Comments on: Ins and Outs of Running an Independent SEO Conference or Meet-up

By: Nichola Stott

Nichola Stott — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 12:51:28 +0000

As someone who has attended and spoken at Sascon I can definitely +1 this one Duncan

By: Simon Wharton

Simon Wharton — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 12:28:52 +0000

And there is SASCon (http://www.sascon.co.uk/)of course. Which is sort of collaborative. We use an event management company to pull it together, the delightful Dont Panic (http://www.dontpanicprojects.com/) We use them becuase the event simply wouldnt happen otherwise. Those involved in the committee are just too busy to do all the bits and bobs that make it happen.
It looks like there will be a Mini SASCon in November. Single track one day. And Big SASCon will be back next year. We’re yet to finalise a date but I guess it will stay 2 days 3 tracks.

We’re meeting on Monday which I hope will lead to some finalised details.

By: Nichola Stott

Nichola Stott — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:53:42 +0000

Actually MancSEO is now MancSAS: http://www.mancsas.com/ I went to one a few years back and it was great fun!

By: Duncan Reid

Duncan Reid — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:50:05 +0000

Scottish is a bit far for informal meetups but I’ll have a look at MancSEO (is that a LinkedIn group? The LiverpoolSEO one was just full of spam last time I poked my head in) and the SASCon.

Thanks for the ideas Nichola, much appreciated.

By: Nichola Stott

Nichola Stott — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:33:36 +0000

Hi Duncan, have you ever tried any of the MancSEO meetups or the SASCon mini-conference? Also Gus tells me there’s a Scottish linkedin meet-up group if you want the details?

By: Andrew Marshall

Andrew Marshall — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:31:53 +0000

Thanks for publishing this post, its perfect timing for me and has given me a lot of food for thought!

I’ve currently organised three ‘meetups’ under the banner of SEOProSco and have the fourth one planned for the 18th of October in Edinburgh. There are a few digital events in Scotland but they tend to be quite wide ranging and don’t attract the best speakers from around the UK or the world. As it costs a lot of money to spend a couple of nights in Leeds, London or Brighton, I want to attract some of the best talent up to Scotland so that people who are new to the profession have a chance to learn from the best.

My plan for the future is to go from small meetups in the pub where we have a couple of presentations, to having a full day event where people can come along and really learn some new skills.

So far we haven’t really tried to get a sponsor, although we are lucky that one of the venues does supply us with free pizza(!), but in the future I would like to be able to offer drinks and a buffet or to pay for more professional venues.

Since I work in-house, and not at an agency, there aren’t really any business benefits from organising the events. What I do enjoy is doing a little bit of public speaking (it helps that we are still so small), meeting new people who have great stories to tell, hearing from people who have got job offers after attending a meetup and from building a network that I can reach out to in the future.

As of 12.34 21/09/12, we have filled 31 spaces out of 40 for our next event. I’m sure that all of the signup spaces will be filled but whether we get 40 along on the night is anyone’s guess.

By: Will Critchlow

Will Critchlow — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:11:21 +0000

Oh no – I have no entitlement complex – I thought you picked a great set of people to answer. It was only since they all happened to be free events that I wanted to drop in a view from the other side

By: Duncan Reid

Duncan Reid — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:09:25 +0000

That’s an interesting piece. I’d not actually thought that there might be some indie conferences worth investigating (but you guys certainly prove that there are) – I certainly can’t afford to go heading off Stateside or spend £££ on glitzy UK events.

My only comment is that these all based ‘Down South’ – Know ye of any SEO Conferences or get togethers Up North? (It’s not all whippets & flat caps you know! )

Anyhting around the North West would interest me greatly!

By: Nichola Stott

Nichola Stott — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:06:04 +0000

Thanks Will. Some really interesting background and I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way of doing any of these things.

Possibly an oversight on my part not to have included you guys at the outset. Sorry. My bad.

By: Will Critchlow

Will Critchlow — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:49:37 +0000

I don’t know if you’d count Searchlove as “independent”. We’re not a publisher / dedicated events company nor a large company so I guess it is.

Since we are an “independent” that charges for tickets unlike some of the others, I thought I’d briefly lay out why:

- As some of the guys mentioned, it means we can be confident with numbers. If people buy tickets, they show up, so we can fill the room, confidently book party venues etc

- We can pay our speakers’ expenses – so they can travel from further afield / take more time to prepare

- It gives us editorial independence (the kind of “independent” we truly value). To date we have never had a sponsor. While that could change, it will only happen if we can find a way of making it work with our editorial core values

None of this is a knock on any of the other guys here (I’ve spoken at some and enjoyed attending BrightonSEO just the other week). I think they are doing phenomenal things but I just thought I should lay out our case for doing things the way we do.