Arranging a UK SEO Meet

This thread was split off from this other - whereas i dont have any financial reason to not want TW to become a place to set up meetings we certainly dont need TW to be drowned out by them :)

In the other thread i did say that it might be one thing we could do in the private members section when that finally comes online this year, but for now, as we are on the topic anyway i dont see much harm in letting this one ride publically.

Others will be put to the sword though. heh..

So, go for it. If you want to join Jason and hook up in the uk, talk about it here and lets keep the other thread for the more specific subject of whether unofficial seo meets are good or bad for the industry.

thanks!

Guys

Just keep hanging round here and a4uforum (Matt Woods great UK forum), keep an eye on things and keep in contact with people and you'll find out where and when.

DougS

I'll be in London June 1st and can get to Stansted.

How about we see the interest and if we can get a decent amount of it we can hire a bar for a day around the Stansted area.

maybe in Harlow, the ancestrial home of the Chav :)

I'd be up for that depending on when. Stansted aint no Las Vegas but at least its more local. It would be good to meet up with a few more UK Peeps.

I'd be up for that depending on when. Stansted aint no Las Vegas but at least its more local. It would be good to meet up with a few more UK Peeps.

It sure isn't LV but the beer is better and it could be stage 1 of who knows what?

There are other parts of the UK, Christ we even have trees, hills and other stuff north of Watford.

I know the airport thing, but if people have come via transport that requires a plane, a bit extra wont harm.

Just a though :)

Welcome to Threadwatch mr tim, please do the honorable thing and introduce yourself :-)

Not sure if i can make it but i'd certainly like to try and stanstead would be great as im out of the UK - good call on location - bugger vegas, give me the smoke filled room!

?

lots of budget airlines

I would even travel down to the big smoke or stansted. Just need plenty of notice and access to a travel lodge kinda place (cheap and clean) :O)

I'm up for wherever but my gut feeling was make it as easy as possible for everyone outside Britain to come. Most likely the people that would make it over would be from Europe rather than North America or Australasia.

That said, I personally think, "Come join us for a beer and a chat from all around the globe!"

The hub for EU flights is Stansted, so although far from glamourous or even historic it is convenient and when we are going to be quaffing volumous amounts of liquid to lubricate our vocal chords inside a pub or hotel why not make it easier, rather than harder for the majority as it's only the smokers (me included) that I can see going outside!

London's getting a hard rap these days. More London meet ups I say!
Sorry UKG

That there London is bloody expensive place, Luton or Stansted .. or oop north (EasyJet into Manchester, BMI into East Midlands, Jet2 into Leeds-Bradford) .. I say :O)

One of the biggest hubs in Europe and sunny

OK. It seems there is definately some interest in a meet.

The difference seems to be where. We can sort out when afterwards.

Around Stansted
Central London
Around Luton
ooop north
Spain

Any other suggestions and if not shall we have a nice democratic vote on it?

I am going to abstain as I'll go wherever the beer pumps are!

Jason, i think your thought to make this easier for europeans is a winner - I move that we settle this now: Standtead! - all in favour say "bollocks!"

The big lights of Stansted it is then....

Don't worry, there's lap dancing clubs in even the shittest places in UK nowadays :)

Nick, Bollocks I say!

After ballsing around organising event etc and one person allowing everyong to vote you find 50 different desired dates and 20 different locations with all combinations.

Easier to make it:

If you can make it, great, if you cant there is next time.

But a hearty bollocks for Stansted from me :D

Stansted it is then :)

Time to start throwing some dates about and calling venues etc. Looking at the time, this is gonna be a "tomorrow" thing, but I'll keep you all informed as to how it's looking here.

I say we go for a traditional Pub based get together rather than a structured conference but tell me what you prefer and I'll do what I can :)

You wont get me outta denmark if there's anything like structure involved here. I want to sit down in a pub for some hours and talk shop!

June/july would be good as we have seoroadshow in the autumn in edinburgh and possibly the same gig but in the US in april

RC?

Combine accomodation for those that need it with meeting place? Also means conversations/drinking can go on longer? Anyone know any good reasonably prices places?

June would be good for me, I am in winnipeg july and august

I'll start organising potential places and accomodation tomorrow :) Watch this space !

http://www.corushotels.com/hotel.asp?hotelID=26

He's right, you just need to set a place and date.

I'll vote for Stansted just because of my expat Essex heart (and Ryanair/Easyjet) - and see later if the dates work.

Added: Harlow? Getting closer and closer to home (Harlow Tech journalism apprenticeship 19xx) - but I thought you were talking about sooner than midsummer!

Not necessarily - I am easy (although I can't do Jan,Feb), does give people chance to arrange, particularly if booking flights, etc.

Only one has brown beer worth drinking. No contest. Be nice to have an excuse before Edinburgh, Charleston timing just won't work.

You have seoroadshow in april in the states (i think) - i will be trying to make that for sure. You hav seoroadshow in edinburgh in autumn. If it came to a choice, i'd take the established pro seo meet over an idea that just got posted.

My advice would be to not force people to make that choice.

The barrier to organising such things, when there is no prior data to go by, is the numbers of participants and therefore the size of the place to book.

So for now please post if you are seriously interested in attending an EU meet in or around Stansted / Harlow Essex.

Times, dates, costs (if any) will almost definately be based on numbers and availability and as Nick said clashes with existing events will be avoided like the plague. :)

I would definitely try to make it over from the states. Nick, what is the status on an official TW Pub meet?

Would anyone Stateside be willing to have a meeting in Chicago? (I am not from Chicago, but that seems to be a central spot for most people.)

Down south!!! Just need to get a bank loan, and a book on cockney rhyming slang ;)

Guys, let's keep this strictly to the proposed Stanstead meet please - we can talk about others another time, it's already getting confusing :)

>TW Pub Meet

Im happy to support this one, provided it's non-commercial but i wouldnt want to rob the members who started this thread of credit for the idea :-)

If you guys feel it needs some kind of stamp from TW then just say, otherwise we'll just continue to run the thread(s) and make sure enough people know about it in whatever ways we can...

I don't care where this happens in the UK, I'll be there.
I'd prefer the hotel/pub idea - I like doing business after 12 pints at 2am in the morning :)

The US roadshow isn't likely to happen, too many seo 'events' that time of year already. Default to webmasters in the sun in California.

I'd prefer the hotel/pub idea

Yeah, me too. In fact, having done a few of these now, I'm thinking of going back to Mackin's original idea of "Hey, I'm going to be in (place) on (date) and staying in (hotel), anybody want to meet for a pint?"

IMO, large meetings are only as good as the small private meetings they spawn. WmW's last "World of Search" in Vegas was a disaster on that score (IMHO) but that was primarily because of the venue and the casino distractions. The usual crowd was there, but it just didn't seem to gel. While I'm at it, I'd say that last SES-NYC had a similar problem.

Whilst making the point that Stansted is the worst venue EVER, IMNSHO, I would still attend.

I realise that choosing Stansted is just a ploy to keep us Northerners away, and I can't let you get away with that ;)

Finally when we looked like we might get a US meet up in a place that looked vaguely interesting it doesn't get off the ground :(

However I'll be up for any get together in the UK this year. And would love to go to a US meet somewhere 'interesting'

State the bar and hotel on here and someone will turn up.

Rc did it and it worked., plus others have done it.

DougS

I'm willing to route you all via http://best-sem-seo-tw-pub-conference-holy-land.com
or/and
http://query-who-ever-heard-of-stansted.com
...

still
You can count on a middle-east interest in any TW pub meeting ;-)

Been there for SMA EU Meeting and was like a charm. Pretty good to fly in (Easyjet and most other discount airlines) and nice hotel for people that want to stay overnight.

Get it booked and we will be there

I say bollocks, especially to london, cos its full of motors and people in a hurry. Count me in :)

I was in stanstead today changing planes to barcelona and I had 5 hours to kill, so I went into Bishop stortford ( 10 mins on the bus). A usual english town but a reasonable size and quite a few pubs. Would do for a meet.

What about where you were with the free wifi? ;-)

Here is what is fixed.

Date: 30th May 2005
Where: The Down Hall Country House Hotel
Cost: Zilch to attend but I have negotiated a deal of £85 per night per room, bed and breakfast if you want to stay

Rules: Invite only ala SEO Roadshow, this will be quite open but idiots will NOT be tolerated. All TW members are invited.

No promos of ANY kind.

This is a Pure Pub style meeting in a truly beautiful hotel, set in some gorgeous countryside with some top notch facilities on site with superb transport infrastructure to enable you to see the sights in and around London or Essex if you wish (though personally I'll probably be too drunk)

Now, if we can come up with a name for it ?

I can only come up with: WidgetMeet, BeerWatch and ThreadCon which all sound cack to me. What can you think of?

Official TW thread to come soon :D

Im up for all of that, thanks for setting it up Jason!

name

Im not sure we should brand this as a Threadwatch thing - after all, i just hosted the thread :) Im open to suggestion though and if enough people think it will help then i dont see any harm in it.

cost

I did have the thought that a "contribution" jar could be set up, purely on a voluntary basis - say $50 a head - this would allow us to pop a whole wad of cash behind the bar and if i know TW members then i shouldnt think there would be too many people not contributing :)

If there was any money that looked like it might exceed the bar bill (heaven forbid) it could be put into child minding or taxi hire or whatever, even raffled i guess...

Just a thought..

Is that a bank holiday?

it sure is

Do we do bookings/arrangements through JasonD or book with hotel ourselves? I will be more than likely bringing along wife and small child to share the trip (I will get drunk with you lot while they go shopping etc).

It would be nice for it to be a TW thing, I quote like BeerWatch or PubWatch (how about Threadmeet, Threaderati? *g*)

Can't see on the hotel site if they have t'internet access other than modem points?

Chris,

Gimme a few mins mate. I am on the phone at the moment to the hotel trying to sort a few things out.

Whilst I am on hold though I will say this :)

I am looking into transport from Stansted airport as well as from the train station for those coming in from Liverpool Street. I want this to be as easy to attend and enjoyable as possible for everyone so once we get some numbers sorted and where people are coming from I may organise a minibus

Once we have a name sorted out I'll open up a website etc so we can sort things out in a more organised way going forward :)

OK here we go :)

Cost options:

£85 per night Bed and Breakfast
£95 per night Bed, Breakfast and Evening Meal Single Room
£125 per night Bed, Breakfast and Evening Meal Double Room.

Please make all bookings direct with Sarah at the Down Hall Hotel on +44 1279 732169 or email her on s.tebbs@downhall.co.uk mentioning "Threadwatch" when you make contact.

The hotel has 99 rooms and at present all except 2 (that I have booked) are available.

Please let me know on beerwatch@strangelogic.com when you have booked.

I look forward to seeing you there :)

WiFi is available throughout the hotel via T Mobile :)

But I cant go unfortunatly :( There's no chance of me getting down to Hertfordshire (I live in Nottingham)... Have a drink for me guys.

yes you can XC. It's a 2.5 - 3 hour drive.

Come on, you know you wanna :)

If I can make it from California, Nottingham is easy !!!

Let me see if I can hook you up with a Nottingham TW member....

I might be able to go via Nottingham, I live in South Yorks

ahem...

"Never mind the Bollocks"

heh..

As for nottingham, i know a few people "up north" so ill ask around too...

Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

MrM.

I am looking into the email issue right now.

Correction to previous email address for the hotel.

It is stebbs@downhall.co.uk

So providing the trusty magic plastic works, expect to see a tipsy geek with a barnsley accent wandering around the place looking dazed and/or confused on the 30th. :O)

Sounds like a plan.

My little sister grads college on the 29th, so, making ses was already going to be tight - making it in by the 30th might be a true challenge, but I'll see what I can do ;).

Hey Jason,

You had to choose somewhere close to the arsehole of England!

I know you've been north of Watford at least once - hopefully the next one can be in the Lake District :D

John

Firstly, welcome to Threadwatch John! please introduce yourself...

Now, as if you needed another good reason to hook up with some fine marketers in a pub in sunny stanstead: Beer Fights Cancer - so apparently it'll be for the good of eveyone's health aswell :)

1st of June?

sorry I'm a little slow today

May 30th Gerbot - bank holiday weekend :)

Hi Nick,

I already did the intro thing - it's all Jason's fault he told me about Threadwatch - expect the tone to be well and truly lowered ;)

J

SOrry J, i see that now - that little sentence rattles off almost automatically today and it's been a busy day for sign ups heh..

Nick

I live in Bishops Stortford and although not an SEO guru (white hat or black hat) - I do know a fair bit about Google Adwords though. I do have a friend who I could probably bring along who is an SEO nut and I'm willing to learn :)

I can scope out the area a little - my friend mentioned a very nice Curry if anybody likes the sound of that I can investigate further.

There is a brand new hotel at the airport where the bar staff do some aerial acrobatics to get your drinks - I haven't seen it but it sounds cool.

Cheers

Paul Cowen

Quite often people turn up to events a day or two early to hang round hotel and meet up with people. Any plans to do the same here? ie. are people just arriving on the 30th and staying that night or is anyone booking the 29th as well?

Kier, you're right, just one night of excess isnt enough ;)

Personally im hoping to arrive friday lunchtime and leave sunday lunch, i'd come on thurs but i have to look after this place too heh...

Hiya Smiley. So you're coming down on 30th and leaving on 1st?

I might come down day before on 29th.

What about everybody else?

Can't afford more than one night and I am going to france on the 1st. Will there be a meeting place/time or should I just hang around the bar looking lonely? :O)

Say 2pm Saturday guys?

Bar friday night of course - but the 'official' thing being 2pm saturday till you fall over...

Already committed to scuba diving in southern Spain that week, which is a shame as I'd far rather be smoking Mick G's cigarettes while watching 4Eyes diffuse bar fights. ;)

Oh well, maybe next time ...

I think it is likely that many people will come down early and leave late but that's a personal decision for us all to take.

At the moment the only "non official, non structured, non gathering" is for the day / night of the 30th May :)

Don't forget that if you do come early / leave late that you can get into London from the local train station straight into Liverpool Street station to see the sights there.

Or if you merely want to shop then Lakeside shopping centre (nice spammy 3rd level domain name I see ,Bluewater shopping centre as well as Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London are all pretty easy to get to.

You could of course just enjoy the Essex and Herts countryside or if you can't stay away from your "Texas Hold Em" gambling addiction I suggest you pop down to Newmarket race course and place a few notes in the hands of the bookies there :)

Personally I'll probably just bring a tent, set up in the lounge with the WIFI connection and *cough* do my best to add value to existing web sites out there by offering free content for them to keep or delete at will :)

rel=nofollow my arse!

Which is the "official" non-organised day for maximum VFM? :O)

I *might* be able to persuade the missus for an additional night but any more would be pushing it :OS

There is a small issue with monday though - hangovers on Tuesday!

What do you think Jason?

Non Official night of stay is Saturday 28th May 2005

I'll be there before and after, recovering from too much canned meat talk and beer consumed but it's a personal choice as to when you book.

Personally I'd suggest you speak to Sarah and book for Friday and Saturday nights as well cos you'll be missing out if you don't :)

Now, im locking this one pending an official "attendees" thread later today - if anyone wants to shoot me some good pics of the hotel, sorounding areas or any relevant flight/transport info please do! nick-AT-threadwatch.org

Look for the announcement in maybe 4-5hrs