The title might mislead you to think I went to a wild party, but the shots are not of the adult beverage nature.  I did consume a few cheese steak sandwiches.

This week I had the opportunity to speak on search engine optimization at a conference put on by the Immunization Action Coalition out in Philadelphia.  The conference is called the Social Media Summit and focuses on helping the medical and health community bring awareness to vaccinations, immunizations and health using social media and Internet marketing.

My role was sitting down with many of the various organizations attending and conducting a review of their website and search engine optimization efforts.  In my hour sessions I focused on SEO best practices, establishing trust online and offered action items for their websites to improve their websites visibility to Google, Bing & Yahoo.

It was a fun challenge to work with medical and health organizations both large and small and discuss websites ranging from 15 pages to 50,000 pages and the  efforts needed to optimize content and spread their message online.  From building links to maximizing your meta page title, we covered a lot of ground.

Organizations I worked with over the 2 days included:

• American Academy of Family Physicians
• ECBT – Vaccinate Your Baby
• National Association of School Nurses
• Autism Science Foundation
• National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
• National Network of Immunization Nurses and Associates

The conference also engaged some other social media professionals to launch a social campaign right from the conference for Real Guys Immunize.  A very cool idea for a conference.

The best news is that I didn’t have to get any shots to take part in this conference, but I did learn some valuable information on vaccines and children.  My thanks to all of the great attendees I met, the Immunization Action Coalition and Eventive Meetings.

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.

In less than 2 weeks, Local University will descend on the Minneapolis and St Paul area bringing a wealth of SEO, local search and Internet marketing information.  You can still register for the May 13th event that features speakers from Google, Bing and other national Internet marketing experts.

Who is this conference for?

This has been a big question I get when talking about the event.  I thought I would offer a small summary of what I feel every level of business owner, marketer or SEO can get from this great opportunity.

Entry Level - If you are a business owner, running a business or a small business marketer you may very well get the most out of Local University.  A solid amount of the information and sessions are gear toward baseline education, do-it-yourself tips and giving you a clear understanding of how things work and how you can benefit.  Confusion on Internet marketing will be replaced by clarity.

Intermediate Level- Where some of the information covered might be a good refresher, you’ll still get some new angles and information.  There is no doubt that the local search expertise presenting will give you more insight into this exploding area of the web and business.  The Q & A sessions will also give you access to ask questions in some areas that might be of specific interest to you.

Expert Level- Here is a great chance to support the industry you work in.  The chance to learn may still exist within the local search presentations, but the chance to network with other great Internet marketing minds as well as business owners and other local marketers is fantastic.

This 4 hour workshop will cover fantastic information on search engine optimization, local search , social media and more.  It’s a jam packed line-up that can benefit all levels of Internet marketers.

• Register now and use the code five2010 to get $40 off, dropping your cost to just $89 for this event.

Thank you to the local sponsors helping make this event possible, Deluxe and ReliaCloud.

While I didn’t see any Blog Bombs get tipped back, I did catch quite a few Twitter-tini’s getting sipped at last nights Twin Cities Thursday Happy Hour event at the Shorewood Bar & Grill in Fridley. Social media themed drinks rock.

April’s TCTHH event was sponsored by Five Technology and I presented on Mobile Web Design basics.  Lisa Foote, founder of MixMobi also presented on mobile marketing and their great service.

Here is my slide deck from my presentation:

The night was full of great Twin Cities professionals connecting with new people, sharing ideas, laughs, winning some gift cards and eating some awesome food from the Shorewood.

I want to say thanks everyone who came out last night, thanks to TCTHH founder Jeff Nolan, the Shorewood (client), Aaron Darling and numerous others for their support.  There are too many to name, but you know who you are.

Here are a few photos from the night, starting off with a few people enjoying their Twitter-tini’s!

Paul Jahn also posted a great photo set to his Flickr account.

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.