SEMpdx - SearchFest ‘08
Mar 11th, 2008 by Syzlak
After 3 grueling days of recording, I ease my way back into being a search professional by attending SearchFest at the Oregon Zoo.
Ok, so I’ve been gone for 4 days (only 3, but I’m lumping in this morning since I was hungover) and I’m a little behind at work; thus, we’re going to do the review a bit differently (as if I have a fucking standard for anything over here).
Highlights
March 9, 10:30pm - Sunday night (always the best night to hit the bars - very few Christians (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and very few hooches. Mostly old men that absolutely have to get their drink on) I finish doing most of the tracking on the new Donerail album. Upon returning home, my old co-worker calls me up for a drink as he’d just got into town (time change made him miss the flight). 20 minutes later I’m able to finally meet Stoney and Rebecca! This was a thrill for me because I was finally meeting personalities whose work and character I respect, but I only knew from the wide world of search & blogs. I always meet somebody, but usually I don’t care.
An hour later I’m drinking at Kelly’s Olympian downtown. It (like always) was great.
March 10, 9:30am - I think people ask me “where are you from?” more often than other people. Perhaps it’s because I have a subtle midwestern accent, maybe it’s because I’m an loud, arrogant, asshole in a city of gentle folk (for chrissake no one here uses their car horn! You paid for the horn to be in the damn car, it’s a form of communication since you honestly can’t be heard yelling at the car in front of you. So when someone cuts you off, use your words). Whatever the case, I usually answer this question “Iowa.” Enter the age old and ever continuing debate about the meaning of the question “where are you from?” There are generally 3 4 takes on what this could actually mean:
- Where do you live?
- Where were you born?
- Where have you lived most of your life?
- Where do you call “home?”
The last one is bullshit to me, because the other 3 answer it, but I added it anyway. So, I was born in Iowa, but I only lived there for around 2 years. We went there for vacation every summer (screw Disney, we got corn!!!) and most of my family was there. At the same time, I’ve lived in Portland/Oregon for most of my life. Therefore, some people force me to say that I’m from Portland or Oregon. I find this irritating whilst understanding their point; after all, I don’t really have any ties to Iowa anymore, nor did I grow up within the culture, etc.
Wherever, I’m supposedly “from,” the fact is that I’ve lived in Portland/Oregon for most of my life. This is important to note because for some reason I couldn’t find the Oregon Zoo.
I’ve been to the damn place probably 10 times in my life too, so it’s not like the area is foreign to me. After driving around, lost in the West Hills, I find the zoo and make it in time to have missed Rand’s keynote, which at the time I thought nothing of. Yeah, I like Rand, but I thought for sure I was going to hear some variation on the proposal/social media speech, which I’ve heard a few times.
What it was, was apparently nothing short of spectacular - it even ragged on Bend, which makes anything spectacular.
10:00am - I’m late to the first session, and only hear half of Stoney’s speech on site architecture. Very well done, some of it old news, some new, some advanced, some basic pretty much the formula for speaking at an SEMpdx event. We’re not SMX or SES (my mind immediately jogs to a Simpson’s ref: It’s not your fault, you can’t control the birds. You will someday, but not now). My favorite piece of advice from Stoney was that not every page needs a META description. He said that some pages are better off when the search engines are left to “write” the description for you. I definitely think that’s true and adhere to that rule myself, but it’s nice to hear someone else say it.
During Aaron Kahlow’s speech about usability someone has thrown something at me, but will not own up to it…and honestly, aside from that and when he said “irregardless” (genius) I have no other highlights. Next however, was Ian Lurie. I liked this speech a lot. All about analytics, how to review, what to look for, etc. Awesome. I’ve never actually been in a session where someone was talking so directly about what I do and how I could do it better. My favorite takeaway was about how some sites, pages, etc. should be expected to have a higher bounce rate. Again it’s a common sense thing, but it’s not one I’d thought of yet.
I had to work the next 2 sessions, running around with a microphone and trying to keep doors quiet. I don’t remember being very interested in anything outside of Rebecca’s speech on link bait and Paul Colligan’s speech on…well, basically all things social (oh, and not letting the robots win).
2:00pm - Managing your online reputation with Marty of aimClear. This is gonna be good. If you’re a regular here, then you’re aware of my fundamental disagreement with how Marty presents himself online. Well, out of left field he fully admits that he handled his rep in the wrong way. Well shit, how am I supposed to grill him now? Throw in the fact that later he barely stepped on my toe and then apologized profusely for it, and now I’m starting to like the guy. That being said, the truth is that I don’t know him and if I did, I may like him, but I still don’t care for how he carries himself online. I wasn’t a big fan of the fact that after coming out of his SU experience he gives a speech about how to manage your rep online, owns up to some mistakes, but then calls social media “bully pulpit channels.” I also didn’t like that he still seems to think that he’s done nothing wrong in the situation. Had he taken the time to interview one of the Stumblers that “attacked” him, he would have learned why he was “attacked.” Instead he feels that he’s done no spamming, no self promotion, no mis-categorization, nothing that would irritate the community…while plugging his Sphinned articles 4 times. 
In the next speech I heard one of the most ironic utterances ever, when Lisa Williams talked about what to do when you’ve “gone off the reservation and said something stupid.” Really? Was that the example of something stupid to say?
3:15pm - Hot Seat with Rand, Stoney and Marty. Damn this was good. The SEMpdx Hot Seat is a remarkably simple and brilliant event, that should really be marketed more than it has been. Hot Seat’s are always fun, and usually seem to provide something for everybody. This Hot Seat was friggin’ epic. Personally, I loved the fact that the minute Rand stood up to speak, I leaned over to a friend and said that he was going to plug one of his tools…and then he did. Can’t blame him though, I’d have done the same. I left the Hot Seat early to expel urine and was pleased to see that the bar had been setup, and drinking had begun. This is why I always leave conferences a few minutes early. That way you can get to the bar before everyone else and have 1 or 2 drinks before the line is outrageously long.
Later - The memory fades very quickly nowadays. After about 3 drinks, I seriously can’t remember things clearly at all. I’ve lost days (mostly nights ;)) from having a few drinks. Beer’s more gentle than bourbon, but all in all the end result is always the same, so here’s what I can remember.
- I went to drink with EngineWorks in the Pearl, talked about figure skating and the Blazers.
- Was almost convinced once again to join SecondLife.
- Met with David from Business.com
Then I headed home form more drinking with an buddy from middle school.
He’s from here too.
