SphinnCon Israel 2011 Recap

Yesterday we held SphinnCon Israel. It was our largest event to date. We had more than double the number of people attending compared to the past events. I believe we had about 430 people come and partake.

To me, this means that Israel is a proud representation of what the search marketing industry has to offer. To see hundreds of people come together to learn, network and speak at these industry gatherings really means a lot to me.

I have so many people to thank. So many people.

Sponsors:

Answers.com – www.answers.com
MajesticSEO – www.majesticseo.com
Analytics Ninja – www.analytics-ninja.com
GO Internet Marketing – www.gim.co.il
Trusted Proxies – www.trustedproxies.com
Universal McCann Search – www.usearch.co.il

Other Sponsors:

SEOmoz (Pen Sponsor) – www.seomoz.org
RustyBrick (Lanyard Sponsor) – www.rustybrick.com
Inbal Hotel (WiFi Sponsor) – www.inbalhotel.com

The sponsors were critical in making this event financially feasible. I should also thank the Inbal for having outstanding food and keeping things organized. Yes, the WiFi had issues but when you feed people well, sometimes, even SEMs, forget about the WiFi issues. The Inbal helped to put together our best show yet, I’ve never in my life heard such complements on the food at an SEM event. Yes, SMX is known for great food, but this was beyond great.

Advisors:

Olivier Amar, CEO, PointUp Media www.pointupmedia.com
Michael Barnett, VP Marketing, RankAbove www.rankabove.com
Ophir Cohen, CEO, Universal Mccann Search www.usearch.co.il
Roi Hildesheimer, CEO, TENS Technology www.tenswebmarketing.com
Mayer Reich, CEO/Founder, RankAbove www.rankabove.com
Gilad Sasson, CEO, nekuda www.nekuda.com
Branko Rihtman, Senior SEO Analyst, Whiteweb www.whiteweb.com

Speakers
Oren Shatz, Chairman, SEO Israel Technologies Ltd.
Ziv Dascalu, Founder, WiseImpact
Miriam Schwab, CEO, illuminea
Gil Reich, Answers.com
Uri Breitman, TBWA\DIGITAL
Thomas Bindl, Founder and CEO of Refined Labs
Ophir Cohen, CEO, Universal Mccann Search
Charlie Kalech, Director, J-Town Productions
Dan Perach, Co-Founder, PPCPROZ
Asaf Paz, Google Seminar Leader, WEBSEM
Oren Shatz, Chairman, SEO Israel Technologies Ltd.
Adir Regev, CEO of GO Internet Markting
Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at nekuda.co.il
Olivier Amar, Independent Marketing Consultant, PointUp Media
Sam Michaelson, Five Blocks
Shira Abel, Abel Communications
Dan Gerstenfeld, Lecturer at JCT & CEO of Interteam
Menachem Rosenbaum, TENS-Technology
Gab Goldenberg, SEO ROI
Ofer Dascalu, CEO & Founder, WiseImpact
Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at nekuda.co.il
Dixon Jones, Managing Director of Majestic SEO
Yehoshua Coren, Founder and Principal of Analytics Ninja
Daniel Waisberg, Founder of Conversion Journey
Ophir Cohen, CEO, Universal Mccann Search
Yam Regev, CEO at Compass Internet Solutions
Barry Schwartz, CEO of RustyBrick
Eli Feldblum, CTO & Founder, RankAbove
Kelli Brown, Owner of Pixel/Point Press
Oren Todoros, CEO of OrenTodoros.com
Kevin Gibbons, founder and Director of Search at SEOptimise
Miriam Schwab, CEO, illuminea
Tal Siach, Founder of Walyou.com & Social Media Strategist
Kaspar Szymanski, Google Search Quality Strategist from Google Dublin Office

I should thank specific speakers for coming out from overseas to make it to Israel. They include Google’s Kaspar Szymanski, SEOptimise’s Kevin Gibbons, RankAbove’s Eli Feldblum, Majestic SEO’s Dixon Jones and Refined Labs’ Thomas Bindl. Thank you so much!

Attendees:

It was seriously overwhelming to see 430 or so people in the Israel region come to this event. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, except for the Internet (I apologize) and I am so thankful that you all made it out.

I hope to help bring this event back next year, so please email me or leave both negative and positive feedback in the comments below.

Finally, I must thank my brother for allowing me to have RustyBrick financially lay out the money for this before having any sponsors. It was a big risk but in the end, we made a profit.

Most importantly, I have to thank my wife and kid for putting up with me the months prior to the event. Sleepless nights and extra hours in the office to organize the event. And to let me take a ton of time during our family vacation to run this event, well – all I have to say is my wife is the best. She is the real reason this event happened and was so successful. Thank you!

Here are some pictures, I promise to add more when people send them to me.