« « Previous: 2008 Charlotte Wordcamp – I am presenting!
Next: SEO works! Ask this Toledo Ohio HVAC Business! » »

What I liked about Charlotte WordCamp 2008

November 17th, 2008 View Comments

After spending an entire week running around NYC and Massachusetts visiting with friends, it was time to head back home to good ole Charlotte, NC, on Saturday, November 15, 2008.

I was scheduled to fly home on Saturday evening, but when I realized it was the same day as Charlotte WordCamp 2008, I was not happy.  Just a few weeks before, Jason Keath had asked me to present, so I just knew I had to get there earlier.

So I woke up at 4:45 AM and my sister took me to the bus stop in Framingham, MA.  From there, I took a 30 minute bus ride to Logan Airport in Boston.  Thankfully, I got on an early flight and drove straight to the Charlotte Observer, where I made it to Charlotte WordCamp around noon.

I got in just in time to hear someone ask a question about search engines.  Jason was kind enough to point over to me and I was answering a question as soon as I walked in.

I know I missed the first half, but I just had to post about why this was such an awesome event…

1.  Charlotte Observer hosted it.  I can’t emphasize enough how impressive this was to me.  The Charlotte Observer was founded in 1869.  It is the largest newspaper in terms of circulation in all of the Carolinas. 

For them to be open to a “New Media” event, is a real credit to them!

2.  Jason Keath was a fantastic host.  Running an event like this is not easy.  But he made it look easy.  To his credit, he got the ball rolling and let it take shape naturally.  (Much like the Internet, New Media, and Social Media tends to do.)

3.  Charlotte was due.  I strongly believe that the Charlotte area is a great place to live and work.  Many of us love being near this great city, and working online.  There are so many bloggers and others that are just waiting to attend these sorts of things.

4.  Great conversations!  Everywhere I turned I saw people shaking hands and smiling.  So many of us have only met on Twitter.  It’s nice to see the actual humans that reside behind those avatars.

5.  Good information.  I’ve attended several events like this in much larger venues, such as Blog World Expo, New Media Expo, Search Engine Strategies, and PubCon.  Those are much larger (typically in Vegas) and honestly draw in better speakers.  But the Charlotte WordCamp was fantastic for its size.  Many good points were made that will likely help many in attendance. 

Personally, I think each time an event like this is held, the content will only get better.  I know our SEO Meetups in Charlotte get better every month.  I’m sure Charlotte WordCamp and other events like this will be the same.

Popularity: 19% [?]

  • Thanks for your kind words. I hope to meet you someday in person.
  • Hey Corey,

    I was letting @93octane know what he missed from the event. I told him that the Promotion Panel was great. You brought up @garyvee in your speech, and your approach to the presentation reminded some of @garyvee. Your enthusaism and realism to the topic of being successful at social media comes across as very genuine. you give great nuggets of info and then are not afraid to self promote...that is what the best in social media do. I look forward to your next presentation! ~ richtucker
  • Thanks for the tip, Chris. Nice to hear from you.

    We use Akismet (that comes with WordPress) and it seems to work well enough for us - at least for now.
  • Sounds like a lot of fun - sounds like you're going to need another vacation after all of that travelling, too! One thing I wanted to point out real quick. During that last SEO Meetup, someone was talking about blog comment spam and people were tossing around ideas of how to combat it.

    I use an interesting plug-in on my blogs that has been doing well so far, I just couldn't remember the name. Found it now - WP-SpamFree (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-spamfree/).

    It uses a combination of cookies and JS (bots generally have a tough time with them - much less handling both together), and it's caught several spam comments for me so far, and without disrupting the enduser (no captchas, challenge questions, etc). Just thought I'd pass it along!
  • Wow. Sounds interesting.
  • I'm working on a project to pull a more experienced audience and host a good SEO/SEM conference. (ala EliteRetreat.info)

    Stay tuned for more info...
  • My pleasure. I am really looking forward to the next big thing in Charlotte. I think this is just the beginning.
  • jak
    Thanks for the great writeup on the event Corey. I think Charlotte was due as well. Looking forward to improving on this and other future events.

    And thanks for making it back in time to contribute, much appreciated.
  • Thanks. Glad to meet you.
  • Hi Corey,
    Thanks for taking the steps to come back and talk at Wordcamp. Loved your tips on SEO and balancing life. In particular, you mentioned focus.
    I kept it in mind while working Sunday on a class paper on findability (not quite SEO, but a close cousin).
    Again, thanks. You came across as a real person, not just a new-media marketer.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Want to learn about Internet Marketing?

Hippo Internet Marketing Training now offers training classes in the Lake Norman and Charlotte, North Carolina regions.
Topics include search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, blogging, website analytics, and other Internet marketing topics.

Click here to learn more about our Charlotte area Internet marketing classes.