SMX Sydney is an online marketing conference held once a year (I’ll let you guess where!) which showcases great speakers from Australia and abroad. I’ve attended three and each was unique in topic and timely content, as covered by industry experts. Here are 77 tools and tips I picked up in 2012 and a handful of insights from earlier this year (we also did a liveblog on day two – ask me another time about why day one didn’t get covered… it’s a funny story!). Some of my personal highlights from SMX Sydney 2013 included Brian White (Search Quality Team at Google) on “Google Webspam – What are they looking for?” and the two keynotes: Rand Fishkin (moz) on “Behavioural Psychology Meets Web Marketing” and Marty Weintraub (aimClear) on “Optimising Humans! The Art of Data-Driven Social Marketing”.
One of the cool parts about the conference is that you get to meet the speakers and mingle with like-minded industry folk. I was lucky enough to meet & interview two experts: Paddy Moogan (Distilled – 2013) and Mike King (iAcquire – 2012). Both interviews are well worth a read.
You also pick up inside information that you would rarely get on any other day. There’s always a little bit of extra gold, that extra link, that snippet of information that doesn’t come across your Twitter feed and that extra little tool can become useful in your online marketing arsenal.
As for next year, the speakers have yet to be decided – or at least no announcements have been made thus far. I thought I’d see if we can collectively help generate some interest and hopefully influence the organisers to bring out some of our favourite international speakers.
Who do we want to bring to Sydney from around the world?
I’ll kick off the ideas with a list of eight people who I would love to see. If you would like to add some to the list, please add your suggestions in the comments and I will happily add them. Nominate your speakers and then we’ll conduct a poll to decide who’s coming to our fantasy SMX.
Here’s my list of the speakers that I would really love to see:
Dr. Pete Meyers (Moz)
Do I really need an explanation here? Data Scientist to the stars… Dr Pete keeps his eyes on the SERPs like a hawk, makes a helluva lot of sense and will demonstrate why we need to behave like brands. His presentation at mozcon, “Beyond 10 Blue Links: The Future of Ranking” resonated well – check out his recent post on moz: “101 Google Answer Boxes: A Journey into the Knowledge Graph“. Oh yeah – and mozcast. Check that out.
Tweet at @dr_pete
Wil Reynolds (SEER Interactive)
What can I say? Australia wants you Wil… you need to be here as the keynote to share your wisdom and energy with our fellow Aussies. More than just RCS, Wil will provide knowledge to help you be a better marketer and how to win at life. Serious thought leadership right here. Plus, he was a highlight for me at mozcon!
Tweet at @wilreynolds
Justin Briggs (Briggsby)
Super savvy in terms of the full facet of digital marketing. Worked at Real Big Fish Games and now runs his own company. Will share interesting insights on how to acquire links via making great content. Check out his recent webinar “Scrappy Content Design: Content Marketing on a Budget“.
Tweet at @justinrbriggs
Ian Lurie (Portent, Inc.)
Genious. Random Affinities guy. Didn’t get to meet him at mozcon but hopefully Ian likes travelling. Recently wrote How to Create a Content Strategy (In Only 652 Steps) and produced this deck: Distance From Perfect – How to Treat Customers Like People and Make Google Happy.
Tweet at @portentint
Jonathan Coleman (Facebook)
Expert content strategist and recently joined the Content Strategy Team at Facebook. Would love to hear about how that looks from the inside and the process involved. Produces really amazing decks too – can’t pick a favourite so see ’em all!
Tweet at @jcolman
Kristina Halvorson (Brain Traffic)
Wrote “Content Strategy for the Web” and seems quite chirpy on Twitter. She can teach us a thing or two about how important it is to have consistent messaging across all consumer touch points on the web.
Tweet at @halvorson
Jon Cooper (Point Blank SEO)
Jon is young and really smart. Knows many clever techniques on how to build links and has even produced his own link building course. Met him at mozcon and he’s very switched-on.
Tweet at @pointblankseo
Jason Acidre (Xight Interactive)
A.k.a. Kaiser the Sage, he’s another great in the link building space and he wouldn’t have as far to travel as he’s based in the Philippines. Check out his recent moz post: “12 Scalable Link-Building Tactics“.
Tweet at @jasonacidre
Nathalie Nahai (The Web Psychologist)
The more you know about your audience, the better equipped you’ll be to kick ass online. Nathalie can show us how to influence customers by understanding who we’re targeting so we can communicate persuasively and sell to them with integrity – so that they keep coming back!
Tweet at @thewebpsych
Sha Menz (Rmoov)
She’s local and her knowledge and experience when it comes to link removals, black and white animals, reconsideration requests and cookies is paramount. Yes, she bakes SEO cookies. She spoke at mozcon this year (representing Australia) and can tell you straight what needs to be done if you’ve been pinged by the big G.
Tweet at @shahmenz
Thoughts from the experts
I asked some expert online marketers from around Australia to share their thoughts and here they are!
Bespoke’s Jason Mun
Martin Macdonald (Expedia)
Think in-house SEO, Martin comes to mind. It would be totally awesome to have Martin talk/discuss about SEO from an in-house perspective. He is opinionated and not afraid to speak his mind, would be great to see him in the flesh.
Tweet at @searchmartin- Justin Briggs (Briggsby)
Justin in my mind is one of the best in the industry, his approach to SEO and content marketing is great. His experience from being in an agency, in-house and most recently running his own business, definitely puts him on the list of speakers that I would like to see at SMX next year.
Tweet at @justinrbriggs 
Richard Baxter (SEO Gadget)
I saw Richard and shared a drink with him at SMX Melbourne. When it comes to actionable takeaways from conferences, Rich is great at that (anyone from SEOgadget for that matter). Every single one of his presentations provide exceptional depth and detail which is exactly what conference attendees love.
Tweet at @richardbaxter- Wil Reynolds (SEER Interactive)
The MAN behind #RCS. It would be amazing to have Will present all things #RCS at SMX next year. I think businesses and marketers would benefit from getting showered with some #RCS love. SEO is so much more than “link building”, I think Will would do a great job at communicating that.
Tweet at @wilreynolds 
Matt Cutts (Google)
2013 has been a crazy year of updates/changes. It would be awesome if Matt can make an appearance, in a Q&A style segment at SMX next year. I think there a lot of SEO’s and marketers in Australia who have questions and are constantly seeking advice. Be nice to get all of these queries answered/debunked by the man himself.
Tweet at @mattcutts
Web Site Advantage’s Tony McCreath
David Amerland
Semantic Search is all the fashion and he wrote a book on it.
Tweet at @DavidAmerland
Mark Traphagen (Virante)
Google Authorship is also in fashion.
Tweet at @marktraphagen
Duane Forrester (Bing)
Entertaining and gives us an inside search engine view – and Bing may find out there are people outside the USA.
Tweet at @duaneforrester
Mike Blumenthal (Blumenthals)
I’m into local search and he’s the man. He may find it interesting how it is different here.
Tweet at @mblumenthal- Matt Cutts (Google)
He wants to meet me.
Tweet at @mattcutts
Dejan SEO’s Dan Petrovic
John Mueller (Google)
He spends a lot of time helping webmasters with search related issues. Being a webmaster trends analyst he really knows what’s up in the SEO community.
Tweet at @johnmu
Alistair Lattimore (The Mantra Group)
He’s usually at SMX, rolling his eyes at how basic the content is. This guy is a knowledge vault and best of all he’s a local!
Tweet at @alattimore- Jon Cooper (Point Blank SEO)
Jon is the author of the most comprehensive guide to link building ever to exist. He knows a few things about link building.
Tweet at @pointblankseo 
Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal)
He’s is the man behind the raging success that is The Oatmeal. He can share his experience of making content go viral.
Tweet at @Oatmeal- Dr. Pete Meyers (Moz)
Pete spends a lot of time looking at data. What SMX needs is more data-driven SEO content with some fresh insights.
Tweet at @dr_pete
Also, don’t forget to check out Dan’s epic wishlist he shared on Google+.
Online Marketing Company’s James Norquay
- Wil Reynolds (SEER Interactive)
Wil is one of the top link builders and he is a fantastic presenter, and usually does key note presentations.
Tweet at @wilreynolds 
Aleyda Solis (SEER Interactive)
Aleyda works with Wil at SEER, would be great too see a presentation on international search from Aleyda.
Tweet at @aleyda- Martin Macdonald (Expedia)
Martin Macdonald is a veteran SEO and he has done a whole bunch of presentations around the world. It would be good too see him live.
Tweet at @searchmartin 
Neil Patel (Entrepreneur)
Neil Patel is a great business person, blogger and Entrepreneur, would be great too see him live.
Tweet at @neilpatel
Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post)
As the founder of Huffington Post, she did a fantastic presentation at INBOUND conference.
Tweet at @ariannahuff
Lost Press Marketing’s David Iwanow
Michael Jones (Holiday Point)
He is outspoken, really understands technical SEO and gets a good audience response based on the SEO meetups.
Tweet at @HolidayPointAU
Zac Martin (CumminsRoss)
He is outspoken, smart and loves marketing.
Tweet at @zacmartin
Mel Carson (Delightful)
He is a great speaker, ex-Microsoft advertising and book author and good bloke.
Tweet at @MelCarson
Ramsay Taplin (Blog Tyrant)
Makes money blogging.
Tweet at @blogtyrant
Ciaran Norris (Mindshare)
A smart outspoken marketer with a global agency.
Tweet at @ciaranj
Who would you like to see speak at SMX Sydney 2014?
Leave your speaker suggestions in the comments below. I’ll then tally up a leader board and we can create a poll with the most popular speakers. Now’s your chance to have a say – do it!
Here’s what people are saying so far…
@WojKwasi I second that, I’d buy a ticket just on @PointBlankSEO‘s attendance alone.
— John Rosato (@john_rosato) October 8, 2013
SMX Speakers for 2014 – http://t.co/maoS8Fukka via @KwasiStudios @jasonacidre we want you to be there man! #smx #seo
— Gary (@seoblacksmith) October 8, 2013
@john_rosato @WojKwasi Nice mention and I would agree with Jon’s attendance too http://t.co/PEF6V8Ivm2
— Grant Merriel (@GrantMerriel) October 8, 2013
“@dejanseo: @PointBlankSEO @john_rosato @WojKwasi About time you come to Australia Jon.” [Agreed]
— edmundpelgen (@edmundpelgen) October 8, 2013
@PointBlankSEO @dejanseo @edmundpelgen @john_rosato @WojKwasi get your ass to Oz! I’d break my self-imposed SEO conference ban to see you!
— roachdawg (@aaronroach) October 8, 2013
@PointBlankSEO @dejanseo @edmundpelgen @john_rosato @WojKwasi I’ll jump aboard this bandwagon. Australia definitely wants you here Jon.
— Nik Pasic (@NikPasic) October 8, 2013
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