I was one of the few lucky ones to attend the Search Engine Marketing Conference (SEMCON) in Manila a week ago. Yes, I flew all the way from Davao City to attend it. And I’m glad to say it was worth it! The SEMCON was organized by my SEO expert/friend Marc Macalua of SEO Philippines.
The event was attended by many SEO practitioners, enthusiasts and even bloggers whom I’ve only previously encountered through the Internet. It’s nice to finally meet them in person! On the first day, I got to meet some fellow members of SEO.ph, in particular Mike Lopez, Ely Apao, Zaldy Dalisay, Benj Arriola, Abel Quitoriano and Jason Torres.
(I think Jason took this pic)
And of course, I hung out with bloggers Aileen Apolo, Noemi Dado, Juned, Jayvee Fernandez, Anton Diaz and Abe Olandres.
Let’s get to the speakers. It was interesting that Aaron Wall keynoted the first day, and had a Q&A session right after! Good for us though, because he was able to answer a lot of burning questions about SEO. His wife Giovanna Wall gave a very good talk about how she carved her own niche and made money out of it.
Jayvee Fernandez gave a talk on Web Copyrighting. IMO, the best talk at SEMCON! Not only was it engaging, it was a wakeup call to SEO’s. SEO isn’t just about optimizing keywords and grabbing links. SEO also entails writing that is compelling and convincing.
Ok, it’s a two-way tie, because Benj’s talk on SEO for Megasites is at the top of my list as well. Hmm. I don’t have a pic of Benj in my camera.
Other notable speakers included Rhiza Sanchez, who spoke about creative linkbaiting tactics, Abe Olandres on Managing your Online Reputation, Todd Malicoat on linkbaiting, Google’s Derek Callow on PPC and Adwords and Joel Sangria on Analyzing Google Analytics.
If you missed the SEMCOM, you can download the audio file of each speaker here.
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October 16th, 2007 at 3:33 am
That’s Karla (of rockersworld.com) in the 3rd photo.
I was there too. It was a good event.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:46 am
Thanks Noel! Updated the post.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:35 am
huhuhu…kuya nakakainggit ka.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:56 am
It was great we hanged out even for just an hour. I hope I can visit Davao one day.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:08 am
See you again in Davao next week!
October 16th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Where’s the photo of my Derek Callow?
October 18th, 2007 at 10:20 am
@Winston:
See ya at SEMCON 2!
@Noemi: Yup, lemme know if you’re visiting!
@Yuga: Indeed, one week to go!
@Ria: Wut? Jayvee’s gonna kill you. Lol.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:13 am
may i steal that picture?
see you in Davao!!!!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:53 am
If it wasn’t so darn expensive… :p
Glad you and the others had fun. I think Imma download all the talks so I can at least pick up some points.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Nice pics andrew