If you know me, you know that tomorrow I will be speaking at SMX West in Santa Clara. It’s my first speaking/presenting gig in years. In other words, if I flop, it’s cool — I don’t need to know. I’ve recently read that “your opinion of me is none of my business.” I’ll stick to that unless I do really well.

And if that’s what happens — plan on my speaking again.

So, the panel is scheduled to begin at 3:15PM and conclude at 4:30PM in Room A2. I’m still waiting to hear back from the gals at WebmasterRadio.fm about a possible interview, but if that does get arranged — I’ll be posting the link, no doubt.

Details on my Presentation
Sharing the stage with Chris Smith (Lead Search Strategist, NetConcepts) and Gab Goldenberg (Owner, SEO ROI) is cool enough. Add in the fact that Vanessa Fox* and Matt McGee* are moderating my panel — and forget it. I’m already stoked.

My actual presentation is nothing if not simple. I learned from Matt at SMX Social that many times, less is more . This is something to keep in mind to improve your local SEO performance at the design level, over complicating the website experience will cost you. This is especially when presenting. With that in mind, my panel begins by taking attendess through screenshot examples of local, blended results on Google Yahoo and LiveSearch. Next is a discussion of verified local listings and working with trusted feeds (or, trusted sources). And finally — I wrap things up with a few tips aimed to help business owners get the most out of local search.

My fear is that the panel won’t provide anything earth-shattering for people. Hopefully the few tips I have time to explain will motivate others to be more proactive with local listings — but I’d be lying if I told you that it didn’t concern me.

I did get positive feedback though from both Matt and Vanessa — so there’s some comfort there.

* – Notes about Matt & Vanessa
I’m really pleased to be working on a panel that they’re both moderating. Having looked up to both of them for so long, I was blown away by them at SMX Social. After day one of that event, we all hiked to some NYC bar and had a couple of drink passes as part of the conference. I got to spend some time talking with Vanessa and Danny — and I immediately realized why these are the people that lead industry disucssions. Aside from being incredibly insightful, they’re nothing if not grounded. In our world, they’re superstars. In a random bar in NYC, they’re just like every other dedicated SEM’mer out there who’s simply engaged with what they do.

Matt McGee is simply a genuine guy who doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. Always diplomatic, always well spoken — he simply made sure I had a good time and was comfortable in NYC. He showed me around, let me hang with his circle, etc. Without his help, I never would’ve met wonderful people in the industry who I now look forward to seeing again.

All in all, SMX Social was a wonderful time. And that’s why I’m stoked to see my new friends again and really just enjoy it all over again.