I attended BrightonSEO Brighton again this year. Following last year’s BrightonSEO Brighton and San Diego, this was my third time attending. This year, I was able to spend three days starting from Training as a scholarship recipient.
It was incredibly crowded again this year, but whether because of the weak yen or because attendees were spread across SEO Week, this time I didn’t see a single Japanese person. Then again, even in normal years I usually only spot about three.
More than anything, I was so happy to reunite in London with the friends I met in San Diego…!
But once again, I felt that Europe really is the place for SEO.
Being able to think about marketing grounded in the diversity of races, languages, and cultures is something unique to Europe. Everyone is feeling Europe’s poor economic climate, and I got the sense that many business owners are pushing forward with expansion into the US.
※Our company is no exception — we entered the US market last year, and I’m thinking that, if possible, I’d like to make the US our main focus.
This time I joined the CEO Round Table. It was great that it opened with a discussion of UK and US politics, and being able to share struggles among fellow business owners was really valuable. I genuinely wanted to talk more about future-oriented topics, but it was a shame that, despite the large table, just a few people ended up dominating the conversation.
In the evening, I joined a dinner with people I met there. Sponsored by Diginius & Swydo. Perhaps because the target was Founders, there were many management-level people in attendance, which made it very interesting.
I couldn’t get into the GEO Training, so I joined On-site Contents instead. Honestly, the content was very basic and conventional, but it turned out to be a good opportunity to return to the basics and rethink marketing.
I was also able to have many business collaboration meetings with people I had contacted in advance via LinkedIn, plus plenty of networking, and gained a very meaningful experience.
As for the Keynotes, perhaps because I chose poorly, there were few talks I found interesting. That said, three stood out:
- Tom Capper — How Low Can Organic Go
- Philip Armstrong — AI/Searchpocalypse
- Malte Landwehr — How ChatGPT Shops
※Reports on the talks will be uploaded as I go.
Going forward, I’m thinking I might focus mainly on networking and just pick out the interesting talks to watch on video afterwards.
Over the past few years, this industry has become so AI-specialised (GEO/AIO) that you can’t tell whether it’s SEO or an AI research team. It’s interesting that every company is doing AI research, and our company is also getting serious about GEO, but honestly, I find myself wondering just how many companies will actually pay for it.
Doing all kinds of research in this fast-changing world is fine, but I’d like to hear a bit more in the way of long-term perspectives.
Next time I plan to attend BrightonSEO San Diego. Of course, I’ll continue attending the London SEO Meet Ups, and since I’ll be back in the US from August through year-end, I’ll be joining the LA SEO Meet Ups as well!
If your company is looking to enter the Japanese market with SEO & EN↔JA localisation, please feel free to get in touch.
