I am sitting here in the London airport waiting for my flight out and I keep thinking how amazing the SEO and SEM industry and community is here in London. It was my first time at an event in London, SMX London and Rising Media flew me out here and put me up. I got to say, everyone I met in London was just super special.
When I first walked into the SMX London event, everyone was smiling and super happy to be there. I guess as a New Yorker, you don’t see many people smiling? But as I sat down to listen to some of the speakers, it was interesting to watch how polite, receptive and attentive the audience was. The questions for the speakers poured in, they were all respectable and everyone was very proper and polite. I guess the British way is to be “proper” but seeing it in action was great.
People who know me, that includes everyone reading this post, know I have a sarcastic and dry humor. So the dry British humor was something I was really looking forward to. I got plenty of it and even went super sarcastic where people didn’t know if I was joking or not. As long as I think I am funny, that is all that matters anyway.
I was looking forward to meeting a bunch of SEO/SEMs that I’ve known online for years, some over 15 years. I met many of these folks thanks to Nick Wilsdon, Gerry White, David Iwanow, Judith Lewis, Tash and the folks at Artefact UK. What was suppose to be a 10 person dinner at a kosher restaurant turned into 170+ people registering for an event with pizza and beer. I got to say, I am sad I wasn’t able to see Ammon Johns, someone who has been super instrumental in the SEO community and this specific site. One day Ammon, I will meet you!
The event was hilarious, fun and a bit educational. Heck, we even got a rogue former Googler, Pierre Far to show up. 🙂
They started off by doing this interactive quiz where the audience opens their phones and takes a quiz in real time. They did a quiz about me – which was funny and a bit uncomfortable, but mostly funny:
Congrats to Stu, who won with 10,000+ points! He scored a 10 out of 11 on that quiz!
Here are some photos from other people from the event and some from SMX London:
The discussion has begun, kicking off with @rustybrick discussing the google algorithm. pic.twitter.com/F4yFFAOjAg
— Artefact UK (@Artefact_UK) May 21, 2019
The panel talk #tiochat has started! @rustybrick @davidiwanow @JudithLewis @Frau_Reichert @nickwilsdon Thanks @OfflineTake for organising! pic.twitter.com/uFBqBizVYi
— Yolanda Pedrosa (@YolOnlineWorld) May 21, 2019
Extremely humbling SEO event hosted by @Artefact_UK for #tiochat thanks to @nickwilsdon @davidiwanow @JudithLewis @dergal and the whole UK SEO community. pic.twitter.com/B6gPuwZ6nc
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 21, 2019
5 posts a day for many, many years. Thanks @rustybrick #tiochat @OfflineTake pic.twitter.com/pr1nasrvTz
— Chippy (@chippy) May 21, 2019
It’s the @OfflineTake event in London this evening. @dergal and friends. Oh and @rustybrick Thanks for organising this! pic.twitter.com/E4C0ZfDFID
— Chippy (@chippy) May 21, 2019
Cheers it was a fun event hopefully it’s the start of a promising future as a moderator for me… Thanks @dergal #TioChat for giving me the opportunity pic.twitter.com/o1s4XqydGo
— David Iwanow (@davidiwanow) May 21, 2019
Nope pic.twitter.com/vJ2P5jXy5h
— Gerry White SEO geek (@dergal) May 21, 2019
#takeitoffline with @rustybrick talking about #SEO pic.twitter.com/v69XwnG283
— Liraz Postan (@Rliraz) May 21, 2019
“I love covering what the #SEO community is talking about” 👌👌 @rustybrick #tiochat pic.twitter.com/2xkMybuYgB
— Marco Bonomo (@MarcoBonomoSEO) May 21, 2019
@rustybrick talks about his relationship with #Google at #tiochat pic.twitter.com/LnqveWPmkc
— Marco Bonomo (@MarcoBonomoSEO) May 21, 2019
Big thanks to @OfflineTake and @Artefact_UK for the great #tiochat 👌 pic.twitter.com/3AccSkL50x
— Marco Bonomo (@MarcoBonomoSEO) May 21, 2019
Great chat with @rustybrick and the expert panel @Ian_Fergusson @JudithLewis @Frau_Reichert @nickwilsdon @davidiwanow #SEO #SEOtips pic.twitter.com/zubldDYz14
— Marco Bonomo (@MarcoBonomoSEO) May 21, 2019
The event is about to start. Looking forward to hear what @rustybrick has to say #SEO pic.twitter.com/L6BCBpHcNi
— Nick Shread (@GreenAndGeeky) May 21, 2019
Great @OfflineTake ‘Too much pizza night’! thanks to @dergal , @TashLikesCheese for hosting, @nickwilsdon for suggesting and the panel – including @rustybrick @JudithLewis and compare @davidiwanow pic.twitter.com/jj9ac1b5vU
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) May 21, 2019
A great day @smx search conference in London, lots taken away from all the many great speakers. Especially excited to meet @rustybrick and to say thank you to him for the work he does reporting within the search community. Well done to all. #SMXLondon #SMX pic.twitter.com/iCUbZWQ7Hg
— David Coton (@davidcoton) May 22, 2019
Can you believe @rustybrick has never properly been to London? 🇬🇧 thanks to him and @Artefact_UK for an awesome meet-up #tiochat #seo pic.twitter.com/lE8JlwErHy
— Itamar Blauer (@ItamarBlauer) May 22, 2019
Pleasure shooting the breeze with @rustybrick for an awk 5 at the start of @OfflineTake
My exclusive scoops:
1. @dannysullivan isn’t a sell out for joining Google
2. Can’t remember anything else…too nervous x
Nice bloke; won’t be able to rag on his headlines any more 😢 pic.twitter.com/hNjnka9QmV
— Nick Samuel (@nm_samuel) May 22, 2019
Liraz Postan also wrote a nice recap of SMX London over here.
Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible and seriously, the SEO/SEM community in London is awesome.
Forum discussion at all of those embeds above!