired a lot, saw some great businesses and learned a lot myself as well. Time to get you up to speed on what I’ve done this year.
Around the world
So where have I traveled this year? As said, I’ve seen a lot. And compared to other years where I mostly traveled to the ‘known’ countries like the UK this year I’ve not only been to the UK but I’ve also visited much more diverse countries like Iceland, the US, Iran, Turkey and Ukraine for example. You can see the different places I’ve been to on the map:
Click here for a larger size map
I loved visiting all the ’new’ countries! It has been amazing. For many different reasons, the cultures, the people and the great conferences or businesses I’ve been to. Each and everyone of the trips was special, because everywhere I went I was welcomed by gentle and ambitious people. This year clearly showed me that it’s a big world in which many things happen and that there are many people who are moving forward, in their own way. It also showed me that we all can be very grateful for what the web brings us. Yes, it brings us issues like the NSA, yes big companies like Google can have (too much?) power, but mostly the web connects us. It makes industries and it makes the world smaller. Through the web I have met the most amazing people in real life I would not have met without the web.
So, let me tell you a little bit about some of the highlights of these trips.
Iceland and New York
In March I went to RIMC, a conference organised by Kristjan Mar Hauksson. A conference I had been wanting to go to for a while and this year it finally happened. And it was an experience to never forget. Next to seeing several of my friends from the UK there and the fact that it was a great conference it was one of the first conferences where next to the conference there was a social program which allowed me to see a bit more of the country. They organised a road trip for us. In big jeeps we were brought up the glacier, we drove through a dried out river and we ended barbecuing in the woods. It was fantastic. A memory I won’t forget any time soon.
(note: I will be adding pictures to the below slideshows so there might be an update!)
The contrast also was very big because on Saturday I was standing on top of a glacier, while on Sunday evening I landed, with my friends Matt Robberts and Collette Easton from Linkdex, two people with whom I spent a lot of time on the road this year, in New York and that evening I walked in between big skyscrapers. A bigger contrast you can hardly imagine.
UK-trips
Like other years this year I also spent a lot of time in the UK. For conferences like SES, Brighton SEO, for business reasons (loved hanging around at the Mediavision and Lindex offices people!) and for personal reasons (Dom’s wedding was one special one not easily to forget). I always love going over to the UK, it really feels like my second home country these days.
Iran
One of the highlights without a doubt was my trip to Iran this summer. When I was first invited to this trip I have to admit I was sceptical: what was I going to do in a country like that? Wouldn’t it be dangerous? Am I now on the ‘wrong side’ when I speak there at conferences? Am I doing something which will haunt me? I didn’t know what to expect. It all turned out to be the opposite of the things I ‘feared’: it was an amazing trip.
There are several aspects why this trip was so great.
It started on the plane to Tehran. We hadn’t even lifted off in Amsterdam. I was sitting next to an Iranian person who was reading a newspaper in Iranian. The same newspaper as the guy across the isle from me. When I looked at the newspaper the guy across the isle was reading I noticed something. I thought I recognised something so I asked the person sitting next to me if I could take a look at his paper. I leafed through the paper and when I thought I reached the back page, which turned out to be the front page because they read from left to right, there it was: I saw my own picture and those of my fellow speakers at the conference in Tehran I was going to. I was in an Iranian newspaper!
And that was just the start of things. When I got to Iran there were photographers there and our faces were plastered on billboards in the city as well. And when we went to the actual conferences we were literally treated like rockstars. Everybody wanted to have their picture taken with us and we sometimes couldn’t get away from crowds of people trying to give us something, talk to us or take our picture. It was amazing. For a short period of time I truly found out what it was like to be a celebrity.
Iran however wasn’t just amazing because of the celebrity status or even winning the award in Karaj as best speaker of the conference. I think what made the most impact was the people I met in Iran and how they gave me an inside view in a completely different world than my own. Yes, I travel a lot so I see a lot of countries, but you hardly really dive into local life. Add to that the ingredient that Iran isn’t the average country and you can imagine that when you are brought into a world like that you are in for a treat. And I was.
First of all the Iranian people are great (starting with Hamid Sepidnam and his team!). A lot of highly educated people who are all very ambitious, but most of all very nice people. They are warm and welcome and really want you to see the best of the country.
I off course often got asked about the political situation in Iran before and after I went there. Did I notice anything strange? Well to be really honest: most of the time, no. At least, not as in seeing people being suppressed or anything. However I did find that Iran has a funny culture of its own. There is a big distinction between the public and the non-public life. Something I’d love to tell you about in person, so when you speak to me, ask about it :). People try to not let the political life interfere with their happiness so they try to move forward in every way they can. This makes for a very ambitious and smart group of people.
Another reason Iran was so great because I spent a lot of time with my friends Kristjan, Mikkel and new-made friend Marvin, who later introduced me into the start-up communities (see below). Because the four of us were the only ‘Western’ people there and we all had the same experience it gave the trip a ’student like’ feeling at some occasions.
Kiev – Ukraine
In October I traveled to Kiev for the first time. In Kiev I was speaking at a conference (SEMCamp), together with some of my British colleagues. The conference was a load of fun and people really loved my talk (look at this picture for example 😉 ). But I was again, like in Iran, impressed with the people living in Kiev. I decided to stay another day which gave me the opportunity to walk through the city but also visit the Happy Farm Incubator. A start-up incubator who does work in both the US and the Ukraine. Basically they select several start-ups to be part of their program. They will then provide the start-ups with a place to work, in some cases some funding, but most importantly: knowledge. This means for example that people like me come and visit and talk to them about their products and try to give them some insights into how they can improve the product or the marketing.
Marvin Liao introduced me to the people at Happy Farm and I must say, they are amongst the nicest people I’ve met. There were some extremely smart people there and they were open, eager to learn and very helpful towards me by picking me up and even showing me around the city.
Two weeks later already I was back in Kiev because I was asked back at another conference and I’m hoping to come back to Kiev more often in 2014, because I am really impressed with the city and the people. It also means I am now looking with a different view on what is happening in Kiev with all the demonstrations. People I’ve met there are giving me some insight information on it and it really shows for me how again these people want to get forward.
Istanbul – Turkey
Finally my last trip of the year was to Istanbul, together with Marvin Liao again. There I was invited to Etohum, a local start up incubator. In two days time me and Marvin tried to help as many (around 40/50) startups as we could. It was at some moments like doing a 24hrs session of ‘Dragons Den’. I absolutely loved it and I think in Istanbul I ate the best fish ever in a great restaurant at the Bosporus. It was the perfect ending to a long year of travel.
State of Search to State of Digital
2013 was also the year of moving away from State of Search and moving into State of Digital. State of Search has been a very successful blog in the past few years and I think as a search blog we were only steps away from being one of the major ones in the world after sites like Searchengineland and Searchenginewatch. But I also believe there is more to digital marketing than just search. Search still plays a major role (and for me is far from dead), but in my experience when training marketers there is a big gap in connecting all the dots and making digital marketing better as a whole. And that’s why I believe State of Digital should be there. I wrote about the ideas behind State of Digital here.
It was with pain that I said goodbye to the State of Search brand I founded only a few years ago together with Lisa Myers (thank you for all the help on that Lisa!) and it was with great joy that I said hello to the State of Digital brand.
In the last Quarter of the year it was all about the re-brand and getting things up and running, in the next few months the concept will be implemented more solidly and you will be seeing a lot of changes there!
A quick look into the future
2013 has brought me a lot. I’ve traveled the world, I’ve met great people and worked with great people. There are too many to thank all of them in person and with the odds of leaving people out who deserve to be mentioned, I’m not mentioning them at all. You all know who I’m talking about :). In 2014 I hope to see all my friends and new made friends again. There are already some more trips planned and it looks like there will be many interesting countries again. Speaking at conferences, hopefully going back to Kiev and Istanbul for start-ups and making sure State of Digital will flourish in 2014, that is what the next year will look like.
I can only say I hope it will be as good as 2013, because that was brilliant. Thank you everybody who contributed to making this year so wonderful. I hope you will have a fabulous 2014!
