It was a fantastic event - see everyone in Vegas I hope!

You have arrived. SMX is now firmly on the UK SEO calendar.

All in all the SEO crowd are friendly folk who actively share a wealth of information and experience, what better platform than the Metropole? (with the exception of lack of toothpaste in my room)

Got a bit carried away.

For me, the content on Day 2 generally held more interest and seemed more useful than that of Day 1. There were some minor organisational niggles, but I know that Danny and Chris will analyse all the Conference Feedback Forms to come up with a killer show next year. One or two of the speakers were too softly spoken (Not Lisa!) and could have done with a better boost from the PA system.

Sometimes I wonder if three tracks is too many; sometimes I think that two would be much better. The keynote from Google wasn’t particularly inspirational, but most of the other sessions were great.

In one session there was a little bit too much of the in-joke comments, bringing up some things that would have completely lost many of those people not in the circle of bloggers and commentators that surround such events.

There were a number of new speakers compared to SES London presentations, and all those that I saw present did a good job covering their topic and delivering some useful nuggets.

There is always a dilemma as to how much of the basics to cover before getting to the real meat of the presentation. The fundamental flaw in that, is being given only 10 minutes to get the message accross. In some cases at other conferences I have seen four presenters say the exact same thing as each other, and have to rush their slides to finish in time. The audience didn’t get much useful information from those types of session.

In that case I would have much preferred to hear two speakers talk for 40 minutes each, or one speakerr cover the subect in depth in a little over an hour, all on their own. People like Gord Hotchkiss should get their own, longer, slot as they have so much useful stuff to convey.

Social Media seemed to be a hot topic, especially with the Kelvin, Lisa, Andy and Cam session room filled to busting point, and nearly 20 people without seats standing at the back. The couple of last minute changes in programme confused a few people, and left those sessions under-attended.

The venue was about the right size. Most rooms were adjacent or one floor up, apart from the one room separated from the rest of the event by a trip across the lobby and three floors up in the lift. The hot food was fine, though I found lunch at 12 to be a bit too early for me.

The London SEO drinks bash was great (and the pub served good food), but the previous night was very fragmented as everyone headed off in different directions for drinks or meals.

All in all, a good event which everyone seems to have enjoyed. Chocbait was also good!