The atmosphere was electric!

Something about the sea air and the combination of an epic building, created a strong sense of excitement for all the attendees.

As SEOs, agencies, in-house and marketing professionals, it's been a difficult 18 months and you can tell. People are buzzing again, a bit like the old days when spam worked and SEOs thought they had discovered the back door into Google.

But that was then, and this is now.

The game has changed and everyone there knew it, and despite the casualties, it's changed for the better.

The SEO world is buzzing again, but this time it's legit.

There were talks about BIG Data, integrating social, New Universal Analytics but the main focus was content.

Actually this isn't correct; the main focus isn't on content. The main focus is moving past just standard content. The focus is on creativity and that's what was discussed.

Tech and BIG Data

To start with, I saw the DR. of Neuroscience turned Big Data specialist Doc Peter Passaro discussing ways of not only analysing big data, but actually visualising and looking at ways of making it useable.

What he spoke about highlighted areas within any marketing campaign that could be beneficial, from being able to use Natural Language Processing, to not only identifying keywords and positivity around brands, products or events, but also how it can be used to engage with niches and further identify with target markets.

Or at least that's what I took from it.

In this techy session, I also saw Majestic discuss how theymeasure the trust and influence put on people, software and websites. They then analyse it to give us metrics that we can use ourselves.

After the intensity of getting down with tech, in what seemed like a natural habitat for them (the studio theatre was dark and created a great intimate atmosphere, similar to watching a gig in a local venue or a comedian in somewhere like The Cockpit, in Leeds), I felt like my brain needed something different, something comprehensible and I needed to be spoken to.

LOMO

I stumbled into the corn exchange, which was also used for the exhibition stands. It created the necessary buzz this place needed and was the perfect place for topics like LoMo and Links discussions.

I stopped for the first of the LoMo sessions...

Spoken and controlled by Bridget Randolph of Distilled...This Lady knows her s**t!

I'm not one for blowing smoke, and there is one thing to be said for the clever use of PowerPoint that all the Distilled guys seem to of adopted, but Bridget managed to talk to a room full of professionals without a single patronising tone.

If there is one presentation you look at post conference, make it hers. If not just for the countless resources of "inexpensive" software that will help any small business achieve a mobile site that is optimised and will help create a long term strategy alongside it, but also for the endless facts in her presentation that will help you support the argument.

What a venue!

After this I headed to some creativity sessions in the Dome,

The Dome is an amazing theatre, with a fantastic stage in the centre, held in a room that is steeped in Brighton's rich history.

The next presentation helped me with the art of seduction.

This is not something I find comfortable admitting... I've been a cold caller, then a techy, now a techy account manager, so I have always thought I'm pretty well versed for the art of outreach, sales and general marketing.

But Danny Ashton was introducing me to something new, the concept of using seduction to sell is not a new one, but the idea of using it in content marketing, in niche identification and further-more seeing it not as a short "one night stand, but as a life-time commitment" is a great concept.

Danny proposes we stop looking at seduction as a route to a one night stand, but instead as the first stage in a long and meaningful relationship,

Using this same methodology, we can look at our outreach and engagement with webmasters, media owners, journalists and other influencers in the same light.

But the one that spoke to me more than anything else was about honesty.

We've all done it, created a persona or outreached under a pseudonym in order to obtain links...but what happens to the relationship afterwards?

It's a "hit and quit it" attitude, which only leads to short term results, but by building up positive relationships with the people we are negotiating with, we are more likely to get a better deal, or get introduced to one of their friends, or even get free promotion if we start every relationship with honesty.

The Epic Write-up Continues Read Part Two: The Age Old Battle