One day instead of working I went to SES Hamburg (a leading search engine conference, a side note for the uninitiated) to have some fun.
I showed off my fair trade Panama hat (yes, I tricked you, I don’t actually wear sombreros!) and enjoyed telling 150+ people about social media.
Now as a man of business I always measure the ROI of everything, like in “the ROI of playing 30 minutes with my daughter: 5 smiles and 2 hugs” ;-)
Thus I decided to reflect upon the ROI or rather the top 10 benefits of wasting my precious time as a Search Engine Strategies speaker.
Please keep in mind that I was only there for a few hours, so the outcome might seem more poor than it really is:
- Being told by a renowned blogger and marketer that he is a “huge fan of my blog”
- Meeting people from the largest national publishing houses who “want to do something with blogging and/or social media” and want me to ***
- Getting lots of business cards by business people who want to do “some social media business” with me, at least 5 wanted to work with me on such projects, damn, I need to find time to write them all.
- Getting a job offer for full time employment for a “big corporate client”, I still have to decline it (if I’d reply to every message instantly I would never have the time to blog) I actually prefer self-employment and independence
- Eavesdropping on the competition by flattering them
- Meeting my clients who normally pay me without ever bothering me besides that
- Actually feeling like an expert. You don’t unless 150+ people really listen to you without throwing things at you.
- Getting a day off: Come on, the SES was vacation for me, it wasn’t work at all. I felt like a newborn (as we say in Germany)
- Getting an authority link from SES, hey we’re doing SEO here after all ;-)
- Getting free food (I’m not a gourmet at all, despite the “Chef” in my name, but the food was not what I expected, sorry)
All in all, you clearly see that search engine conferences are, similar to social media and blogging, a complete waste of time. I want my money back!