July 4th weekend, Long Island and a truly good friend…

(This post comes with an apology to any professional photographer who may be taking a peek. As a complete amateur photographer – just a snapper, really – I’m having a hard time trying to get used to my newly pimped-up camera. I’m working on it!)

To say that I get homesick sometimes would certainly be an understatement. I’m very much settled now at my second home on the upper west side here in New York. However, I miss my wife and family desperately sometimes. So when a friend recognizes that you need a break from big-city life and a little down home comfort, I really, really do appreciate it.

It’s only a few weeks since my buddy Kevin Ryan invited me to come stay over with his folks upstate New York on our big road trip from New York to Toronto. In between, I flew to the other side of the planet for ad:tech, Singapore. And this weekend, being the long 4th July holiday weekend, I wasn’t much looking forward to another weekend doing exciting stuff like my laundry and tidying up my apartment.

So I was totally blown away, when my buddy, the ever charming, ever debonair Matt McGowan, invited me to join him with his folks on Long Island for the weekend.

Many people who tune into this blog from time-to-time will surely know Matt. He’s the big marketing brain behind the Search Engine Strategies shows. And this is not the first time my dear friend has helped me out.

Earlier this year during SES, London I lost my wallet. I was due on stage for an Orion panel and I was completely stressed. Matt, being the pro that he is, knew that I’d be a lot better on stage if the wallet problem was solved. So duly, he took me back to the hotel and retraced my steps from the night before, eventually finding my wallet… In my jacket pocket. Well that’s the last place you look… Right?

Right?

Moving on…

So Matt invited me, along with a group of Aussies (more later) to stay over the weekend at his parent’s beach house on Long Beach. It was just fantastic! Such a wonderful place, wonderful parents and wonderful Aussie company. I mean nice, nice, nice people.

A real highlight for me was getting to know Matt’s pop, Vince. This is a truly stand-up guy. A Vietnam vet with the most amazing background. He wields wisdom and wit with the style and grace of a Ninja swordsman.

So what’s the first thing you do when you get to a beach house on Long Beach? You head to the sea with a crate of beer, of course!

In the pic above we have Matt, along with (from the left) Aussies Chris (mega-brain strategist with Grey Group), Lauren (senior account manager with Leo Burnett and my new life saving wine doctor), Bianca (new superstar at Beyond Interaction and wildly interesting partner of one Matt McGowan) and world-class award winning chef Adam (most recently in the kitchen of Per Se but more often in Lauren’s kitchen, no doubt 🙂

I stretched my imagination as far as it could go to figure out why Long Beach was called Long Beach… And then it came to me in a blinding flash… It’s long

Yes, they don’t call me the man with a mind like a steel trap for nothing, y’know!

And so, I regaled the group with my exciting and hilarious stories about search engine algorithms, to the point they all seemed to pass out with thrilling information overload. Well, that’s how I saw it, anyway.

Meanwhile, Chris and Matt decided that the rain on the beach just wasn’t doing it for them and totally drenched is what they needed. None of this “I think my shirt is a little damp” stuff. But the real get-nekkid and jump in the Atlantic stuff!

And what do handsome boys, beautiful girls and little, fat, old Englishmen need after a hard day’s work on the beach?

Dinner!

BIG dinner!

And heading up the table… No, not Vince, I’m talking about the real boss, Matt’s totally gorgeous Mom, Brenda. When one is serving up a meal to guests which include a world-class chef some may have a little trepidation. But not Brenda, she fearlessly served up a dinner that was in a class of its own (OK, Vince took charge of barbecuing the meat – joint effort!)

Dinner over and with more wine and invigorating conversation – what next? More booze, beach and bonfire, of course. And then get a world-class chef to… toast marshmallows! (Look out French Laundry, you have no idea what’s new on the menu next week!)

As my newly monstrous camera has taken on a life of its own and I’m still trying to tame the beast, the flash on the pic above had people in Brooklyn blinking! But without, it looked more like this. I was there, I know.

Next morning, Brenda tries to convince me to ride a bicycle with her and Vince down the boardwalk. I have no interest until she tells me there’s a bar at the end of the boardwalk (and fish and chip bar, no less). Guess who got there first 🙂

Could we squeeze anything else in on this wonderfully chilled and relaxed weekend? Over to you Matt.

“Why don’t we do Jordan’s Lobster Bar for lunch” he says. They have both Lobster AND beer, Mike.

Okay, where’s my bike!

And so, we all pile into the car and head to Jordan’s.

Brenda just happens to mention that female lobster is the best. But how does one know which is female and which is not asks the so inquisitive Bianca? Wait and see which rest room they use?

Oh no, just flip them on their back and take a look. Hardly gentlemanly (although some women may disagree) but it works. As I was standing at the back I surely have no idea what part of the lobster anatomy they were scrutinizing (and don’t care to think about it much either)

The perfect end to a perfect weekend!

Matt, Vince, Brenda, Bianca, Lauren, Adam, Chris thank you all sooooo much for such a wonderful time.

Really.

Cheers!

4th July 2008

So, being English, I don’t (like most other English people) celebrate 4th July. Let’s face it guys, we were your boss once and this was not our best day 🙂

However, I did make it to my office in the Empire State Building to take some shots of the New York fireworks. Here’s one, which for me, sums it up.

And by the way, my Yankee friends… Happy 4th July and have a great holiday weekend (even with the rain 🙂

ad:tech, Singapore

I’ve been looking forward immensely to this conference/trip. For four reasons, mainly:

1) I’ve never been to Singapore.

2) Acronym is a main sponsor of the show.

3) ad:tech is one of my favourite conferences and this is their first show in Singapore.

4) I get to spend a week working with our General Manager for that region, the deliciously scrumptious (and totally nuts), Farah Sadiq.

Singapore is a wonderful place. It definitely has hints of Hong Kong about it. But it’s certainly much cleaner than Hong Kong. And the fact that most people seem to speak English (or at least some) getting around is pretty easy.

Already the city is showing signs of a growing economy by the sight of the growing skyline in the financial district.

We checked into the Marina Mandarin, hotel which is exactly opposite the Suntec Singapore Convention Centre where ad:tech was being held.

The Marina Mandarin is built around a huge atrium. This is a shot I took sitting in the atrium bar looking directly up to the roof.

And this is the view the other way, looking down into the atrium bar and lounge.

Myself, Anton and Selina flew in from New York to support Farah. And she already had members of the local team in Singapore briefed and ready to man the booth. Here’s Anton with Carrie, Jovis and Yasser.
And here she is, the one and only Farah Sadiq!

We had a new booth design for this show. As usual though, it was very… Orange, as all our corporate stuff is.

Anton came up with the brilliant idea of having a brilliant ideas room. Basically, we ran a kind of mini conference during the breaks between the main sessions. The idea was beautifully simple: 8 brilliant ideas in search delivered in 8 minutes. It worked so well, it’s likely to become a permanent feature for us at conferences. Here’s how the room looked.

And here’s Anton in full swing at one of the sessions.

As usual, I took a shot of the audience at one of my main sessions.

And also got a shot or two of Anton at one of his main sessions.

Of course, like me, Anton has been involved online since 1995 so he’s been around a long time and many people in the industry know him well. However, not so many people know about the driving force behind the technology and brilliant ideas at Acronym, Vice President and Senior Strategist, Selina Allibhai. She has a tendency to keep a very low profile online. But as she’s my buddy, gorgeous and one of the smartest brains in the search industry, I thought it would be great for my image to have a picture taken with her (alright, and also to let everyone know just who this mystery woman is).

So, we were very Orange.

Yahoo! was very purple.

And Google was very white.

I had a chance to catch up with my buddy David Temple. He and I hadn’t seen each other since SES, Nanjing back in 2006. And so he roped me into helping out at the SEMPO booth.

My stint at the booth lasted about 90 seconds until I was distracted by a couple of small things and had to leave 🙂

After the show closed, Anton, Selina, Farah and I got together to go for a little celebratory dinner as the show went so very well for us. We started with drinks in the Atrium lounge at the hotel.

And then Farah took us to the most fabulous Indian restaurant where we sat outdoors. The food was wonderful. As was the wine. But what the heck Selina and Anton saw in the trees above us, I have no idea!!!
On the final day Selina and Farah invited me to join them doing a little shopping at Little India and then on to Orchard Road.

Selina only wanted to buy *three* digital cameras! So the famous Mustafa Centre was the first port of call.

During the process of bartering and bargaining her way through the sale of not only three cameras, but two computers as well, I was being sold a ton of new equipment to pimp-up my existing camera. Funny thing is, each time Selina got a discount, I’m absolutely certain they added the same amount to my bill!

So once my camera was fitted with a new sooper-dooper lens (and the thousand dollars worth of other kit I bought!), I just had to point it in Farah’s direction for her to automatically pose. Somehow, she can just sense a camera in her space and she turns into Farah Sadiq, super model.

Also notice Selina in the background with one of the extremely well priced cameras I’m sure I helped pay for 🙂

So, let’s do it one more time Farah, honey. Give me your best, I want gorgeous, I want sexy, I want sensual. Do your thing honey.

Perfect. Captured like never before 🙂

Okay, Orchard Road, here we come. And to prove my point, even during trying something on, Farah could just sense my camera lens hovering around at the back of the store.

And true to form, Selina almost bought every item in the store.

One thing I was really looking forward to while in Singapore was a visit to the famous Raffles Hotel. A little bit of colonial history still tucked away in the city and still just as striking.

So, I decided to take the girls there for lunch. And, of course, it being the place where it was invented, the world famous Singapore Sling.

It really is a beautiful place. And make no mistake, I’ll be coming back to stay in the near future.

All-in-all, it was a great conference and a wonderful time had by all. Well done to Farah and her Singapore team. You all did a great job.

Singapore – I’ll be back very soon!

Cheers!

The big New York/SES Toronto road trip.

So I’ve been harping on at my buddy Kevin Ryan, for little short of a lifetime, to get this new vehicle of his out of the garage and give me a tour somewhere. Living in New York, I don’t have a car (it’s sitting in the UK with a flat battery and flat tires by now, I guess). I get around OK on the subway and by taxi same as most New Yorkers.

I was kind of hoping we could do a Sunday afternoon around New Jersey and visit some places I’ve seen on The Sopranos. But, if you know Kevin at all, you’ll know he never does anything by half. So the big day arrived.

Instead of flying up to Toronto together for SES… We’ll drive he says!

Excuse me Kevin, but isn’t that like a ten hour drive or something? Sure, he says. Ten hours of big fun!

In fact, the trip took the whole weekend getting there. Kevin’s folks live upstate at Finger Lakes. It was father’s day the coming Sunday so he could do brunch with his dad.

But more to the point, specifically for me, they make wine upstate New York… Lots of it.

An so, we hit the road, early Saturday morning. On the way up we stopped only once to fill up… On something called Pudgie Burgers! If my diet wasn’t specifically geared towards an early heart attack, it surely was now. I could feel my arteries filling up with pudginess each mouthful. At one point in his varied career, Kevin worked part time at Pudgies. And after we finished burgers the size of our respective heads, he told me a total gross-out story about what he used to get up to making the famous Pudgie Burger.

Donnt ask!

We did actually have to make one emergency stop. I couldn’t resist this shot.

Last chance for what?

Gas?

Wine?

A shag?

All of the above?

Our next emergency stop was essential. The Herman J Weimer vineyard to stock up on his delicious (and famous) Riesling.

There’s only one word for the Finger Lakes area: Beautiful.

And what else would you do at the lakes, other than sail a boat.

And in keeping with his usual style, Kevin had picked out a great place for us to stay overnight. Geneva on the Lake.

This is a beautiful resort sitting right on Seneca Lake.I found out later, from Kevin’s mom that, it used to be a monastery at one time. And when I discovered this beautifully serene corner of the gardens, it seemed fairly apparent.

Kevin’s folks were attending a family and friends get together along with Kevin’s brother, Frank and his family. It was such a wonderful laid back family affair with plenty of cold beer, hot dogs and burgers. Just the tonic I need as I miss my family get-togethers back in the UK very much. So, I was adopted as a member of the family for the weekend!

I was made to feel very much at home. So thanks so much you guys for having me over.

Sunday was father’s day. I got two texts from my kids (one forgot – you know who you are!!!) and Kevin had his mom and pop come join him for brunch at Geneva on the Lake. And he kindly invited me too. What a wonderful family brunch that was.

Kevin’s parents are absolutely delightful folks. And I couldn’t have been more happy than when, Kevin’s mom gave me a huge hug just as we were leaving and invited me to come back and stay again (I was also instructed to get Kevin’s ass up there more often too, of course 🙂

After we crossed the border into Canada, we decided to visit Niagara on the Lake as Kevin had never been there before. It being the place which boasts the oldest pub in North America… I had!

This is a beautiful little town which has been voted prettiest in Canada on more than one occasion.

And so, we had lunch and local beer at the Angel Inn.

Sunday night we arrived in Toronto and met with Andrew Goodman (SES, Toronto, Co-chair) for dinner. And Monday night was the traditional pre-show dinner. Incisive Managing Director, Gary Lynch, myself, Kevin, Matt McGowan, Frank Fazio, Richard Zwicky and a bunch of others piled into my favourite little Italian eatery in Toronto. The Kit Kat.

The show started Tuesday with another extremely informative and entertaining keynote by another favortie Canadian buddy of mine, Fredrick Marckini. He really is a first class public speaker.

There were the usual shenanigans and parties. And the usual pic of me taking a pic of Li Evans taking a pic of me (with my number one Guinness drinking buddy Motoko Hunt in the background).

And yes, my usual pic of the audience at my sessions.

After an excellent show (well done Andrew and team) Kevin and I made an early start for home. On the way, we both became aware that neither of us had ever been to Buffalo before. I did a quick check online and discovered that Buffalo really does have the restaurant where buffalo wings were invented. The Anchor Inn.

It had to be done!

And God bless Teressa Belissimo for inventing the wings that have had people all over the world asking the question: “Why are they called Buffalo wings?”

Although I have to say – 20 on a plate as the smallest dish may be a little too much Buffalo and wing!

So, rite of passage and all that, Kevin and I entered the Anchor Inn where we were seated and Kevin…

Twittered!

Next stop, the Turning Stone casino and resort for a quiet stay over.

This is based on an Indian reservation and is HUGE!

Strange thing is… It doesn’t sell alcohol. Remember I mentioned how we stocked up earlier in the trip with that lovely upstate Riesling? Well that’s the reason nobody received there gifts when I got back.

Of course, it was a long trip and we had some big, big laughs along the way. But I think we’ll just leave this as the edited version. And next time you meet with Kevin and I… Buy us lots of alcohol and we may tell you the unabridged version (as Kevin’s mom and my own read this blog. It’s best kept out 🙂

Central Park.

One thing I really do love about where I live is I’m only a few blocks from Central Park. And one of my favourite places is the park!

Last weekend (in the heat wave, I should add) I thought it would be a great idea to go to the Boathouse… I adore the Boathouse. So, yes, it’s a little touristy, but what a great spot.

There’s always live entertainment going on in the park. I spotted these two guys with a great comedy/gymnast/dance routine which was hilarious. Here, in the set up, you can see a small kid and a group of adults. The idea is, that one of the guys will leap over the top of the kid first and then the group. So much more to it actually (but I have a ClickZ column to write so this is the short version).

Kid first

And then the group

Excellent act!

So, my favourite place is the boathouse on the lake.

It’s so relaxing just to sit and drink a nice chilled Sauvignon Blanc and watch the boats go by.

But, when you do it in a heat wave, your drink starts to boil in ten minutes and then so do your brains. Doh! Not my best idea last weekend. I’m still suffering from sun stroke!

But on the way back to my apartment, I thought what a good idea it would be to dance a little Tango first…

Not!!

Congratulations…

My son Joe and his beautiful girlfriend of four years have just announced their engagement.

That’s fantastic. You’re a great couple and have been for years. And it’s wonderful that Paula will join the family. She’s lovely.

But take your time, kids. Weddings are expensive 🙂

Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Walldorf…

Just before I came back to New York I paid a flying visit to Germany. Although I had been to Frankfurt a couple of times, this was my first opportunity to visit both Heidelberg and Walldorf. These towns have very interesting history.

My friend and colleague, Crispin Sheridan at SAP recommended a small hotel in Heidelberg. It was just wonderful! Die Hirschgasse is a small, luxury hotel with a 500 year history.

And I have to say, the food was outstanding. This is most certainly a place I’ll be coming back to with my wife (well, whenever I see her again!). Heidelberg has a very interesting history. It’s a small town of about 140,000 people and is world renowned for the famous Heidelberg press for paper and envelopes. It’s a very pretty place.

And the University of Heidelberg is one of the oldest in Europe (some say the oldest) dating back to 1386. Of course, the outstanding landmark, sitting 80 meters above the river Neckar, is Heidelberg castle.

John Le Carre’s novel, Absolute Friends, was set in Heidelberg.

Close by, in Walldorf, are the global headquarters of the world’s third largest software company, SAP. And yes, there is a link to the Astoria family and the famous New York hotel. But the actual spelling of the name is with two Ls

SAP was founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers and has a huge presence in the region (as well as the rest of business world… And most certainly in my life these days!).

Yes, I’ll definately be coming back to this part of the world as often as I can!

Devon, Cornwall and Eden…

Over the long weekend Tatiana and I decided to goo take a short break somewhere. Not unusual for as we’re separated so often we usually look forward to spending some quality time just the two of us.

This one was a little different though. I’m living mainly in New York right now. And my wife has just been promoted and… She has to go live in Geneva, Switzerland.

So, we checked our schedules and it turns out, we won’t see each other again now until September. So, with us both living outside the UK for a while, I thought I should try and do something in the UK that my wife has always wanted to do.

And she’s always wanted to go south to Devon and Cornwall. So it seemed like an ideal time to jet down to Exeter, rent a car and drive around the English Riviera.

We checked into a wonderful little boutique hotel with an excellent view of Torbay.

Torbay has a nice marina.

And a long boardwalk (can’t quick figure what that building with the pagoda style features are on the hill).

But the big surprise I had for Tatiana was that I had bought tickets for the world famous Eden project. Basically, you’re driving through this wonderful Cornish countryside and bang! You come across this.

It’s a global garden and it’s quite breathtaking. Recreated right there is a rain forest environment and also a Mediterranean environment housed inside huge “Biomes” as they are called in what used to be an old china clay pit.

If this next pic looks a little steamed over… It is. The shot was taken inside the rain forest Biome and the temperature was… Well, just like a rain forest!

And to prove the point that it is the real thing, they actually grow and package bananas for sale.

The temperature on the other side at the Mediterranean Biome was a little easier for Tatiana to handle.

These are vines growing grapes with some kind of weird shit going on with dancing bulls… and er… Stuff.

All manner of flora and forna is grown here.

And for all kinds of reasons.

One of the other Biomes had an exhibition called the Sexy Green Car Show. There was wonderful old Ford Prefect on show, the first car my father ever owned (and incidentally, where Douglas Adams took the name for the lead character in the Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.)

And as a contrast, one of the most modern (and green) cars on the planet. The hydrogen powered Morgan, LIFECar

This guy looked a little scary when we bumped into him.

But then a second look and we could see he was made from old washing machines and vacuum cleaners!

Eden project. Fascinating!

Afterwards we were ready for lunch and went to the wonderfully quaint village harbour of Mevagissey. This is still a working port so you can watch the fishing vessels coming in and out. I can recommend the ancient old pub, the Sharksfin.

The next day, on the way home, we stopped at Exeter, the ancient capital of Devon. Here we had a beer at the 17th century Prospect Inn.

After which, it was time to hop a jet back to Newcastle.

See you in September, Tatiana!

Cheers!

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, London, 2008

Seems like only five minutes since I was hanging out with my pal Jim Sterne at eMetrics, San Francisco and here we are again… eMetrics, London.

I love this conference. But really!

You have some of the smartest minds in online marketing from the vendor, agency and client side. So the networking and knowledge exchange is phenomenal. In my own way, I try to impart a little knowledge about search (and perhaps, even a little wisdom from time-to-time). And in return I soak up the anecdotes, case studies and data like a sponge.

As ever, Belgian analytics superstar Rene was there with the chocolates (and cigarettes – but no dear wife of mine, I never smoke… Honest!).

The great man himself had a wonderful idea for the London show: an eMetrics version of American Idol session. And duly, with the panel assembled, Jim kicked off with his own rap version of the hokey-cokey… “Left hand in, left hand out… Put your hands in the air for Santa Barbara, then you turn around…”

And then he stunned the audience as he segued his rap into a rousing finish as he hit the crescendo in Nessun Dorma!

After much debate by the panel, who had cleverly tagged everyone in the audience with JavaScript so that they could get real time results, it was decided to let Jim win. That way they could get to the hotel bar much quicker…

The sessions started proper with Neil mason recollecting a metrics case study from when he was a boy. It was about a fish. “Anyway, it was this big…”

Seriously, once again the conference was a complete winner. It’s always great to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Here’s me with industry stalwart Danny Meadows Klue, Jim Sterne and Adam Cox.

And of course, I have to have one shot of the audience so they can link to it 😉

Well done Mr Sterne, yet another sensational show!

Okay time to start revving up for SES, Toronto.

The peril of not checking your Facebook email is…

You may miss something very important like this from one of your buddies!

Sorry about that Joe… By the way, can we spend some of your VC money on Mojitos and Madames in San Jose 🙂