The Raleigh SEO Meetup is “the most successful SEO meetup in the United States”. They hold monthly meetings with a mix of small business owners, agency folk, and corporate employees in attendance, and focus on actionable advice instead of just theory. This is one of the reasons they’ve been doing so well.
I was honored to be asked to speak with my buddy Cole Watts for their September event. This was a really nice surprise as I’ve never spoken at an event before but had always wanted to! The topic was “Create the Ultimate SEO Toolbelt”, and I was to focus on more generic tools (Cole was focusing specifically on Chrome extensions).
Over the few weeks before the event I put together a quick slideshow and rehearsed the deck. The next thing I knew I was sitting in the parking lot at the event with a flash drive of the presentation in my hand. When it was time to speak, I went up in front of the crowd (of ~20 people?) and was a bit taken off guard.
There were some serious spotlights shining in my face from one side, which were really hot. They were recording the presentation. The speaker notes were on an iPad, which I had to manually advance with one hand, and I had my clicker in the other hand. I was hoping to have my beer in one hand but that ended up being not in the cards!
Despite all that, it went pretty well. I didn’t forget too much of my presentation and I didn’t feel like I was too nervous or ramble-y. All in all, a great experience and I hope to speak at more events in the future! The video and slideshow are below. Enjoy!
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