By: Tim Nash

Most of my readers will know I don't tend to visit or speak at the major Search engine conferences to which I liken to brown nosing variants of hell (Hi Danny hope you have a good Christmas!) on the whole the idiots who fork out for these conferences well they probably deserve to lose some money from their wallets.

The problem is simple the speakers are normally the same "celebrities" saying the same thing, the networking while plenty of opportunity is limited and the whole thing becomes a farce add poor management and the average search engine conference is a very depressing event made worse by the widescale use of panels rather then talks to cram in as many faces as possible. Compare this with an uncomference such as barcamps, organised by volunteers and while chaotic nearly always move along, smaller number of people but much higher chance of networking and individual talks what's more they tend to be free as opposed to a £1k to hear use h1 tags and go get links. Likewise professional developer conferences are structured but have rotating speakers and tend to go in depth into specific subjects making talks that may only appeal to a niche audience but that audience gains real benefit while often pricey these conferences offer genuine return on investment.

So to make my perfect conference, you need a slightly chaotic but structured series of indepth talks delivered by experts not celebrities (make an exception for Dave Naylor got to have some body to take the piss out off) in a setting that allows networking, over a short space of time and ideally in a local location and away from London...

Think Visibility is pretty close to that so when asked to give a talk I said yes, spread over just 1 day
Think Visibility is in Leeds (the heart of New Media in the UK) with a range of speakers including Patrick , Dave and SEOMoz Borg 14/23 (Tom Critchlow) making up the required celebrity element with expert talks from Al, Peter, Katie, Tom Smith and others.

According to the schedule I'm in the main room talking first at 9.30 which is always fun, not normally the busiest talk of the day but it's the ones that gets the most "live" coverage before everyone gives up and make notes instead. My only annoyance is that I'm not going to be able to sit in on Katies talk (she is up first in the side room) and that with so many great speakers I'm going to have to hang in doorways to listen to two talks at once.

Oh I almost forgot tickets are selling fast so you might want to get yours now at the early bird special of £30 yes I didn't forget to add 2 zeros it really is just £30 including nibbles and access to the after conference party which of course is the place to buy me and the other speakers vast quantities of alcohol in the hope one of us will say something like "The secret to ranking number one for Viagra is...."

You can purchase your tickets here for more information see the Think Visibility Website

The views expressed in this post are those of Tim Nash and not of the Think Visibility conference organisers, in case people are wondering I have the greatest respect for all the speakers even Dave and even if at times I don't agree with them so please call of the lawyers...