Hong Kong Vs San Francisco.

I have a major new love affair going on in my life. I have fallen in love with the city of Hong Kong. Perhaps one of the most eclectic mixes of people and most vibrant cities on the planet.

I don’t wish to be unfaithful to San Francisco, which has long been my favourite place to hang. But Hong Kong is an oriental enticer which has seduced people from all parts of the globe to go and live there. And I simply adore it!

We came to Hong Kong this time via head office in Raleigh and a trip into Asheville, NC. My partner Jim Banks and I were on a global business trip which would have us visiting the US, Hong Kong, China and in Jim’s case also Mumbai, India. At the Mumbai point, I would peel off and head to Los Angeles and then on to Miami for SES Latino.

After a gruelling 15 hour flight from New York to Hong Kong, we checked into the wonderful Renaissance Hotel. The view from my window was a joy to behold!

After being locked in a plane for so many hours, the call of the pool was loud. This is a wonderful complex with Renaissance and Grand Hyatt sharing the 12th floor plaza. It truly is an oasis in the sky. Way above the noisy Hong Kong streets.

Of course, on the Saturday I was all decked out ready for England’s glorious defeat of Portugal… er… yeah… next!

Fortunately, my patron saint, Saint Miguel, from Majorca, was very present in Hong Kong!

It was so funny when it started to pour down at the pool. I mean within seconds the heavens just opened and down it came. And then, wait for this the waiters came dashing out with umbrellas! People wearing bathing costumes ready for a swim, standing in the rain with umbrellas. Is there something wrong with this picture 🙂

In Hong Kong, much as China, they love a parade. And the first weekend I was there on this trip (last weekend) it was the 9th anniversary of the handing over of Hong Kong from the British to the Chinese. Definitely a time to get your dragon costume out!

I took the famous Star ferry over to the Kowloon side and took a few shots. Here’s a nice one of the Star ferry going in the opposite direction.

This is a shot of the convention center in Hong Kong from Kowloon.

And I love this shot of our office building, just behind IFC2, the tallest building in the land!

And the big news is?

Jim and I flew to Xiamen again to meet with Inway NI. We agreed upon a letter of intent to start a joint venture with Inway’s company, the fastest growing internet marketing company in China.

We visited their Xiamen corporate headquarters and then popped the cork of my favourite shampoo to celebrate. This a really big deal.

Here you can see Jim Banks, myself, my dear friend Inway and his associates RQ and John. Inway is also the JV partner with SES in China. He’s a very smart guy 😉

And that’s it for now. I’m on board a 747 heading for Los Angeles and then on to Miami for SES Latino.

New media knowledge & e-Consultancy.

I moderated a pretty lively session at the Content 2.0 conference in London. And also presented a keynote at the e-Consultancy “What’s new in internet marketing” conference.

There were some excellent presentations on the day.

Certainly one of my favourites was from blogger extraordinaire, B L Ochman. I’ve met BL a few times at ad:tech and we’ve exchanged hellos. But this time, not only did I get to meet her properly and have a conversation, I actually dropped my pants!

In fact, not only did I drop my pants I completely stripped and dressed again. Fortunately, BL was good enough to keep her eyes averted concentrating on her laptop in the presenter ready room. This, by the way, was the only place at the venue I could get out of my suit and into something casual before I headed to the airport.

Thanks BL, and if you ever feel the need to undress while I’m around… er… next subject 🙂

Of course, I took a picture of the audience, who minutes before were scratching their heads and pondering over what compacted content Vs non compacted content was all about.

BL seemed to think a picture of the audience was a good idea, so she took one also. Neither of us knew that there was someone in the audience making entirely different pictures!

SES London.

Talk about retro-blogging!

I can’t believe it’s so long since I last had a chance to post something. In fact, I’m back in Hong Kong and just about to head to Miami for SES Latino. And the last post I made was actually about the opening of the Hong Kong office.

Since my last post about six weeks ago, I’ve circumnavigated the planet once again and presented at four or five conferences and workshops in between.

Of course, the big UK search marketing show, SES London took place the week I returned from the Hong Kong office opening.

Once again the UK’s finest got together in London for another excellent show. I don’t quite know what it is, but the London show feels different to any other SES. I don’t think it’s just because it’s in a much different type of environment than the other shows, there seems to be something a little more reserved about the audience, I think.

Maybe I’m just too used to presenting to my American cousins. Always with a hand in the air waiting to be heard.

SES London, for the past two shows has taken place at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. The venue itself is nice because it’s different. But the adjacent Hilton Hotel is perhaps one of the worst I’ve stayed in. However, these days I’m very much just “gimme a broadband connection and a bed” when it comes to hotels. Which is a good job for them. Believe me, when it comes to service there’s enough to complain about!

You can see from the shot below that it’s a very different type of venue in London.

I was very pleased to see my buddy Rand Fishkin at the London show. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s one of the most knowledgeable guys in this space. He was delighted when I told him that he had beaten my company in a pitch for a small account around his neck of the woods. Although I wasn’t personally involved in the pitch, I have to say I certainly don’t mind the company losing to Rand. That should teach us a lesson and put our guys back on their toes!

I sent Rand off to Venice with a description of the finest restaurant they have in that wonderful city. The only thing I couldn’t tell him was the actual name of the place. I also recommended that he head to Lake Como after his visit to Milan, for a chill day. I’m sure a lake is easier to find just by description than a restaurant is 🙂

I also met up with my dear, dear, very dear friend, Jill Whalen. It’s been a long time since I last interviewed Jill. Four years, in fact. So we decided it would be a good idea to get together for a good old catch-up podcast. The day before this, I finished an interview with Andrew Goodman which started last year when my wife and I spent a little time with Andrew and his wife at a beautiful lakeside cottage in Canada.

However, immediately following my interview with Andrew, I interviewed the legendary Mikkel de mib Svendsen. Which, I then stupidly saved right over the top of my interview with Andrew.

Wait – it gets worse!

So, Jill and I and a crowd have a very late night in the hotel bar. Much Merlot is consumed and Jill and I have a brilliant idea: let’s do the interview now.

So we sit down and have a very lengthy chat about search with a few bursts of hilarity mixed in for good measure. Interview complete, I then save it right over the top of Mikkel’s file!

Not finished yet. To make things even worse, I listened to the one remaining interview in the morning. Jill and I were so drunk that, even though there were a few splendid moments during the interview, the bulk of it is virtually X rated due to more than a smattering of the f word from me and some very thinly veiled innuendo which crept in from time-to-time!

Needless to say, it’s only very close friends who will get to hear that one!

Here’s Jill being grilled.

I did my usual link building basics session at SES and yes, here’s the audience. Better late than never, I suppose.

The final night of the show saw a crowd of us do the traditional last night dinner. I took us all to a wonderful Italian restaurant. And just as the check arrived in front of me, dear Andrew Goodman swooped in and picked it up. Thanks for that Andrew. Very kind of you considering I feel like such an idiot about the interview!

So here’s the farewell group. Ammon Johns has his back to the camera, you can only see the top of Jim Boykin’s head (his cap) and Jill is hiding Matt Paine. Andrew Goodman is at the far end of the shot sitting next to Anne Kennedy and I’m squeezed between her and the wonderful Rebecca Lieb. Dixon Jones is at the front of the shot on the left. And I simply cannot remember the name of the guy next to him. My dear friend Amanda Watlington was also with us on the night. However, she seems to have somehow made herself invisible.

The following day Matt Paine called my room as he’d very kindly offered to give me a lift to Heathrow. I was so looking forward to going home as I’ve seen so little of it this year. And I only had the weekend before I had to head off again.

Due to an anti terrorist operation taking place in London, as well as a major procession going on, it took an age to get out of the city. And so it was that I missed my flight!

There were no other flights until late Saturday night and it was only lunch time. I decided to take the train and headed back to the city on the Heathrow Express, which took exactly 15 minutes to take me back to exactly where I had started with Matt.

Worse to come. There were no trains directly to my city that day. So I took a train a coach and a taxi, eventually ending up at home at 8.00 in the evening. Not Matt’s fault at all. But next time – I’ll pass on a lift and just take the Heathrow Express!

Hong Kong.

I took the tram to Victoria Peak (known locally simply as “the peak”) and marvelled as I looked across the skyline. I just knew that another love affair with yet another city, was about to begin.

Our new office is located in Central, which is downtown. There are the twin towers of the International Financial Centre which are known simply as IFC1 and IFC 2. IFC2 is the tallest building in Hong Kong. We’re located in IFC1 which is the little brother. However, in the same building, our neighbours include, Google, DoubleClick, Oracle and a number of other tech and marketing companies. So, we’re in very good company!

The night before the official opening event for our new office, Jim Banks ( a previous resident of Hong Kong for 20 years) took us all out for dinner to Lang Kwai Fong. This is a very dull and subdued area where it’s hard to find a drink and something to eat… Er, to be truthful, you could die of having a good time in this place!

If you want to get noticed in this huge city to promote a new product, there are the usual ways to do it. You can use TV, Radio, Press, Outdoor, Internet… Or you could just get some people to carry you around on their shoulders while you wave around a carton of your new brand of milk.

The official opening event for our new Asia/Pacific Rim operation was held in the famous Happy Valley at the football club. It was a fairly intimate and very laid back event. And I was delighted that the President and CEO of Think Partnership Inc (our parent company) took the time to fly all the way out to join us. Scott P Mitchell is one of the smartest guys I have ever met in the interactive marketing space. He’s also one of the greatest businessmen I’ve ever known. And yes, he’s a hell of a nice guy too. So, as you can imagine, both Jim banks and I are very happy to have such a resourceful and talented guy for support in the venture. Here’s myself, Jim and Scott at the opening event.

I have some good friends in Hong Kong. And a very strange thing with my buddy Eddie Choi. I wrote about a small world thing with Eddie when he, coincidentally, ended up sitting behind me on a random flight to Nanjing, China and just tapped me on the shoulder.

This time, I was I heading back on the subway to my hotel from the office and standing on the escalator, when – tap on the shoulder – there was Eddie again! In a city of seven million people that’s quite spooky!

Here I am with Eddie and another buddy, Shri, who runs a niche ex pat business in Hong Kong and is also a moderator at Webmaster World.

A group of us went out for traditional Chinese food. Jim had been recommended a place by the concierge at our hotel. What a laugh that was. After first of all mistaking the stock pot for the soup course (yes were sipping the hot pot stock on its own) we then set about cooking our own food at the table.

As you can tell from the pic of Jim and Sheree, his lovely wife-to-be, just about everything got thrown in!

Ahhh… so that’ s where my underpants ended up!

We met with all of the major search engines while we were there. We had great meetings with MSN and, as I mentioned, Google are in the same building as us. But I was particularly happy with a meeting we had with Yahoo! I spent some time with Yahoo!’s Frankie Ho in Nanjing. So it was great to catch up with him and his Boss Sammy Hsieh. We really do have some excellent joint initiatives to look forward to. Frankie is sitting next to Jim. And Sammy is next to me.

Someone I did spend quite some time with at both ad:tech Shanghai and SES Nanjing, is Inway Ni. He’s joint venture partner with Incisive Media for SES, China. He’s also part of the fastest growing online marketing company in China. So when he and his boss invited Jim and I to fly to his city in China for a catch up and dinner, we couldn’t resist.

Inway is based in Xiamen which is a wonderful seaside resort. So it was a very casual and relaxed meeting we had. The seafront and promenade in Xiamen are as beautiful as you’ll see anywhere.

And this time, when we had traditional Chinese food, there were no problems. Inway and his boss, R.Q. had booked a private dining room in the largest restaurant in the city. And then they proceeded to have served the most wonderful banquet you can imagine. The food was so varied and interesting. Of course, there was the big laugh when Inway asked Jim if there was any food he preferred not to eat, and he answered “seafood!” In a resort where the bulk of the fresh food comes from the sea, you can imagine the reaction that got 🙂

And so, after a flying visit to meet with our new Chinese colleagues, it was time to head back to Hong Kong.

Having spent the past couple of years working mainly in the north American market, I’m very much looking forward to the future in the east. There are some very large and juicy brands that I’m just dying to work with on that side of the planet.

eMetrics Summit 2006

One of the conferences I look forward to the most on my annual schedule is eMetrics Summit. Chair of the conference is my one of my closest friends, Jim Sterne. Jim is also President of the Web Analytics Association.

The conference attracts, literally, the royalty of UK and European brands. And the same for US brands at the Santa Barbara version of the conference. It’s popularity is growing rapidly with new shows for Germany later this month and Washington DC in October.

Not only is Jim Sterne one of the greatest public speakers you’ll ever hear, he’s also one of the most knowledgeable consultants in online marketing you’ll ever meet.

The conference is small and exclusive which means that networking is easy and over the period of three days you can make many new contacts. I’ve personally generated more quality leads for big brand companies from this conference, than any other.

And I also try to attend as many of the sessions as I can squeeze in. These are presentations from those working on the front line of online business. So they take analytics and metrics very seriously. Many have huge web sites with millions of pages and visitors to track and monitor. End user behaviour and click stream data is something that I’m becoming increasingly immersed in. So here, I also get the opportunity to talk to the leading solutions providers who have many a tale to tell about their own clients.

Plus, as Jim Sterne is known for providing the best surroundings and catering for his conferences (he has much style and taste) you can expect to put on an extra few pounds with the sumptuous lunches and dinners.

You can see the great man himself, in the distance, getting proceedings under way here.

And as it’s a little more intimate than the conference Goliath that is ad:tech, I can get some quality time with industry buddies such as my pal Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now Inc.

Bryan and I connect in a lot of areas when it comes to search marketing. He really does get the big picture, for certain. I’ve just finished my review copy of the new book he and brother Jeffrey have written, and it’s pure gold. “Waiting for your cat to bark” is a guaranteed New York Times/Wall Street Journal/ International best seller. No doubt about it.

From pre-click (search) to post-click (persuasion) Bryan and Jeffrey are masters. And because they have such strong marketing backgrounds (like Jim Sterne also) we have some very interesting conversations about search marketing and what really works to increase query streams and follow up with persuasion architecture developed to induce the highest rates of conversion. I do sincerely mean this, buy “Waiting for your cat to bark” as soon as it’s a available (June with complementary CD and Yahoo! Search Marketing token).

Oh no – it’s another eMetrics dinner! Wonder who the empty seat belongs too?

I had an opportunity to catch up with my new business partner, Jim Banks. And one of the UK’s most respected industry commentators, Ashley Friedlein of the e commerce resource behemoth that is e-consultancy.

And who could the two people in this photo be? They are, in fact, Jackie and Andy from Reality PR who handle PR for this conference, as well as SES in London. Not only that, Jackie used to handle Danny Sullivan’s PR and from time-to-time handles mine, when I’m in the UK. They’re also great friends and I love to have a night out with them. They’re both completely nuts!

Napa Valley.

And so it was, that after the heady excitement of ad:tech, a select group got together with the wonderful Sue Bratton and headed out to wine country.

We stopped on the way at a wonderful new winery which isn’t actually open for business yet. But our tour guide was a friend so we were invited. By the way, I’d recommend Jim Tennant as a tour guide to anyone thinking about a Napa Valley trip. He really did a magnificent job.

So the first stop was at Palmaz as I’ve just mentioned, it’s not officially open to the public (will be soon) so it was very much a special treat to get in and see it first.

Here we are, my wife and I, with a spectacular backdrop of what Merlot looks like before it gets to me 🙂

And here’s me inside Palmaz. I know there’s Merlot in there somewhere!

That evening the group split into two parties. One which went to the famous French Laundry restaurant. And another which went to the famous Bouchon restaurant. Both are very close to each other in Yountville and both are owned by celebrated Chef Thomas Keller I was with the Bouchon party. You can see my globe-trotting buddy Bill Hunt at the table. Yes we do meet up everywhere!

We stayed at the wonderfully luxurious Villagio Inn and Spa which I’d recommend to anyone. A wonderful place.

The following morning we were taken to Artesa to start the day with a little sparkling Cava. Excellent.

Napa has some beautiful countryside, so it was a very relaxing day.

We moved on to Diamond Oaks where we tasted more wine and had an excellent picnic.

The whole thing was just so laid back. I almost relaxed for a moment!

In the afternoon we moved on to… yes, event more wine tasting. This time at the wonderful Opus 1 winery . I snapped a nice picture of Tatjana sitting on the grass with its wonderful tree lined entrance as a backdrop.

And then, in the evening, the highlight for many in our group: dinner in the wine cave at Reverie. First of all we were greeted and treated to appetizers and drinks out in the grounds. We found ourselves standing in a small glade with a circle of trees

And just look at the height of these trees!

And then, let the real eating and drinking begin as we entered the wine cave.

The setting was perfect for our group. I won’t give a laundry list of names. But some of the greatest minds in online marketing sat around the table together that night.

And the wine kept flowing.

I can’t tell you just how great the weekend was. So thanks Sue Bratton once again, for arranging such a great time with such great people.

Chicago is great!

I mentioned in an earlier post just how much I adore San Francisco. It really is a joy to visit. Up there on my list of loves is Boston, also. But there’s Chicago too. Now that’s where my corporate headquarters are. And I love to visit. In fact, I’m in Chicago tonight. I just didn’t know that I was going to be!

I missed my connection in Chicago on the way back to the UK from San Fran so I have to stay over in chi town. Big apology from American Airlines and all that – but my schedule is sooo tight as I have Jim Sterne’s eMetrics summit in London all this week.

Anyway, I had a wonderful weekend in Napa Valley and feel all the more… er, tired for it!

I’ll drop a little post about that later this week.

But one thing I did forget to post, was a picture I took of the first incarnation of Google. It stands in the reception area in one of the buildings and it’s referred to as the “corkboard”. That being due to the fact that Craig Silverstein used exactly that to hold together the many hard drives required to power Google, at that time. About 20, in total, probably 🙂

I didn’t realize there was a rule about not taking pictures in the lobby area. But I doubt if either I, or Matt Cutts will get into real trouble for me posting a shot of what a hard drive looked like back in 1998!

On the subject of Matt, my ClickZ article is over here. And you can hear the audio excerpts here and here.

I took my wife to see the Golden gate bridge yesterday. It was her first visit to San Fran, so it had to be done. I haven’t been to the bridge for ages. It was so good to have a little “touristy” time again

Matt Cutts.

He is as honest and genuine as they come. And last week, at Webmaster World, Matt Cutts and I got together and recorded a wonderfully information packed interview for a new audio project I’m working on.

I played some clips from it at ad:tech and I had a huge number of requests for copies of them. But, there’s more. I needed some more information from Matt, so he was kind enough to invite me to the Googleplex to do another hour and hang with him for a little while.

I have to say, he is just the easiest guy ever to interview. So relaxed, knowledgeable and… don’t be offended by this, Matt – nice! I know some people hate nice, but there’s no better word for him. For those who don’t know Matt, I took this pic of him right after our interview at the plex.

There are links to clips from my “Matt sessions” in my ClickZ column. I’ll write more about the column on Monday when it’s published. The last column received a huge amount of response. HUGE! But I have to say, I was very fucking pissed off with some of the worthless criticism it received from a bunch of snide commentators with nothing constructive to contribute. I do wish some people in this industry would just grow up.

Thank you very much to a certain “class” lady who rectified a thread which went completely wrong. And also to the moderator of same forum who wrote and apologized for his own snide comments.

I’ll comment more when my ClickZ follow-up is published.

Ad:tech – It’s 10,000 !!!

Correct – ad:tech drew more than ten thousand people this time in San Francisco. It was an explosive show! Well done Sue Bratton and Warren Pickett for making it one of the most exciting events of the year, to date. Roll on Chicago, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney etc., etc.

Yes, it’s Bill Hunt in the picture below. Bill appears more in my blog than I do! However, our meeting was very important, as Bill has been the keeper of the stick since the Webmaster World conference.

So “sticky” and I were reunited and all was well.

I did a one-man-one-hour session at ad:tech, this time. Sue Bratton has to put a lot of trust in you to do the one-man show thing. And it was such a great audience. My pal, the one-and-only Kevin Ryan did the introduction and off it went. Feedback from the audience was fantastic because I played some exclusive audio clips from the interview I did with Matt Cutts at Google. Annnnnnd, here’s the audience!

ad:tech San Francisco 2006

I have this dilemma of being torn between two lovers. It’s a hard one. For many years I’ve been having two intimate relationships and can’t let either of them go. I simply cannot be monogamous. I know I should choose between one and the other, but it’s so difficult.

My two favourite cities in America to visit, are Boston and San Francisco. I know I should choose one over the other as favourite, but I can’t do it. But having spent last week in Boston and arriving in San Francisco this week, I’ve decided to live a dual life by keeping both east and west coast love affairs on the go.

I dipped back into the UK for a couple of days to empty the suitcase, wash the contents and head off again. I did a great one day workshop in London, with my friend and new partner in SEM, Jim Banks. Tuesday morning I headed off to Los Angeles for a quick meeting and then flew up to San Francisco.

It’s the truth that San Francisco is a city I absolutely adore. It has such a wonderful feel. The people are so friendly and laid back. And arts, entertainment, bars, restaurants and clubs abound. Plus, of course, there’s also wine country. So my wife will be flying in to join me for a weekend visit to Napa Valley. Which, as you can imagine, for “Little ole wine drinker me”, I’m very much looking forward to.

My room has a wonderful view of the city from the opposite direction of downtown. So I can see over the bay and I have the Moscone Center (the conference venue) right outside my bedroom window (the building with the flags).

The exhibit opened with the usual thunderous charge this morning. And it really is HUGE this year. Figures of 8,500 are already being bandied around.

And as you can see, in usual ad:tech style, these 888 booth babes give an indication of just how low key, quiet and sedate the show is 🙂