For the last few years, I've been part of a shadowy underground network of SEO's who operate from the San Francisco bay area. It's an informal thing - once every month or two we take over the back room of some bar, share some cocktails, and talk shop.
Many of us knew each other online from places like WebmasterWorld before meeting face to face. Roger Monti, AKA Martinibuster, and I corresponded for a while through the Google forum on WMW before realizing that we lived one block from each other in the Mission.
Well, our humble little network is growing. On Friday evening, we got together on the roof deck at Medjool, and we must have had thirty people there. It was a good mix of locals and out of towners - Laura Lippay (in house SEO at Yahoo) was the organizer, and other locals included Natasha Robinson (Fox Interactive), Todd Malicoat / Stuntdubl (Clientside), Tony Adam (PayPal), Jessica Bowman, Ethan Hays (Healthline), Kris Keimig, Lorna Li, Jacob Morgan, Aris Vlasakakis, and Marshall Clark. We also had guest appearances from Rand Fishkin (SEOMOz) who notably did Yelp's SEO and Lauren Vaccarello who is bringing SEO to Forex, who were in town as speakers at SMX.
The SEO scene out here is thriving. If any SW readers need intros to local SEOs, I'd be happy to help. There are some good ones out here.
Hey Lawrence,
It was great hanging out on Friday. I hope to see you at my search marketing salon event on the 27th. It's nearby in SF, by Union Square.
To rsvp go here: http://searchmarketingsalon.eventbrite.com
Don't forget to help spread the word!
See you soon.
Jacob
Posted by: Jacob Morgan | March 02, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Hey Lawrence,
It was great hanging out on Friday. I hope to see you at my search marketing salon event on the 27th. It's nearby in SF, by Union Square.
To rsvp go here: http://searchmarketingsalon.eventbrite.com
Don't forget to help spread the word!
See you soon.
Jacob
Posted by: Jacob Morgan | March 02, 2008 at 10:47 PM
Good meeting you the other day. I definitely love these little meetups, you're always walking away having met a few good people and sometimes, some valuable information.
Posted by: Kris Keimig | March 19, 2008 at 11:06 AM