By Bill Slawski, on June 22nd, 2005Hello everyone.
If you’ve found this blog, you’ve probably seen an announcement about SEO by the SEA.
The people behind this event are Bill Slawski of Cre8asite Forums and Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal. Loren suggested around a month or so ago that we try to put together some type of summer time get-together for people who work on the web, and pay a lot of attention to search engines.
The phrase “SEO by the SEA” jumped into my mind, and I suggested that we try to find a nice spot somewhere near the ocean for people to gather and meet, share some good food and drink, and engage in some conversation. I also volunteered to put up a web site to give people more information about the event. Here’s the web site, and we’ve agreed upon a place:
Location : Havre de Grace, MD (39 miles northeast of Baltimore and 45 miles south of Philadelphia; easily accessible from I-95 or Route 40)
Havre de Grace, is French for “Habor of Grace,” and it’s the town that Loren and I work in. It also seemed like a nice place for people to converge. It’s filled with Bed and Breakfasts, sailboats, restaurants, antique and craft shops, a great golf course, museums, and more.
The town got its name after it was visited several times by General Lafayette during the revolutionary war. He told people that the town reminded him of the French seaport, Le Havre. Havre de Grace is located where the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay, and in 1791 it almost became the Capital of the United States of America (some swampland further south was selected instead).
This hamlet only has a handful of buildings from before 1812, after the British sailed up the Chesapeake, and sacked the town, burning all but a few of the buildings down. It’s host to one of the oldest lighthouses in continual operation on the East Coast, and is known as the Decoy Capital of the World because of a Decoy Museum, master carvers living in the area, and ducks and geese that often walk around town.
When: August 19th (evening), 20th and 21st
Friday August 19th, 2005:
Make-it-if-you-can Dinner / Pubmeet
Saturday August 20th, 2005:
Breakfast & Discussion (possibly a speaker)
Tour of Havre de Grace
Attend Havre de Grace Art Festival (250 artists displaying their crafts on Saturday and Sunday)
Lunch & Discussion (possibly a speaker)
Free Time
Chartered 2 hour Chesapeake Bay / Susquehannah River Tour on the Skipjack Martha Lewis
Dinner and Night on the Town
Sunday August 21st, 2005:
So Long Brunch
Accomodations: I’ll be adding information about B&B’s and hotels/motels over the next few days and weeks, as well as more about some of the events happening in Havre de Grace that weekend, and some of the places to see and things to do.
Costs: Food, Boat Tour, Goodies
We hope that you can attend. If you are interested, please contact Loren or me, or leave a comment
“SEO By The Sea” Event In August
SS SES, an idea for a cruise ship version of Search Engine Strategies, never happened. Well, if you’ve a hankering for salt air and the smell of SEO in the morning, SEO By The Sea IS happening in Maryland from Aug. 19-21. A Friday dinner, Saturday mor…
I’m a Havre de Grace native (Nikki Languis), now living in Florida. Imagine my delight to learn about the SEO-by-the-Sea meet up! Originally, I planned to come up for my favorite HdG holiday, July 4th, but decided to wait until the end of July to attend a HdG high school alumni reunion. Now I will happily stay until after the August event!
I spent 2003 & 6 months of 2004 in HdG, settling a family estate after the death of my cousin. It was a long year and a half, and I wish I knew there were other SE marketers in town as I certainly would have enjoyed a get-together with my peers.
I’m looking forward to meeting you. And thanks for organizing this event. If I can be of any help, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Nikki Languis Amelse
Excellent News, Nikki. I’m looking forward to meeting you, too.
I think that you just missed our arrival in Havre de Grace. The office relocated to the City in the late spring of 2004. This is going to be my first summer in town, and I’m sure that the event would be richer with your participation. I’ll be in touch. Thanks for the gracious offer.
I am in downtown Bawlmer and interested in coming – at least for the Friday night pub meet. I hope to be recovered from SES by them.
Ethan
Nikki and Ethan,
Great to hear that you all are planning on coming. Bill and I will be talking with some restaurants about group reservations and deals on drinks for Friday (ha!). Nikki, Bill tells me you know of some places in Perryville.
I was thinking the Dock Bar at MacGregors and then Coakleys for Friday night, but if you have any suggestions and someone can figure out a way to cross the Susquehannah River after having about 3 or 4 drinks, please let us know.
Best, Loren
Ahoy Bill and Loren. SEO By The Sea sounds like a great conference. Helping website owners navigate the ocean of the internet, avoiding rocks and shoals, and arriving safely in port at the top of the search engine rankings is a worthy idea. Anchors Aweigh.
Thanks, Wayne.
Always a pleasure to see friends stop by. Us folks who work on the web have so much in common, that it makes sense to share notes, and to help each other navigate across the web. Appreciate your kind words.
Loren & Bill,
Yeah, I guess we’d need a designated driver to gather at the Rendezvous in Perryville. McGregor’s is fun and they have some good music on occasion, plus (if you like oysters)their “Angels on Horseback” are delicious! That’s reason enough for me to go there :] I think Coakley’s has a DJ on weekends –it’s very loud, and usually very crowded on weekends — it should be fun!
I haven’t seen a post telling us how much this get-together is going to cost. Any idea yet? How many people do you expect to attend?
Nikki
Hi Nikki,
Those do sound like good options.
There is no cost for the get-together, unless you want to join us on the Skipjack Martha Lewis. To defray the costs on that, we are charging $10, which is a little less than the charge on the public trips that it makes on some days.
I’m not sure yet on the number of attendees. I’ll be sending out some press releases to some of the local papers over the next couple of days, to see if we can get some offline marketing interest.
Thanks. I’m looking forward to meeting you.
Ok. Count me in on the Skipjack charter.
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[...] You have been to the SEO by the SEA meeting(s) [...]
[...] This week I spotted my first appearance in a blogroll. Bill Slawski has added me to his blogroll at the marvy and authoritative SEO by the Sea. I love knowing that Bill’s blog started off by announcing a gathering. Now that’s my kind of blogville. [...]
[...] The SEO by the Sea blog was originally launched out of an idea to put together something smaller, more comfortable, and more local. [...]
Let me know when the next one is.. I have a few friends and we’re interested in attending. We’re actually meeting today I’ll bring it up.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Hi Robert,
I’m not sure if there will be another SEO by the Sea gathering, but I appreciate your interest in attending.
The original impetus behind this blog was to announce a get together in 2005, and we had one then. But it hasn’t been an ongoing thing.
It would be great to hear more from you, and to share ideas.
Thanks.
Sure William, give me a message on AIM – screenname = nForc3
I’m on right now.
Hi Robert,
Been trying to stay away from IM.
Emails are good – bill at seo by the sea.com