Australian SEO Conference StealthCon

Australian Search, whilst a small industry, has a group of very passionate individuals who go to great lengths to meet like minded people and talk about the current state of play in the Search Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation industries.

After hearing about the success of events like PubConference and SES being held in the US and the UK, Chris Dimmock (Chris_D) and Warwick Bone (Woz) have organised StealthCon, a series of events for webmasters and SEOs to come together for beer, networking and a good old chin wag.

I interviewed Woz about the up-coming StealthCons.

So how did you guys come up with the idea of StealthCon?

StealthCon follows the original concept of PubConference, which was the first informal gathering of SEO Webmasters for drinks and networking in the UK. What started out as an innocent “wanna get together for a drink?” ended up as quite a large number of people converging on a Pub in the UK to talk the hours away. Many friendships and business relationships were formed in that initial event, which has been replicated in various forms around the world.

The idea of an Australian event had been floating around in my head for some time, and I suspect the same was the case for Chris, but we had been too busy to organise anything. Then Chris started the whole thing off last year by organising a dinner and drinks session to coincicde with a visiti to Australia by Shak, a well-known international operator in the Adwords arena at the time. 

This year we decided to organise things properly starting with the Melbourne event earlier this year. We figured that the format worked so why change anything. Besides, most Aussies traditionally go to the pub on Friday nights anyway, so Stealthcon is really just a formalisation of current 'industry best practice'.

You have held the Melbourne StealthCon, judging from that, how are you expecting Sydney and Brisbane to go?

From the response so far I suspect both Sydney and Brisbane will go very well.

How do you think StealthCon has impacted on people in the search industry in Australia and what can people expect to see/hear/find out at these types of gatherings?

Impact = networking and camaraderie. Australia is such a far flung country and SEO is such a small part of it, just being able to meet up with comrades and put faces to names, and names to nics, is a big plus.

The question is not what people can expect to take away, rather what they can bring. Often in the middle of a seemingly innocent discussion, someone will say something that will set off a few light bulbs in people’s minds. Those moments are what it is all about. But you have to give to receive.

So how do you think Search in Australia is different to say the US or the UK and does this come up at your events?

Hmmm, SEO is SEO, the world over. There can be major differences with non-English speaking countries, but with Aus, apart from the culture, there is not much difference. Spelling and words are different, something you have to think about depending on target country, but basic techniques are the same. Hence, what we discuss is pretty much the same the world over.

So can anyone interested in search come to your events, do you have to register or can you just turn up and chat (and drink)?

Sure. Anyone interested in Search Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation is welcome. Registration is not necessary, but prior notification to woz@stealthcon.com would be appreciated for numbers.

The next StealthCon is being held at the Belgian Beer Cafe – The Rocks, Sydney 2nd June 2006, from 5PM onwards.

The Brisbane event is TBA so keep your eyes peeled and be sure to visit http://www.stealthcon.com/ for updates.