Chris and I are at Jeremy Schoemaker’s Elite Retreat in New York City, and we’re halfway through Day 1. I’ve heard a wealth of information and my head’s swimming with awesome tips and Internet marketing ideas, but I wanted to take a quick moment to update you guys on 10e20’s conference happenings for the month of October (I can’t believe we’re already diving into fall–seems like Thanksgiving’s just around the corner!). Below is a quick outline of where you can find some of us (well, mostly Chris) this month. If you happen to be attending any of these events, definitely say hello, introduce yourself, shake hands, exchange business cards, all that good stuff. We want to meet and get to know you, so don’t be afraid to come up to any of us and and network your ass off.

Elite Retreat (October 1-2, NYC)

The Elite Retreat is going on right now and it’s pretty awesomesauce. I think it very well might be the best conference I’ve attended, but who knows, maybe Day 2 will be chock full of Facts of Life reruns and I’ll have to eat my words. Neil Patel, Chris and Brian Norgard gave terrific presentations, and after lunch we’re continuing with Aaron Wall and a keynote from Seth Godin. Tomorrow is likely where attendees will derive the most value: it’s nothing but 1 on 1 workshops between the attendees and the experts, so everyone will receive personalized and individual attention. I’m pret-ty, pret-ty excited.

SMX East, (October 5-7, NYC)

After the Elite Retreat concludes, Chris and I are sticking around for SMX East, which takes place October 5-7 in NYC. SMX is going to be a great Internet marketing show that will focus on loads of different tactics (organic, paid, social, business development, etc), so you’re guaranteed to learn a lot about various aspects of Internet marketing. Chris will be presenting about Twitter marketing tactics while I’ll be covering Facebook marketing tactics. Our Director of Internet Marketing, Greg Finn, will also be attending and he and I will provide blog coverage of the event next week. Keep your eye out for Jake, our VP of Being Awesome, who might also be around.

If you’re attending SMX East, definitely hit up our sessions and bug us with any and all questions you have. We also highly recommend attending the IM Charity Party on Monday at the Town Tavern. It costs $50 to attend, but not only will you be networking with some great names and faces from our industry, you’ll also be contributing to Multiple Myeloma and Blood Cancer research. The party is supporting a great cause and it’ll be loads of fun, drinking and getting to know people, so that’s a win/win for sure.

If you don’t have tickets to SMX East and would like to attend, you can still get 15% off the registration price by entering this code: smx15speakers (case sensitive). So act now and hopefully we’ll see you soon!

WebCAM (October 15-16, Bend, OR)

Chris continues his one man show of “Where in the World is Chris Winfield-iago” by flying to Bend, Oregon, and keynoting at WebCAM, a web + creative and marketing conference that will cover web marketing, search marketing, social media, SEO, brand management and marketing communications. There will be a load of great speakers (Laura Lippay, Rhea Drysdale, Todd Friesen, Dave Snyder, David Mihm, Marshall Simmonds…the list goes on), so if you live in the area I recommend checking it out.

That’s about it for October. Stay tuned for our fall/winter conference schedule, coming to a feed reader near you! If you’ll be attending any of the shows we’re at, hit us up on Twitter and we’ll definitely chat.

Not only was IM Charity Party the best party at SES San Jose, but thanks to amazing sponsors like ACS SEO, We Build Pages, BOTW, SureHits and everyone that attended, we were able to raise $40,000 for charity! We donated $26297.96 to the Children’s Hospital (Jon Kelly matched the original $13,133.98 bringing us to the $26k+ total) and $13732.04 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Highlights of the night included Marcus Tandler winning a Neil Patel and proceeding to sell him to Frank Watson for a beer and Carolyn Shelby getting every available dollar donated during the raffle.

(pic c/o Laura Lippay)

Since this event was such a success and just outright fun, we are doing it again TWICE!

Next up is SMX East. Jim Boykin and Pat Sexton are giving me a break on this one and throwing the party with 10e20, BOTW, Search Engine Journal and Surehits to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House. So if you are at SMX East, go to the Social Bar (795 8th Avenue between 48th and 49th) on Monday night for an open bar extravaganza with your favorite new ninjas from 8-11pm. It’s all you can drink for $50 so come thirsty! For anyone who knows New York, this is a great deal and not to mention a tax write off. For more details and to DONATE IN ADVANCE, please check out IM Charity Party.

If you can’t make it to SMX East, you can still attend the next IM Charity event at Scary SEO. Hosted by David Snyder on October 25th at 8pm there will be a 3 course meal and open bar for only $65 a person. Proceeds will all go the Ronald McDonald House. If you are attending Scary SEO this is a MUST attend event.

Originally Published on Search Engine Journal

33 reasons why you should stay up late and go to the IM Charity Party at SES San Jose:

1. Networking happens AFTER the sessions are over. The best place to meet your future client/SEO/agency is at the hotel bar or at one of the conference parties
2. You might meet fookin’ dave naylor and buy him a beer
3. You may be able to witness Greg and Barbara Boser in the midst of a twitter hoax
4. You may find out Jennifer Slegg’s favorite Disney characters.
5. You can wind up Michael Gray like a jack in the box by telling him that Google does no evil, then make peace by discussing how hot the women of Battlestar Gallactica are
6. You could attempt to beat Frank the Tank to paying for the dinner check
7. Drinking for charity is a tax write-off
8. You may witness Stuntdubl spin 90s hip hop
9. You can win some awesome prizes, like a LIFETIME subscription to Shoemoney tools
10. Your boss thinks you are a good person for donating your dinner stipend to charity while off at a conference. How very responsible of you
11. You can smash Neil Patels beer before he has the chance to do it to yours
12. It’s always fun to meet new people over breakfast
13. The internet marketing ninjas will be lurking around and rumor is if you catch one, they have to divulge their secrets or swallow a shot of tequila
14. Avinash will tell you the latest analytics secrets while posing for pictures with a life size Danny Sullivan cut out
15. You can say you were there when Dax breaks into the next piece of musical equipment or gets kicked out of a hotel
16. BOTW always throws a great party
17. Find out what Lawrence Coburn’s favorite widget is
18. 4 hours of open bar for $40 is a lot less money than most of you would have spent at the hotel bar
19. Chris Winfield may drop life changing secrets about either SEO, social media, or how he has such great hair
20. Ask Andy Beal how you can become radically transparent
21. Debate the ethics of white hat SEO in honor of Jill Whalen
22. Ask Jim Boykin what his favorite national park is
23. Have Lee Odden tell you about some of the thousands of lakes in Minnesota
24. You can get tips from Jon Kelly and Lauren Vaccarello about planning a party
25. Ask Laura Lippay how the food at Yahoo compares to Google
26. Try to get quoted in Jessica Bowman’s new book
27. Have Brent Csutoras him tell you the finer points of Reddit while he’s digging on his iphone
28. Have Shoemoney perform a rear naked choke or at the very least kick your butt in thumb wrestling
29. Ask Oilman his favorite uses for duct tape
30. Find out why Captain Kirk is a master of web analytics from Matt Bailey
31. Get the scoop on Search Engine Journal’s Journal from Loren Baker
32. Being at the same party as your SEO idol is a great ice breaker, so start talking
33. Don’t be a douchebag. Why do you hate childen? Come to the party

IM Charity Party Event Details:
$40 donation will get you 4 hours of open bar with some of your favorite SES attendees
When: Monday August 18, 2008 8pm-12am
Where: Agenda Lounge – 399 S 1st street, San Jose ( 1 block from the conference)

Register early at – http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/nikesf08/imcharityparty by donating at least $40. Make sure to leave your name so we can put you on the list the night of the event or you can pay at the door, but keep in mind that space is limited.

For more details, go to www.imcharityparty.com

Originally Published on Search Engine Journal