ShareI’d heard a lot about BrightonSEO, the Conference based on the South East Coast of England dedicated to online marketing. I was really looking forward to the conference and soaking in the knowledge on offer. This year was the conference’s busiest with over 1,700 tickets selling out in just four minutes. This was evident when we got to Brighton Dome as the queues to get in extended out of the venue and down the road.
The conference itself brings together the best speakers from across the world to the same place twice a year. Some of the standout presentations for me this September were:
Jon Hibbitt (SiteVisibility) – Digital Marketing in the Age of 5G Mobile
I was really glad that I took the time to walk over the road to the school house, the other venue that housed the day’s activities to hear Jon Hibbitt. He gave a really interesting talk on the introduction of 5G and how it will revolutionise the way that we use mobiles by 2020. This new technology will bring unbelievable speed that will see users downloading full length films in less than a minute. The Q&A session at the end also brought up some interesting responses to the ever interesting scope of The Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, both subjects that were touched upon on my recent Google Squared course.
Kelvin Newman (SiteVisibilty) – How to have Fewer Rubbish Ideas
The main man behind the day, Kelvin Newman popped up on stage to give an insight into how to generate great ideas. He started the presentation by saying ‘You will have better ideas when you understand your context’, and argued that the best ideas are created when in the right environment. Both such simple concepts but often thing that we struggle with. Using the right tools also help with many costing less than a fiver. Reminding us that we should always have pens and post-it notes to hand.
He also talked about frameworks and how they are great for narrowing and pinpointing briefs, making creativity easier because they often help you combine attributes that you wouldn’t think of otherwise. After all it is those different and surprising combinations that are the most compelling ideas. His talk was really inspiring and I found myself thinking about how these ideas could be used in a number of settings and not just online marketing.
Greg Gifford (DealerOn) – Local SEO, A Seriously Awesome Blueprint
Greg Gifford is a guy that can really captivate and entertain an audience. Originally from Texas, he’s been working in SEO for around 15 years and he’s a BrightonSEO veteran. He’s funny and had a bank of obscure film references as he rapidly fired through his snappy slides, which were full of simple and effective hints and tips for local SEOers with plenty of examples thrown in for good measure.
Tips ranged from optimising your content for local results, how to stop producing poor content, and to remember to read your content aloud – if it doesn’t sound like you speaking, it’s not good enough for the internet.
If you get the chance to see this guy present, I’d highly recommend him. He’s clearly very knowledgeable about local SEO and films, and in all it was a seriously awesome presentation!
