Cameron Olthuis

For those of you who don’t know me that well I am a huge hockey fan. I literally watch hockey almost every night of the season (when I’m not on the road). I’m even watching a game as I’m typing this. My wife just emailed me over this picture of my daughter and I watching our favorite team, if you know anything hockey you’ll know who it is. Unfortunately my daughter isn’t a huge puck head but I’m working on it.

Go Flames Go!!

Andy Hagans is asking anyone and everyone to post this picture of Neil “The Princess” Patel on their blog. They also have some kind of bet going where Neil doesn’t think Andy can rank for his name within 30 days. Being the nice guy that I am, I’m going to do my best to help Neil lose the bet. All in good fun.

I’d personally like to welcome a two of my friends who have been accepted into round 5 at 9rules. Congrats to both Lee Odden and Sean Voisen. Both of these guys are great bloggers and definitely deserve to be part of the 9rules family.

For those of you that don’t know both this blog and Pronet Advertising where accepted into 9rules about 6 months ago. 9rules is great not only because it brings extra traffic but the members form a great community.

Welcome guys!

It’s nice to be back home in San Diego where the temperatures are a mild 70+ degrees. Chicago was cold, brutally cold, not to mention that frigid wind that blows nonstop. You would think I could handle it considering I was born in Canada but no, I can’t and I hated every second I spent outside in Chicago. I’m guess I’m spoiled and I’ve become acclimated to warm weather year round.

As far as the conference goes it was great. I sat in a few sessions that I had never been to before and I learned a lot of new things. It’s amazing how many new ideas you can pick up from sessions that aren’t related to anything you do. The trick now is figuring out how to apply them directly into what I do.

The networking was great but Chicago is one of the smaller shows. The good thing about it is that just about everyone stays in the same hotel, unlike Vegas where everyone was spread throughout the city. When you’re spread out it is hard to arrange meetings and such. I got the chance to get to know some of the familiar faces a lot better and would say some of them are quickly becoming good friends. That makes in nice considering how many conferences I’m planning to attend this next year.

All-in-all I had a great time and I’m looking forward to the next event already.

I’m leaving at 4:30 in the morning to Chicago for the Search Engine Strategies conference. I’m speaking on Wednesday afternoon for the Linkbaiting & Viral Search Success session with Rand Fishkin, Jennifer Laycock, and Chris Boggs.

It’s only been a few short week since PubCon but I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in Chicago. If we’ve never met before and you’re reading this come say hi. Cheers.