The year ended with a great mix of events I was fortunate to present at and 2016 is shaping up to be a great one. The opportunity to share my knowledge, meet new people, be challenged and travel fuels my creative and business passion in so many ways.
A Busy End To 2015
The final months of the year had me on both coasts and talking to a wide variety of conference types. Destination wise Key West, FLA was a highlight and content wise my presentation on Mobile for the Marine Dealers Association was a mammoth amount of content to create and deliver.
Select Registry Conference – Key West, Fla This hospitality industry conference brings together the countries top Bed and Breakfast and boutique properties for a 3 day conference. I presented on The Future Of The Mobile Guest Experience.
Social Media Breakfast – Minneapolis & St. Paul
I was lucky to present alongside James Svoboda of WebRanking as we looked at “Social + Search: A Whole New Ballgame“. It was a great topic and I covered how search and social are intertwined and growing closer together with a special focus on online reviews, a heavy intersection of social and search. This slide deck (below) also featured my first ever hand drawn slide, it was an awesome group, event and a favorite presentation.
Local University – Dallas, TX Per my usual speaking engagements, Local University is a traveling conference I am involved in organizing and speaking with. Our Dallas event was well attended at SMU and gave us a great opportunity to help small business owners and marketers better understand local search and online marketing.
Marine Dealer Conference – Orlando, Fla This conference brought together over 1,000 Boat and Marine Dealers and boating industry players for a 4 day conference of sales, leadership, product and marketing knowledge. I presented on mobile helping today’s dealerships understand the mobile web, local search, beacons, customer engagement and more. It was an incredible venue and an industry really ready to learn and act on mobile marketing opportunities.
2016 Upcoming Events
Some really great conferences are already on the calendar for this new year and I hope to see you at one of them.
2016 Innkeepers Conference – Austin, TX I hit the road next week to speak on January 11th to the hospitality industry in the heart of Texas. I’ll be leading a session looking at Google local search algorithms and Google maps helping businesses understand how to rank for local and mobile searches.
MozCon Local 2016 – Seattle, WA After last years huge success with their first local search conference, Moz is back with a 2-day conference on February 18-19th for those looking to gain valuable local search knowledge. I’m in for a busy 1st day as I’m on a panel discussion with other experts Mike Ramsey, Darren Shaw and Paula Keller on local search processes, a kick-ass presentation on how to do competitive analysis and then I lead a break-out on online reviews.
This conference features many local search experts as well as staff from Yelp, MOZ, Litmus and Google. In addition to the event, Seattle is a huge favorite of mine with endless food and tourist attractions.
Local University Advanced – Williamsburg, VA Be there on March 5th, 2016 for an awesome full day of local search strategies and tactics. In taking part of dozens of LocalU events over the years I promise you the sessions, relationships and materials will be outstanding. Sponsored by Google and featuring local search experts like Mike Blumenthal, David Mihm, Andrew Shotland, Mary Bowling, Ed Reese, Mike Ramsey, Joy Hawkins and more. Yes, you need to be there.
I’ll be covering some mobile topics as well as online reviews. This is definitely one conference where I learn as well as share what I’ve learned.
Make Sure We Connect
Wether you make it to one of these events to start the year or you happily troll me on social media, make sure we connect in 2016. I’ll be posting more on future events this year and I’m grateful for the relationships I’ve made through these fantastic events and learning opportunities. Here’s to a great 2016!