2008… Bound to be great!

OK, it’s true 2007 was very unkind to me personally. And professionally it was different. I hooked up with my friend Bruce Clay, we’d been talking about getting together for a while. But soon after we did, I had to pull out.

For the record, that was my personal decision and Bruce and I remain closest of friends. Bruce is a great guy and more power to him for 2008.

Anyway, my wife had this great idea about starting the new year on a high… For me. So instead of heading to the snow bound cities of Russia we love so much at this time of the year, we ended up in sunny Gran Canaria.

And here I sit, on a beach where the forcast temperature has been exceeded every single day.

That’s the bonus… Down side? The extremely bad service is only worsened by the tragic quality of the food which seems to have to die twice. Once in the usual fashion that livestock is killed. And then in such a tremendously horrific grease ritual before being slapped on a plate and thrown at you. I have never come across such bad service, lazy staff… And don’t even get me started on the hygiene of the toilets in the seafront bars and restaurants.

Still, it has a nice promenade (very nice, actually).

And a Christmas tree among the palm trees.

And on new year’s eve, I managed to climb inside it!

I don’t quite remember what it was that caught my attention on this picture of the promenade?

We did find a great little seafront restaurant for new year’s eve. Las Palmas has a pretty spectacular fireworks display. So, Tatiana and I did the full thing. It was fantastic!

The best I could manage was to be outrageous and put a bag on my head. Never looked better, some people might think. Just needs pulling down a bit.

There was live music on the promenade…

I went back to our hotel and picked up a bottle of Dom Perignon, my iPod and dock and then headed back to the beach. There, Tatiana and I (having stolen two shampoo glasses from the hotel) turned the music up, poured drinks and danced together on the beach for an hour. Just the two of us in a very secluded part of the bay… Our kids would simply die of embarrassment if I published any of those pictures. But it was magic. Just magic!

On new year’s day the party continued on the beach.

And I took a dip to try and sober up!

Las Canteras beach in Las Palmas has this beautiful sand carving of the nativity which draws thousands of people. It really is very impressive.

We took a quick trip down to Maspalomas. This is a much more touristy area of the island. Not my kind of place, I have to say (unless you like chips with everything, cheesy Irish bars, pizzas and very greasy fast food – and even in the south they have no idea how to clean a lavatory!)

But they do have a lighthouse…

So anyway, I expect 2008 to be great.

Why?

Well wait for some big announcements. First about SES, London. And then… Well…

But for now, Cheers!

And T, thank you for being so thoughtful with this wonderful Christmas present. Just what I needed to kick-start the year!

And now… It’s time to go to the pub!

Well, as the Christmas holiday begins and the year draws to a close let me wish everyone and anyone I may have forgotten the season’s very best.

I hope Santa brings everyone what they hoped for and the coming year brings happiness and prosperity.

2007 was not my best year. I lost my big brother and my wonderful uncle. But I was surrounded by my family and the friends who I love so much. Thanks to you all for helping me get through it.

After Christmas day, Tatiana and I will head to sunnier climes in Gran Canaria for some Sangria, champagne and a week of sunshine to bring in the new year.

I have some very exciting stuff to announce in 2008 — very exciting 😉

SES, Chicago… Be there!

Can’t wait for SES, London? Don’t suffer search marketing conference withdrawal symptoms. There’s still time book for the search extravaganza that is, SES, Chicago.

See you there!

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, Washington DC

Yes, I said it. It’s on record and it was most certainly me who said it And I’ll say it here again. Without a shadow of a doubt, Jim Sterne’s eMetrics show is the probably the best conference on the planet!

Now that’s not to say other conferences are bad. Far from it. SES, SMX, ad:tech, PubCon are also fabulous shows. But, in my opinion, eMetrics is just that little cut above.

The speakers are fantastic. My buddy Avinash Kaushik, for instance, is a true wealth of knowledge when it comes to analytics and online marketing. And he delivers in such a natural, humorous and common sense manner. I guarantee you can leave any session of his and start to put things into action right now!

Here he is presenting the first of many important metrics: His daughter has 21 friends 🙂

The audience at eMetrics sessions are a lot of fun to work with. They thought it was a master stroke when I took this pic of them as I was introducing Avinash and told them I’d put it on my blog and claim the audience as my own! And look… I have 🙂

The catering at eMetrics is always outstanding. Beautiful, freshly cooked hot food and a full bar too. What more could a delegate (or speaker ask for?).

And the networking is excellent.

Legends abound. Such as, the mighty Jim Sterne himself. And analytics guru and all round good guy, Eric Peterson.

Of course, on the subject of networking, there are always fantastic sponsored events. I went along to the beer analytics event sponsored by Interwoven at the District Chop House. This was very cool as it’s a micro brewery. Everyone was given a card with a description of a type of beer (flavour, colour etc.) and the table had various numbered pitchers of beer on them. All you had to do was drink beer, identify which number it was and place it next to the description on the card. All correct cards went into a draw for an iPod. Oh what fun! And free food too!

Of course, knowing conference organiser and noted online marketer, Matt Finlay, meant that I got personal service from him, and also got to keep my very own pitcher of beer 😉

The following day, I joined a panel of industry stars for an audience driven Q & A session which went down a storm. With me was Chris Boggs (now with eMergent Marketing ), Manoj Jasra (of Enquiro ) and the omni present Avinash Kaushik (Z Q Insights). What a line up!

I got a chance to try out my brand new, dinky portable recording studio.

There’s an interview with Avinash over here. And a ClickZ column over here

On the subject of ClickZ, I got caught up with my UK, ClickZ writer and pal Neil Mason of Applied Insights.

He, me and the mighty Jim have shared many a beer over the years!

One other great thing about the DC show… I met my bestest, newest conference buddy, the lovely Fanny Jeanmougin. As assistant to Matt Finlay, it’s her job to all manner of important things. Such as dragging Matt out of the hotel bar to make sure he gets to bed before 4.00 am and… 🙂

Fanny is from Lyon. Therefore it’s also her job to choose the best French wines when we’re dining out.

The conference ended with drinks on the terrace. So terribly civilized, don’t you know.

The next eMetrics show takes place in Stockholm in November.

Did I mention that, eMetrics is probably the best show on the planet?

I hate my wife…

Nobody knows what it’s like to do things you’re forced into. My wife makes me do something so disgusting, I can hardly talk about it.

But this is my confessional. This blog is where all my deepest thoughts end up.

I want to talk about it, but it’s so hard. And disgusting…

I need a second to think before I write this…

My wife makes me… She makes me… I can hardly type through my tears… It’s so horrible. Absolutely horrible!

She thinks it’s normal… But she asks me to…

She… she makes me eat vegetables!

But no, it’s worse than that. She puts green ones in there. You know, the type that cows and sheep and other animals eat. It’s horrible. It’s disgusting and she makes me do it ALL the time.

She once put… I can hardly talk about it. She once put… Please wait, I’ll be OK in a moment.

She once put a pile of baby spinach on my plate and forced me to eat it. But wait, there was poached egg on top. And she wouldn’t let me eat the egg without the spinach.

She’s a maliciously sick woman. She needs help…

And I need a plastic bucket… she just made me eat rocket uuuuurrrrgggghhhh!!!!

My hyperlink can beat your hyperlink…

Hey, this looks like some seriously good testing. And a lot of fun!

Sure beats the usual “who can rank at number one for the word neefoofwar and win an iPod” bollocks.

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.

Not long to go before I head to Washington DC for the must-attend eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. The whole shebang gets off to a flying start October 14 and rocks through until October 17.

I’ll be chair/moderator of the search analytics track which runs over two days (October15/16). And there are some fantastic speakers and great topics. I’ll start the ball rolling on Monday morning (15th) and then we have author and analytics guru, Avinash Kaushik. We’re then joined by Manoj Jasra of Enquiro Search Solutions. My great pal Andrew Goodman joins the party and Chris Boggs pitches in too. And then we have Pat Stroh, Vice President Analysis Decision & Support at IMPAQT.

Plus there are four other tracks covering every aspect of online marketing over the entire four days. This really is a top class show and one that I always look forward to.

The venue is the Omni Shoreham Hotel. I’ll be geting in on the Sunday. So if anyone wants to join me for a splash of sherry in the evening, I’ll be in the Hotel’s Marquee bar from about 7.30. No doubt I’ll be dragging Goodman and Boggs along with me 🙂

If you’re a search marketer and live in the DC area, whether you’re coming to the conference or not, why not just pop in for a beer and say hi anyway.

Keyword research and tracking training…

Different for me, but I’m really looking forward to this training session!

The Algarve.

Well it’s the time of the year that I get to see one of my favourite views.

Tatiana and I had a little trip to the Algarve for the first time. Neither of us has been to Portugal before. I got a little tip from a friend about where to stay.

The Hotel Algarve Casino is perched atop the rocks from whence the resort gets its name, Praia Da Rocha (rocky beach). We booked a studio with a private sun deck and nice view over the beach.

And it has to be said…

No matter which way…

You look at…

The beach… It’s BIG!

The beach also has a nice long promenade with lots of small restaurants. Curiously, all of them are exactly the same shape buildings. But each one seems to manage to put their own stamp on it.

It’s a very nice resort. Pretty much like Spain, I guess. It has its fair share of cheesy Irish Bars and discos. But it also has a very classy hidden side in the Marina area.

One great spot we found was the private Nickei Beach club.

I picked up a nice bird while we were there 🙂

Of course, we had to visit the capital. So we spent a day in Lisbon. Our city visits usually involve a church. So, we had a quick peek in Jeronimos Monastery.

Torre de Belem, is a fortified tower located in the Belem district of Lisbon. It was built in the early 16th century to commemorate the expedition of Vasco de Gama. It has become one of the symbols of the city. And a major tourist attraction.

Lisbon has a bridge just like the Golden gate in San Francisco (and built by the same company too). It’s hard to see in this shot. But to the right of the bridge, as you enter the city there’s a huge statue of Christ The king, very much the same as the one in Brazil. Wonder which one came first?

We decided to head downtown for a bite to eat and crossed the main square in the city.

And into the main street which has lots of places to eat.

We found the perfect spot and enjoyed a wonderful lunch of fresh seafood cooked in a traditional Portuguese style.

And finished off with a drizzle of Madeira for T and a few splashes of cognac for me.

After which, T went to do a little shopping. And I decided to go back to the main square and have another look at the architecture. Well, T did laugh when she came to find me and saw just how closely I was inspecting the architecture!

There was one shot I had just to take at the resort and that was the one below. If you’re a fan of Little Britain, like me, you’d probably expect to see Matt Lucas and David Walliams walking out, declaring in very high pitched voices; “We’re ladies!”

It’s very rare that T ever considers going back to the same place twice. But she certainly enjoyed this so much she’s already decided on coming back next year. If you’re looking for something pretty laid back and quiet, just to chill and laze around the pool and the beach, this is certainly the place to do it. Cheers!

My long time friend and internet marketing legend, Ralph Wilson, spent a few minutes talking to me at SES, San Jose.