Top 10 Surprises at SMX Advanced 2009

1. Matt Cutts declaring a change in direction for how Google reads no-follow - Is this really the case, or Google again trying to discourage us from doing things that can potentially ‘game’ their PageRank algorithm.
2. Sheer number of attendees – yes it was a small conference compared to others I attended, but I had planned on it being even smaller. Between the constant word from SMX that the conference would sell out fast (turned out to be a great marketing pitch) and the small number of people who registered on SMX connect, I was expecting half the audience that was there.
3. In-house vs. agency – The vast majority of attendees work in-house for companies rather than at agencies. This was really surprising to me. I guess it wasn’t a big surprise for the SMX crew as they had a full day of in-house activities following the closing of the conference.
4. Amount of ‘grey hat’ techniques discussed – in the more informative sessions there were frequent mentions of tactics that could be done which were obviously not entirely ethical. Of course there were those on the panels that swore that they would never do anything that would even remotely be deemed un-cool by Google or any other party…
5. Danny Sullivan – great guy, very friendly, entertaining, and knowledgeable. There are a lot of ‘rockstars’ in the Internet Marketing industry, but he really is a veteran with charisma truly fitting of the title.
6. Marty Weintraub – his sheer craziness comes through in his blog posts and commentary but I now feel like I understand the method to his madness. His session on SEO Ranking Factors 2009 was thoroughly enjoyable and informative. It also left me very curious to know specifics on how he approaches projects, conducts analysis, etc. You could tell that he has a very sophisticated approach which left me wanting to know more.
7. Google = cheapskate – despite the fact that they virtually control the Internet, and are hugely profitable thanks in large part to this audience, you would think they would give up some cool swag. Garbage as usual. Not a big surprise here, but still worth mentioning.
8. Bing – looks like a major step forward for Microsoft with some cool features, a catchy name, and a sizable marketing budget. The launch party was great complete with fun appetizers that required several sentences to explain, light-up ice cubes in the drinks, and a ‘poor man’s Cirque de Soleil. Oh, and they actually gave out free t-shirts (unlike the ungrateful crew at Google =/). Despite all of  this, you could still feel in the air that people don’t really take Bing seriously or see much coming from it.
9. No rain in Seattle – the weather was actually gorgeous!
10. Link juice doesn’t pass through airport security – just for future reference, you can’t pass through airport security with a can of seoMoz Link Juice… =/

Tagged as: SMX Advanced