SMX Israel was one of the best and most fun conferences I’ve been at in a long time. And I’m not the only one who thinks that – I’ve only heard and read enthusiastic responses from the participants. It’s hard to explain why we all had such a good time; maybe it was the size of the crowd, the energy, the vibe, the speakers, the food (oh, the food). But all conferences have those characteristics to some extent. For some reason it all came together into pure awesomeness.
Funny Speakers
There’s lots to talk about from the conference – the tips, the tools, the companies that were there, covering everything: SEO, SEM, PPC, social media marketing, link building, content strategy, etc. But what I think I enjoyed the most, aside from running into so many AMAZING people, was that many speakers made me laugh.
I got to the conference late, of course, since I was working on my presentations at the last minute, as I always do. (It’s an illness.) So the first funny speaker I heard was Gil Reich, who never fails to amuse. Then there was Michael King, who flew in from the US to be at SMX! He was hilarious…and educational, all at the same time.
I think that Gil and Michael warmed up the crowd, so it made it relatively easy to get the audience to laugh during my talk – and laugh they did (thank God). And then there was Marty Weintraub. This guy is in his 50s (he told us in his talk!), and has more energy than all my kids combined. He definitely keeps you interested and entertained.
Overall, there was just a good, positive air at the event. Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick), the event chair, of course deserves TONS of credit for taking the leap into the Israeli conference scene in 2008 with the mini SEO conference, SphinnCon. That first get-together was about 150 people, and every year it has grown. Kudos also to all the organizers and sponsors, for making it all happen.
The Story
Lots was tweeted, blogged, presented, photographed, etc. during and after the conference. So I curated a lot of it in the following Storify board. I’ll be updating it as more SMX Israel related info is published.
