We’d like to thank everyone who attended and donated to the LondonSEO.org meet-up on Tuesday. The Cittie of Yorke proved a great venue and everyone seemed to enjoy the unique Sam Smiths pints. We easily reached the £400.00 drinking target in time for last orders and even have some money left to roll-over for the next event. Unfortunately due to Jon Roy’s choice of shot, I was too incapacitated to remember my photographer duties. If anyone did take some photos of the night, please let me know and I’ll stick up a link.
A number of people were getting increasingly jealous of the limited edition LondonSEO.org T-Shirts which Ekky and I were wearing. So, by popular demand, I’m please to announce the SEO clothing range by LondonSEO.org (summer collection). Each T-Shirt donates 1 pint to the beer fund 😀
Did anyone read what was on the beer cards by the way or discuss the questions posed on them?
Just a last minute reminder that the next LondonSEO is this Tuesday (29th May) at The Cittie of Yorke and will start from 6pm onwards.
Getting there from Chancery Lane (Central Line) is extremely easy – simply take the left exit out of the station so that Thorntons is on your right as you get to the top of the stairs. Then just keep walking for a minute and the pub will be on your right. The pub has 2 large oak door entrances – take the first entrance (on the right) and then take the second door on the left down to the basement bar. We’ll try to put some signs up, although it’s quite easy to find once you’re there.
As it’s a Sam Smiths pub, all drinks will be own-brand. I’d recommend Alpine for lager drinkers and Old Brewery for bitter lovers. Apparently the stout and cider are rather good there as well. If you must, they also sell white wine or a fruit based drink for the ladies 😉
Free drinks will be available by showing the bar staff a special LondonSEO card which you can obtain from Mike, Ekky or myself (just ask someone to point us out if you’re new). There’s a £400 minimum spend to hire the bar and a pint costs as little as £1.50, so feel free to drink as much as you want (unless you’re a violent drunk or puke after 3 pints).
We’re still accepting donations (haven’t hit £400 yet), so please visit the Donations Page – even if you can only give a fiver or a tenner towards your drinks.
And in case you don’t get my humour by now:
1. I’ve never met Brett, but he’s a friend of some friends and that makes him alright in my book.
2. I’ve got nothing against Northerners, I even let my sister marry one.
3. I didn’t make the white wine rule, that’s down to the Guv.
We’d like to thank Earl Grey (Syndk8) for his uber-generous donation of £100 into the beer kitty. You can buy a lot of sangria and paella for a ton, so we appreciate the gesture.
The purpose of the kitty is that you can donate whatever you want, I’ve stuck in 15 quid, and a tenner donation from you would easily ensure that we all have a good time. Here’s the page you need to go to >> Donations Page
A bunch of us went down the Cittie of Yorke yesterday for lunch and the food was top notch. Maybe a future venue for an all day get-together with a Steak and Kidney Pudding for lunch? 🙂
To be fair, Pubcon hasn’t been held in the Cittie of Yorke pub for donkey’s years – so I think that we’re safe to hold a LondonSEO there (pretty please Mr Tabke?). Unfortunately the Princess Louise pub which was previously planned for the next event is currently under renovation, so it’s time for Plan B… well Plan C really.
For anyone who hasn’t been to one of the old London Pubcon’s™, the CofY is a fantastic tudor-looking building and is part of the mighty Sam Smith’s brewery. After explaining who we were and what SEO is, the landlady generously offered private use of the downstairs dungeon bar for our exclusive use because – “the last thing I want is a load of UNIX shirt wearing pony-tailed geeks scaring off all the regulars”. Ooops, I haven’t even said when it’s going to be yet – it’s now fixed at Tuesday 29th May, so that Dixon doesn’t get told off by his wife. It happens to also be the birthday of one of LondonSEO’s founding fathers, Tim Webb (second on the left), the Java programmer who pretends he’s not an SEO.
Although we usually ask for sponsors, we’re going to try something a little different this time. Below is a donations button, you can donate what ever amount you like and it all goes into the kitty. We then put the kitty behind the bar and if there’s any money left over we keep it for the next event. There’s now a Donations Page which gives thanks to people who contribute at each event. Please include your name and website when donating, or ask to be listed as Anonymous on the PayPal payment page.
Now, we don’t like to set an agenda for these meets as we end up talking about religion and politics after 4 pints anyway; but we would like to plant something into your head (next to your Google implant). If LondonSEO was to be expanded into a UK association for our industry – what would you like from it and how would you run it? We’re not planning on making a UK-SMA clone – more of an inclusive group for in-house, freelancers, affiliates and agencies alike. There will be no charters or boards; we may organise 1 day events though and make membership a sign of reputation and integrity (or just reputation for the Black Hats ;)). I know this all sounds a bit generic, but we don’t want to form anything without putting everyone’s suggestions and ideas together. By the people, for the people, as someone I don’t know said. Have a think about it, make sure you attend this event and then shout abuse at us.
Anyways, here’s the science bit…
Date: Tuesday 29th May 2007 from 6pm onwards.
Venue: Cittie of Yorke, 22 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BN [Google Maps] [Streetmap].
Nearest Station: Chancery Lane (Central Line).
Just a last minute reminder that 
