The dust has settled and Local University Twin Cities is in the books.  Thursday was a jam packed day of Internet marketing information, tips, data, tools, how-to’s and more from a fantastic panel of local search, SEO, analytics and social media experts.

Two packed sessions of Minnesota business owners, marketers, web designers and more soaked up an incredible amount of Internet marketing knowledge from leading experts as well as staff from Google and Bing.  GetListed.org’s Local University delivered as promised with solid education, best practices, approach, tools and more that anyone can implement at some level for marketing online.

Personally, in helping bring the Local U event to the Twin Cities it was satisfying to hear so many of the positive comments following each session and read all of the tweets.  Below are just a few Twitter comments from the day:

This is one workshop that is only out to educate it’s attendees, not sell.

Thank you to all involved, local sponsors Deluxe & ReliaCloud, the attendees, speakers, promotional partners and friends that help me pull this together.

The amount of valuable local search and online marketing information that was shared is awesome.  Smart people that enjoy sharing their vast knowledge is what Local U is all about.  How great is that?  I’m proud to have been part of this great group and event.

Here are a few photos from the event ….

Learn more on GetListed.org and the Local University series, who’s next stop is Cleveland, Ohio in June.

The latest web design project from Five Technology is for the accounting and cpa firm of Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. located in Buffalo and Waconia, Minnesota.

Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. provides accounting and tax services to businesses, non-profits and individuals. Their old website was just a handful of pages in a stale accounting industry template.  The new website is clearly organized with multiple routes of navigation to find what you’re looking for.

The firm also offers a robust range of business consulting services.  JMP + Co. has offices in two cities to the west of the Twin Cities, located in Buffalo and Waconia.  We made sure to offer clear information and integrated Google maps on both office locations within the header, footer and office pages to make working with them easy.

A Web Design To Avoid The Norm

When working with firm partner and CPA Casey Mattson, it was clear that JMP + Co. was not the standard CPA firm. Our first goal was to drive home the people, personality and engagement level you’ll find with them.  Getting the staff front and center with the “We are people people” statement felt like a great fit.  We had fun taking the photo and also creating this clean and well organized web design.

Recap Of This Web Design Project

• Custom web design
• Photography
• Content management with the SMC
• Search engine optimization
• Local search and customer reviews
• Enhanced location pages
• Custom tax blog
• Internet marketing consulting

The Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. web design project is a great web design and website if we say so ourselves.  Five didn’t deliver the “normal accounting” website and that was the point.  Who wants to look the same as everyone else when you’re not?

Visit the website: http://www.jmpcpas.com

I had a great time today sharing some of my web design and Internet marketing experience and knowledge with hundreds of real estate professionals at the Minneapolis & St Paul Real Estate Bar Camp event today.

It was great to be around and interact with people truly wanting to learn, improve, share and take steps to trying new things.  I met and talked with so many Realtors, Brokers and Mortgage professionals that are excited and dedicated to doing more online.

If the Bar Camp concept is new to you, it’s a user generated conference format.

I enjoyed leading 3 different Real Estate Bar Camp sessions today on:

• Why Good Web Design Matters
• Social Media Q & A with Kate-Madonna (she rocks)
• Local Search Marketing – Google Maps

The organizers of this Bar Camp event did a great job and kudos to Greg Sax, Jason Sandquist, Nobu Hatu and Teresa Boardman.  I’m glad to have been asked to attend/speak by Jason Sandquist whom I’ve know on Twitter (@jasonsandquist) for 2 years, but now finally in real life as well.

Here are a few photos I managed to snap and there are many more on the REBCMN Facebook page.

As you can see from the board above, a wide range of topics were covered.   Social media, iPhone apps, blogging, search, web, video and more was delivered for the Real Estate industry.  Many commented and tweeted they were ready to get back to the office and start implementing what they had learned.

Great event, great people, great day.

I had the pleasure of attending the first Local University put on by GetListed.org in Spokane, Washington on February 4th, 2010.  This one day event, provided a fantastic amount of local search, SEO, social media and other Internet marketing information to over 150 attendees looking to have a better grasp on how they can be more visible online.

Organized by GetListed.org co-founder David Mihm, the seminar featured a great line-up of experienced Internet marketers as well as Google and Bing representatives.  The Local University seminar will be heading out to other cities in 2010, bringing a fantastic wealth of information for any business or organization looking to improve their online marketing knowledge.

In just a 4 hour session, attendees took part in detailed presentations, real world case studies, Q & A sessions, how-to’s, do-it-yourself tips, resources and more.  Overall it was some incredible search, social and local/maps information, from talented presenters, all for $129. A complete steal to get a ton of  basics, the best practices and the baseline to market online.

The panel of speakers form left to right were Mikko Ollila of Bing, Ryan Hayward of Google, Matt McGee of Small Business SEM, Mike Blumenthal a local search expert, David Mihm of GetListed.org and Mary Bowling of seOverflow. Not pictured above was Spokane SEO expert Ed Reese.

Local University is a must for any business that wants real answers, real examples and access to grasp the opportunity to succeed online.

In addition to attending the seminar it was a chance for me to finally connect in person with other search marketers I have read, done business with and interacted with for some time.  I had a great time meeting a few new ones too like Mary Bowling, Mike Blumenthal (aka Professor Maps) and Mike Ramsey as the presenters took in dinner the night before.

Minneapolis In The Local University Future?
The one last piece that put me on a flight to Spokane was to attract the Local University offering to the Minneapolis area later this year.  The amount of information, the level of expertise and the complete offering would be perfect for the local business community here in the Twin Cities.

I can tell you that the event left Spokane buzzing, satisfied and hoping for another one.

Hopefully I’ll have some good news soon, but don’t hesitate to let your voice be heard with a comment below.

Minneapolis and St. Paul cable TV show Around Town is currently featuring Five Technology’s web design services on their current episode.

Host Carla Beaurline features various businesses from the Twin Cities area on the show. Five is the web host and CMS provider of the Around Town website and is currently redesigning the website for 2010.

You can view the full current episode here.

Everyone in our office had a great time with the shoot. It’s fun to talk about what we do on a daily basis for clients.