SEOfrancois

This is a utility post for anyone going to a4uexpo and looking for some above average food... especially steak:

• The best place in town is called "Zum Goldenen Kalb" - Utzschneidertr.1 80469 München. The filet is just as juicy as the best you'd get in the US... and the spinach... don't even get me started on the spinach! (and it's MMWYE approved ;)
• The Hilton Am Tucherpark hotel restaurant is also pretty decent. The filet is less awesome than am Goldenen Kalb but the lentils... yes the lentils... are just the best I ever had! Seriously!

Note: if you wonder what's up with spinach, lentils and slow carbs in general, check out the 4 hour body book by Tim Ferris ;)

Other places of interest:

• Cafe Rischart am Marienplatz for all sorts of cakes ;)
• There's also that awesome Spatenhaus an der Oper (near the Opera) with the insane schnitzl... some of the best I ever had ;)

I'm speaking at SMX Paris 2010. I'm actually giving a presentation in 3 different sessions:

• Architecturer un Site - june 15th, 12:00
• Un design web optimisé pour les moteurs de recherche - june 15th, 15:30
• Contenu dupliqué et tag "canonical" - june 16th 11:30

I am pretty excited for this is the first time SMX comes to Paris... I'm also eager to meet the French SEO scene and see what they have to say about the poor state of search in France...

Link: http://www.a4uexpo.com/europe/

I'll be speaking at A4U expo in Munich (May 18-19th, 2010).

I'll be on the super affiliate panel on Day 2 about "Tips to Increase Productivity & Profit". Pretty exciting!

I guess I'll leave the tech tips to the other panelists and focus on some hugely underrated secrets... including... marshmallows! (I kid you not!)

Day 2 of CAC started way too early for my taste as I had my presentation scheduled at 9 a.m. Not to mention it's equally hard to get attendees out of bed in the morning hours after the first night of partying... but we finally joined forces with Peter van der Graaf and our joint session ended up "just as crowded as a Day 1 session" :))

Anyways, I got some good feedback on my Outsourcing talk (please contact me if you want a copy of the powerpoint) which always makes it worth the effort of putting it together in the first place.

The afternoon was dedicated to panels in the Grand Ballroom. I was a panelist on the first one and the accoustics were so bad it was basically impossible to hear the questions from the audience. Kinda defeats the purpose of Q&A panels. After a couple of hours of this, no wonder some panelists gave up...

Anyways, was fun to meet up with some nice folks. In addition to yesterday, I also want to shout out to Bas van den Beld and Nichola Stott !

See you next time, somewhere... :)

Last time I was in Amsterdam - for A4U + AAC last year - it was Queen's Day. There was A LOT going on! People and colors everywhere...

This year, we're one week early for Queen's day apparently... and you can really feel the difference! The streets feel so empty!

More surprinsingly, the sessions at CAC feel empty too. It seems not a lot of attendees are coming to the sessions - any session! Yet, the content is of pretty high quality. So far, we are definitely at A4U or SES levels regarding SEO content... Something you wouldn't necessarily expect from a Casino conference...

I definitely enjoyed the sessions I attended today including Christoph Cemper (great link building tips as usual), Frank Watson and Gary Beal.

However, I think the highlight of the day for me was to meet Sébastien Monnier (who was giving a presentation on behalf of his company 1ère position). I wish there were more French SEOs like him. I mean people who really know what they are talking about! I might even end up reconsidering my rant about how France is a 3rd world country as far as Search is concerned :p

Also had some nice chats with Peter van der Graaf, Mathieu Burgerhout, Matteo Monari & more...

My own presentation is tomorrow morning at 9 am! It's insanely early... and if I had had a choice, I defintely would have presented at a different time (I'm also on a panel in the afternoon btw)... Nonetheless, I think the content will be worth getting up that early, if you're brave enough! ;)

Okay, back to powerpoint ironing! :p