My trip to Los Angeles for the Search Engine Strategies local conference was a real eye-opener for me as to how many big (and not so big) corporations view the Internet.

Amazingly (to me) there are huge companies paying no attention whatsoever to organic search engine optimization, while spending tens of thousands of dollars on Internet Yellow Pages, banner advertising, and pay per click. To many of the people I met, organic just wasn’t important, even though it a far larger source of traffic than any paid options.

Spots are filling up fast for the poker tournament this Thursday night in Las Vegas. Dr. David Klein has done a good job getting the word out, and there are some pretty big names in search playing. I’m not a big time poker player or anything, but it should be fun to hang out with them. Imagine the inbound links that winners will get…

At the upcoming SEMpdx sixpack event*, I was supposed to give a 15 minute talk about Blogs and RSS in a generic sort of way that might appeal to the broadest variety of users… Pardon me while I yawn for a minute.

The Oregon Computer Consultants Association will be holding their monthly meeting the Tuesday before Halloween.  This month the subject will be Windows Sharepoint services, which a lot of members have been asking about.

Unfortunately, I won’t be attending the SMX social media event in new York city next week, and now I’m even more disappointed.

I don’t think I’ve ever regretted not going to a specific event so much before, and not just because I’m missing great content, but because this is a great way to spend an evening in support of a good cause.

I’m going to be attending the Search Engine Strategies Local show in Los Angeles on November 28, 29th, and 30th, and you have a chance to go too with a free ticket worth nearly $1600!  Or, you could win an $1800 pass to SES Chicago to be held December 3 - 7th.

Portland, Oregon is a hotbed of search talent, and tonight it’s going to be easy to find many of them in one place… Downtown at Paddys.

Recently I’ve suggested to several people that they attend tonight’s SEMpdx (Search Engine Marketers of Portland) because they were looking for people with specialized skills, and didn’t know where to turn.