In Munich stands a Royal drinking house… (Bavarian beer drinking tune)

I ended up in Germany again at the weekend. Back to wonderful Munchen town. Home city of my good friend Thomas Bindl. We got together and had dinner and a catch-up on Friday night. After all, we hadn’t seen each other for almost 48 hours, when we had dinner together in London!

One of the main reasons (other than a little business) I was in Munich, was to make up for the fact that I forgot to take my son to Oktoberfest. I had promised him some time ago that I’d take him to the beer festival in Munich, because I’d been away most of his summer vacation and had hardly seen him at all.

So the weekend before last, I was in Germany with my buddy Ralph Tegtmeier. And at dinner, when I told him I’d be coming back to Germany soon for Oktoberfest, he told me: “No you won’t.” And then went on to explain that I’d missed it!

What could I do? I just had to tell my son straight: “Blue (his nickname) your Dad’s a complete asshole. I got the dates wrong for Oktoberfest.” He didn’t as much as bat an eyelid. Nor did he disagree about me being an asshole, either, I should add.

So, there was nothing else for it. I just had to take him to Munich for our own little beerfest at the weekend. And so it was that we met Thomas, who took us to one of his favourite eateries, where we were served Wiener Schnitzel of gigantic proportions.

Thomas, being the SEM international man of mystery he is, prefers not to have his picture taken (probably doesn’t want the spam cops at the search engines to recognize him 🙂

So, we’ll concentrate on the food, and look with complete disbelief at the size of the Wiener Schnitzel on my son’s plate.

Next day we hit the famous English Garden. It was cloudy, grey and raining. That being the case. It was a pretty empty English Garden (unlike when I first visited it earlier this year). I took a pic of Blue standing in front of the Pagoda style tower which is the central feature in that part of the garden. I have no idea whatsoever, what that beam of light is pointing to his head from the tower. Could be aliens looking for some sort of brain activity… It’s possible they may have chosen the wrong person for this experiment 🙂

So, anyway, in the pouring rain, Blue and I headed for the wonderful Seehaus beer garden on the lake (which Thomas had recommended). Here, Blue was able to practice posing for his own blog (in typical Dad style 🙂

The English Garden is very pretty and has some wonderful inhabitants.

Joe (Blue, that is) is a big football fan. In fact, a huge supporter of our local team, Newcastle United. But, he’s also a fan of Bayern Munich. The city is full of multi coloured Lions this year (I don’t know why?) and this one certainly caught Joe’s attention.

He got quite attached to another when we hit downtown and headed for… yes, that’s right, the Ratskellar!

There’s some fine architecture in Munich. It really is a wonderful city.

There’s one building Joe really wanted to see (the world cup stadium)… But we could only catch glimpse of it on the airport bus as we were leaving.

Not quite Oktoberfest. But we had a great time just hanging together. Okay, I’m off to China next for ad:tech, Shanghai.

RedEye and a new agent…

One of the events I look forward to most of all on my speaking schedule is the strictly exclusive annual RedEye workshop in London. This is an invitation only event and involves a small audience of first-class online UK marketers.

It takes place in the wonderful Oracle building in London town. This is my third year in a row. And once again, today was great. We start with a seminar and then breakout into work groups. It’s amazing just how much data about search you can release into one room by just having the right minds there.

Of course, as they were the most beautiful audience in the room… at that time… 🙂 So I had to take the pic

Well done guys, it was a real pleasure working with you today.

In passing, in London town, I happened to bump into international SEO man of mystery, Thomas Bindl. He was in the company of, perhaps, the most beautiful woman who ever ventured out of California. I was in the company of leading marketing big brain (and not to be outdone, Danish beauty) Nicholine Hayward, who’s on the verge of HUGE success with her new venture.

Little more can be said about this private meeting of minds.

However, at dinner, Thomas presented me with… She that will forever be known as… Madame Fifi le Blogdog.

Explanation?

Over to you Thomas…

ad:tech, London… and then hospitality Fantomaster style!

I thought that being unemployed I’d spend a lot more time at home and a lot of time in the unemployment benefits office. The truth of the matter is, I’m a complete stranger to the “dole office” as Ralph Tegtmeier (AKA Fantomaster) reminded me it was called in the UK (I don’t even know where it is 🙂 And just about the same applies to home, I’m a complete stranger there still. But at least I do know where that is!

Since I returned from my last trip to Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been in London most of the time. Although, last weekend I ushered myself up to steel town (Sheffield) for a huge family get together. Both my younger and elder brothers were there with their kids. And for the first time in months and months I had my own two boys to prop me up at the bar. A great time was had by all.

And then, it was back to London. My buddy Gerry Jacobs was also in town on business, so once again, we had an opportunity to hook up. While he had his various meetings to attend in the city, I had ad:tech.

The London conference is a much smaller event than the US shows (much like SES) but it’s a great opportunity for the little UK SEM community to have a second annual get together.

I was very much looking forward to the “Ten pillars of SEO” session I was moderating. It was an all star line up with Lyndsay Menzies from Big Mouth Media and her client, Tesco. And Bob Price from Your Amigo with his client, Sony.

Unfortunately, at the last minute, Sony had to pull out due to their guy suffering from tonsillitis. So we padded it out a little bit, with Lyndsay getting extra time to demonstrate the great work she’s been doing with Tesco. And then Bob morphed himself into his Sony client and did a splendid job of covering for him.

I’ll just throw in a quick and very special thanks to all those who hooked up with me for dinner, lunch, beers and general whispering in corridors at times. You all know who you are, so I won’t bother mentioning here. Cheers!

Big time hospitality on the river Rhine.

Gerry and I flew to Cologne, Germany on Friday evening where we teamed up with my long time SEO buddy, the legendary Ralph Tegtmeier (Fantomaster). He and his business partner Dirk travelled over the border from Belgium, and the four of us checked into the most wonderful riverside hotel in a pretty place called Konigswinter, for a most splendid late dinner.

The Maritim Hotel literally sits right on the river edge. It’s a wonderful location and Ralph had ensured that both Gerry and I had river facing suites. The view of the riverboat from my bedroom window, first thing Saturday morning was an excellent sign of a great day ahead.

The day began with a hearty breakfast. I have this strange pursuit, in that, everywhere I travel in the world I try to create the full English breakfast, no matter what ingredients are available. And the Maritim even had baked beans on the menu… (hehe! I hear the sound of many Americans going “ughhh! baked beans for breakfast!” 🙂

The town of Koenigswinter is located on the Rhine in a beautiful landscape. And so it was, after breakfast, that we met in this beautiful little town… Outside a pub, where else!

Ralph has lived in this extremely pretty town before, and was able to give us a lot of history. In particular about Drachenfels mountain. According to the legend, it is right here where Siegfried’s fight with the dragon took place. Ralph took us all on a ride on Germany’s oldest rack railway, the Drachenfelsbahn, which went into operation in 1883.

Yes, after Lake Como and Hong Kong already this year, I was on another tram heading up a another glorious mountain.

The views from the mountain down to the river Rhine and surrounding countryside were spectacular.

And at the top of the mountain, I captured Gerry and Ralph together in a picture which just generated its own caption: Investment Banker meets Cloaking Ranker.

The countryside is beautiful, but we were all stumped for an answer to what the large golf ball was doing in there.

At one point, I couldn’t find Ralph. And then I noticed he’d sneaked off for a quiet smoke 🙂

There’s a story about a guy who wanted to build a fairytale castle on the mountain. Which, in fact, he did. However it was very much a Gothic, Disney… er… bottom of a bottle of Asbach inspired creation. I really wanted to capture its entire tastelessness… But it was being renovated!

Next we delved into some real German folklore and mythology by visiting a Gothic style temple.

Inside we were treated to the dark imagery of Siegfried killing the dragon, accompanied by the “not at all whistle along to” music of Wagner (at his most demented, by the sound of it).

And then, something completely out of the ordinary happened… I found myself sitting on the romantic Rhine… drinking beer!

We rounded off our day with a late lunch watching the river flow and eating the most wonderful local dishes.

I can’t thank Ralph and Dirk enough for such fabulous hospitality.

And now, from the top of one mountain, it’s time for me to make my way to the top of another. Metaphorically speaking, that is ; -)

Hong Kong, live it love it. Xiamen, live it love it.

Soooo, after taking a well deserved break, I decided it was time to get off my rear-end and start weighing up some options.

And I’m very lucky that there have been many. But one thing I wanted to do immediately was tie up some stuff in Hong Kong and China before ad:tech, Shanghai comes around. I’m on the advisory board with ad:tech and I’ve been helping new conference chair, Drew Ianni to program the search track.

And to be honest, I don’t need much of an excuse to hop on a plane and head to Hong Kong, a city I’ve fallen in love with. And same applies to Xiamen, China which is rapidly becoming a bit of a second home for me as well.

I met with my friend and colleague Gerard M Jacobs (leading American businessman and former CEO with Think Partnership Inc.) also travelling on business in Hong Kong and he tagged along with me into China.

This was a great opportunity for me to catch up with him. Gerry is a very highly regarded businessman who has funded and headed up billion dollar companies. I have a huge amount of respect for him. And he’s a great sounding board when it comes to new business ideas.

Apart from the fact that I suffered a very severe bout of food poisoning whilst in Xiamen, it was great to be back. This is a great and rapidly developing city which has a very “happening” feel about it. I have to say, the food poisoning had nothing to do with the excellent dishes served in that wonderful city. I believe it was down to some sandwiches served to us on the plane at Hong Kong airport. The flight was delayed by one hour when we arrived. I kind of expected that because the hotel had slipped a cyclone warning note under everyone’s door the night before.

However, after boarding, we were then held on the runway for another threes hours as a typhoon hit the south of Hong Kong. Boy, we were in the middle of real dramatic, movie style storm. At one point, the cabin crew suddenly arrived with some finger style sandwiches to try and keep us occupied. They were wrapped in cling film, so they had obviously been prepared somewhere else, not on the plane. I wasn’t even hungry, just bored stiff with waiting to get off the ground. So… yes, I ate them.

Eventually the plane got off the ground into huge amounts of turbulence as we bounced up and down in the sky over the south China sea on the way to Xiamen, arriving many hours later than expected.

That night, in the wonderful super-posh bathroom of my room at the Sheraton Hotel, in downtown Xiamen… all that could be heard was the aching and echoing sound of my head down the toilet calling very loudly for… Huey and Duey…

Inway to the rescue.

My great friend and colleague in China is Inway Ni, a very admirable guy who I love very much. He heads up one of the fastest growing internet marketing companies in China and is also JV partner for SES China.

Not only is he a very smart businessman, he’s also been schooled in the ancient art of Chinese herbal medicine. So just when the last of the Immodium Plus I always carry with me ran out, he arrived with something so magical, if I hadn’t tried it I wouldn’t have believed it.

After a night of sheer hell, he came to my room (after discovering how ill I actually was) and dispensed five small round balls of what looked like rabbit droppings. I washed them down with a cup of hot water (which he insisted on) and 30 minutes later… BINGO, sorted!

I’ve always been a little sceptical of this whole herbal/alternative thing. But this was really something else. And I have never heard of anything like it in the west. Needless to say, from now on, these foul tasting, but magic pills will replace Immodium forever. And not only that, Inway is very big on Feng Shui, so he can certainly design my new office 🙂

Due to my being ill, I missed a lot of conversation for one whole day. That being the case, Inway decided to come join us in Hong Kong and spend a little time hanging out there.

He and I and Gerry had a wonderful lunch at the Peak. This is a great touristy place in Hong Kong which provides the most breathtaking views over the city. We took some pics just before lunch. Here’s myself with Inway to the left and Gerry to the right.

And later that night, we headed downtown for a wonderful dinner at Ruth Chris restaurant with my other big pal from Hong Kong, Eddie Choi (leading Expo and event management specialist). It became a bit of a long night, with us all ending up in a late, late bar in the ex-pat party area of Hong Kong, Lan Kwai Fong.

Saturday was a good day to do some touristy things. Neither Gerry, nor Inway, had been out into the country to see what’s known simply as the “Big Buddah.” This statue is the world’s largest Buddha statue, made from bronze, it’s 34 metres tall and weighs 250 tonnes.

It’s set in the most wonderful countryside and is breathtaking. It looks over the most peaceful and serene Buddhist Monastery. Po Lin Monastery was initially a small temple constructed by three Buddhists in 1924. Over the years, more structures have been added, such as the big temple and the world’s largest Buddha statue. It’s situated in the mountainous area of Lantau Island.

The whole feeling of the place is like sweeping back in time. Or into the intro of a Kung Fu movie…

The temple is open to tourists. Your ticket for the Buddah visit also includes a Buddhist monk vegetarian lunch inside the temple.

The Buddha statue itself is so big it can take parties on a three level tour inside.

And so, we headed back to the city. Gerry, feeling a little tired decided on an early night. But by this time we had been joined by Yehoo (that’s right, Yehoo), Inway’s sworn brother who lives in Hong Kong. And so the three of us headed downtown again. And once again, many Mojitos were downed by the three of us. And because Yehoo hadn’t had a night out with Inway for a while, I thought we should continue after dinner in Lan Kwai Fong and head off to a few more bars.

At one bar, we bumped into a crowd of ladies who told me they were sisters from the Philippines. I have to say, they didn’t look much like nuns at all. I mentioned this and they told me that they were on leave for the weekend and so didn’t need to wear their nuns outfits. It seemed fairly plausible to me!

I asked one of the nuns if it was a religious icon on the chain around her neck. She was extremely kind and offered me a closer look.

I’ll be very honest here… I’m sure I can’t think why… but I still have no idea what was on the chain.

That’s it. As you read this, I’m on 747 heading back to the UK for ad:tech, London. And then it’s back to the US to really get some wheels in motion.

San Francisco, San Jose, New York and then… Corfu!

Here we go with another retrospective entry to my blog. I think I’m coming to terms with the fact that, even though I’ve had a little extra time on my hands over the past few weeks, I’ll never be a ‘blog a day’ person like my buddy Andy Beal and others.

Anyway, I was in one of my favourite places on the entire planet a few weeks back. I had a weekend in San Francisco before heading down to San Jose for SES. So, I looked up some old friends. Most of whom were interested in my current employment situation (or lack of it, should I say).

The show in San Jose is usually one of the biggest of the year. It certainly had all of the hallmarks of previous huge and successful shows. But I have no idea of the total figures.

Things I did do this year included everything I usually do. I did panels, I met and interviewed a number of people. And I met a lot of people that I stayed up late with and we all got very drunk. The usual sort of show.

Things I didn’t so this year included the Google dance and not a single other sponsor/vendor party. I think going somewhere to stand in line for a free drink… to have to go back and stand in line for another one is not my idea of big-fun anymore.

Nope, not a party pooper at all. The shows are so big and therefore so are the lines. That’s about it. Having said that, I did pull together quite a few little intimate groups and sneak out for some outstanding Indian food on a few of nights, so I thoroughly enjoyed the social side as usual.

And did I have more than one person ask me if I was forming a company with my pal Andy Beal (who coincidentally resigned the day after me). Not only are Andy and I not forming a company together, we didn’t even get a chance to meet each other in San Jose let alone anything else. A little disappointing as I love Andy very much and we never miss getting together at the conferences usually.

Danny moved the organic session from its usual early morning slot to the last session on the last day. I know that we on “team organic” complain a lot that its murder getting up so early after a late night. But I think that actually added a lot to the session. The fact that everyone was always still a little drunk from the night before. I didn’t really cross swords with my sparring partner Dave Naylor at this session. Usually we have a proper pop at each other which always leads to some of Dave’s funniest one liners. However, I think we were being very civil with each other at this particular session.

I think I’ll sneak a bottle of my wife’s favourite *real* Russian vodka into the Chicago session and fill the water jug with it. That should set Dave and I off with a few verbal fireworks 🙂

I didn’t get a picture of the audience at any of the sessions because I’d forgotten to charge the battery for my camera. I did manage to get one shot of the panel (thanks to Thomas Bindl for taking it for me) but the flash was off so it’s not a very good shot (from the left, Bruce Clay, Todd Friesen, Dave Naylor and you know who).

We were all having a big laugh at Danny having to fulfil a bet he had with Thomas on the world cup. I’m sure there must have been many pictures circulating of Danny attending the session wearing Thomas’ Lederhosen. It was a little tight in certain places, judging by the fact that Danny’s vocal moved up about on octave for that session 🙂

I moved on to New York with my wife to meet up with some friends for a celebratory wedding drink. We took a long weekend so that I could catch up with a number of people in and around Noo Yaawwk.

My wife’s favourite part of Manhattan is South Street Seaport. I used to hang around there a lot with my pal Larry Chase, until he moved into the country. It’s just behind the financial district and virtually right underneath the Brooklyn Bridge . There are some great cafes and bars. As well as Pier 17 Mall and the tall ships, of course.

I spent the better part of the last day with a friend sitting outside a cafe drinking Mojitos. After I paid the huge bill, we both headed out to the airport to catch our respective flights. He dropped me a note the following day saying that he made the flight but missed dinner because he fell asleep. I couldn’t help laughing… because I did exactly the same thing on my flight!

I swept into the UK for one day and then my wife and I headed off on a little surprise trip for her birthday, to the beautiful Greek island of Corfu.

This was my first time in Corfu, although I have visited a number of other Greek islands (in fact, my wife and I were married on the island of Cyprus).

I really needed some time to think about the future and generally just take a chill pill. We stayed in a magnificent little place half way up a small mountain on the north west side of the island. It’s an idyllic place with the most wonderful bay and beach just a short walk down the hill (although, I did have a small car for the duration).

The view from where we stayed was fabulous, looking over the bay on one side and the olive groves on the other.

And so it was that I lay on the beach admiring the view there…

And enjoying the company of a relative of San Miguel, uncle Amstel.

We became very close friends, having lunch together every day.

One evening we attended a traditional Greek night. Here, the men wear short skirts and tights and fling each other around on the dance floor (a bit like some friends of mine in San Francisco, actually!)

We visited the old part of Corfu town a few times. The streets are very small and atmospheric and send you reeling back in time.

There’s also a very old fort by the port area.

We didn’t have a chance to visit it unfortunately. We were in and out of town as my wife was having a special necklace created by a local jeweller as a birthday present. It took a few fittings before it was exactly right.

On her birthday, we went for a special lunch.

It lasted until late in the day when we got back from the town at sunset.

And the following day we had the pool just to ourselves and just hung around playing music and having the odd dip. It was so laid back and relaxing. The pool is actually above the building and looks out over the mountains and olive groves. Very nice.

All in all, a spectacularly relaxing time… for my wife. Personally I had my laptop and Blackberry and spent most of my time on the beach or around the pool online. I know, I’m addicted.

So, what else is new? Well you’d have to have been on the moon for the past week not to know that Danny Sullivan had resigned. And yes, of course, he and I and Andy Beal are forming a company together… Yeah, right!

Chicago, Chicago…

Backwards blogging, or retro blogging, whatever it is I do…

I met my dear friend Amanda Watlngton at ad:tech, Chicago last week. She’s a blogging expert (no, that’s not using bad language 🙂 and I asked her if I could be considered a blogger. Most people blog two or three times a day. Bl Ochman who’s very much a “queen of the blogging scene” mentioned in a great presentation she did in London, that you should blog two or three times a day and keep it short and concise (that’s not a quote, by the way, it’s from memory).

Anyway, I do lots of very long posts which are all rear view mirror type and put my pics in there with them. I think maybe I’m more of an almanac with pictures and no astronomical data. OK, OK, I agree, if you strip that down, I could just be a very dated, erratic and crap blog!

However, it’s only a personal blog, so I guess as long as my Mom knows where I am, or been (which is the main reason for the blog) it’s doing its job.

Declaration of true love: I love Susan Bratton. Fortunately, I love her husband Tim, also. In fact, I was really pleased when I read “The long tail” that Rhapsody was used as an example, as Tim was very much a part of that (he’s a clever inventor type — who looks like he’s not old enough to shave yet — I hate him — no, I do love him 😉

And the point is, Mike…

Forget ad:tech (that was great as ever) but it was Sue’s birthday too!!!

So, Tim arranged for a little soiree followed by a limo and a night of debauchery… OK, let’s calm that down and make it a party…

Where did we go?

Okay, Tim arranged a private room at the ad:tech venue so that a small group of personal friends could get together. These people are so important, I can show you them, but I can’t name them 🙂 We’re talking seriously, seriously important people in the industry, even if they are a little deranged (I sneaked in through the bathroom window, of course).

Suz had a dinner that you’d be proud of. I had to take a picture. Surf and turf prepared for the sermon on the mount…

Here’s Sue opening a present or two…

Then we all stepped into the limo of love… and hit the town…

First place went to was Buddy Guy’s. And wait for this… The celebrated blues axe man was actually sitting at his own bar. Puuuurrrrfect for a pic of online marketing legend, meets blues legend!

And so we moved on to Zentra for a little hip-hop. Cocktail is a gay bar. I discovered this when I enterd and saw a muscle-bound type guy dancing around naked with a very large fake penis attached to him. I saw many interesting things out of the window of that bar.

Funky Buddha was followed by Sonotheque and then I helped finish the night at Leg Room (a nice late lounge bar) with a couple of bottles of shampoo.

What a great night. What a great couple. What great friends. Loved it.

My resignation.

Today I resigned my position as Director with MarketSmart Interactive Inc. (formally known as Websourced, Inc.)

For those with my old email address, best way to contact me in the immediate future is: mikegrehan[at]uk2[dot]net

Paradise lost (and found every weekend I’m at home).

They say that, what you dream about tells a lot about you. I think I must dream about all the usual guy things (except football) but there’s one recurring dream I have on the road. And that’s about being in my local pub. It’s sad, I know. I should be dreaming about pole dancing girls and lap dancing girls (I often wonder why it is that Polish girls and those from Lapland are so big on dancing?). But no, apart from the frequent interruption of a hyperlink based algorithm, I dream about the pub!

It’s the perfect haven for me on a Sunday afternoon, when a few pints of Guinness and traditional English roasts for lunch, are the order of the day.

Of all the places I go on the planet, this is right up there with the best of them. Yes, it’s my local!

And this, is my son Joe, following the downing of a huge lunch of roast lamb and Yorkshire puddings, posing for what he felt would be a sympathetic photo for my blog 🙂

And no, he didn’t really drink it. He’s only sixteen and not allowed 😉

Cheers!

SES Latino, Miami.

I worry that, I’m not actually blogging. Nor am I keeping a diary for that matter. These days, everything is a retrospective look at the personal side of my life which runs along side the business.

On that subject, I’ve been asked a number of times at conferences why I don’t have a business blog, just personal. And a little light bulb appears when I tell them: Our business blog is Search Engine Lowdown and it’s edited by Garrett French. So there’s no point in us both blogging the same stuff. I have made the odd little contribution to Garrett’s company blog. And he’s made the odd personal contribution to mine.

Think about it this way. Danny Sullivan has a personal blog here and the official Search Engine Watch blog is here the content, of course, is very different on both sites. But every now and again there is a little cross-over.

So, the point is… you want to know if I was drinking San Miguel somewhere this week? Stay here. You want to know what’s happening in SEM news and events? Go here

By the way, if you’re not subscribed to Danny’s blog feed then you should be. He has some very valid opinions and observations on a lot more than just search. Whereas, I just talk about wine and beer 🙂

Okay, I understand that there’s a headline at the top screaming SESLatinoooooooo!

I got into Miami a little early… just by a day! Having travelled from Hong Kong to LA and then on to Miami, it was a very, very long journey and it was almost 11.00 pm by the time I checked in.

There was some confusion at the hotel about my booking when I arrived. But all I could say was, please give me a room or I’ll go to sleep right here on the reception counter. So a room was arranged, duly.

The following day, I woke a little later (as one does at the weekend) and rang my wife whom I hadn’t spoken to for quite some time. “What are you ding today after that gruelling journey,” she asked. I told her I’ll have a little chill and maybe work some later. “What are you doing today” I asked.

“I’m at work” she replied. What in earth was my wife doing at work on a Saturday I wondered. So I asked her. “Michael” she said (she always calls me by my Sunday name) “today is Friday.” This really threw me. So I went to the bedroom door, pulled the USA Today paper off the handle and… sure enough it was Friday’s date!

Of course, you IDIOT! You gained a day on the way – not lst one. No wonder they couldn’t check you in last night. Doh!

Jet-lag, that wonderful feeling of numbness while drifting through white fluffy clouds. It’s a little like some very powerful cigarette I smoked at…

I watched the world cup final on Lincoln Road, North Beach. This is a great street full of bars, restaurants, cafes and stores which rolls right down to the beach. Of an evening, it’s a wonderful place to stroll, take in the atmosphere and meet strangely exotic scantily clad women.

Anyway, hats off to nacho Hernandez and Stewart Quealy for pulling together a splendid little show that has HUGE potential for the future.

The show also provided an excellent opportunity to get together with Barbara Coll (I moderated a panel she was speaking on) and have dinner with her and mutual friends.

Of course, people think that because we had a little run-in some time ago that we’re mortal enemies. But that’s certainly not the way I see it. So I was surrounded at dinner by some of the finest in the SEO female contingent. What did we talk about? The fact that I was the only one without breasts, and putting together a rationale on why I should have some (too sexually explicit for repeat here).

Here’s myself, Jessie Strichiola, Barbara Coll and my big buddy, Christine Churchill.

On the final day of the show, I got together with some friends on the plaza level by the pool for a few farewell beers. Here’s (from the left) Christine Churchill, Danny Sullivan, you-know-who, Brad Geddes, Jessie Strichiola and Mr Party Animal himself, Joe Morin.

Best of luck to Nacho for the next show. I think it’s going to be huge.

Whoops, blogging backwards you can forget things. Almost forgot to mention smething else in between e-Consultancy and Hong Kong.

Online Marketing Europe.

This is a fairly new conference. And this year it was held in the beautiful city of Palma de Mallorca. Actually, in the UK we spell it Majorca. It’s pronounced the same though.

Majorca is a favourite island of mine. When I was a kid my parents took me there every year for a vacation. So I know it very well. Michael Douglas lived there with his previous wife and still has a place that he and Katherine use for holidays.

The conference was very small and quiet. I think it needs a lot of work before it really gets off the ground. The venue was wonderful, but even at lunch time the bar was empty.

I did get to spend some time with my friends from Your Amigo. As an Australian outfit, they seem to get everywhere. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one crossing so many time zones. If you don’t know about their technology, you should check it out, it’s very, very neat. SEO on a stick, in fact.

I took a long weekend while I was there to catch up with some of my childhood memories. It was a dirty job. But somebody had to do it. And my patron saint, Saint Miguel, helped all along the way 🙂