Kelvin Newman is the founder of BrightonSEO and organizer of the BrightonSEO conference. The conference started small with SEO professionals meeting in a pub to share ideas, and has grown significantly over time. It now attracts over 3,500 attendees. Newman emphasizes that the conference is practical and affordable, focusing on helping attendees improve at their jobs rather than being a commercial event. He discusses lessons from his career including creating your own job opportunities, understanding your value, and avoiding tasks that can be automated.

1. Kelvin Newman
Founder - Rough Agenda
@kelvinnewman
How to never work a day in your life

2. That title’s actually a bit of a
bait and switch.

3. @kelvinnewman
How I created a relatively fun
job, that’s quite enjoyable
and has some pretty decent
perks
“
“
Didn’t have quite the same draw in programme

4. @kelvinnewman
So, who is this guy?
@kelvinnewman

5. Founder of BrightonSEO
@kelvinnewman
kelvin@brightonseo.com
http://www.slideshare.net/kelvinnewman
Kelvin Newman

6. @kelvinnewman
So inadvertently I’ve become
associated with Brighton
@kelvinnewman

7. @kelvinnewman
Actually; I live in Worthing

8. @kelvinnewman
Which is famous for one thing…
@kelvinnewman
Birdman Competition where people see how far
they can jump of the pier

9. @kelvinnewman
Room above the pub
I started organising a meet up in
the upstairs room of this pub
@kelvinnewman

10. @kelvinnewman
And 3500 people came
along to the last one
@kelvinnewman

11. @kelvinnewman
I also spend a lot of time
assembling stupid stuff I
bought of eBay

12. How it all started
Once upon a time, I decided it would be cool to get a
group of SEO mates together in a pub to talk shop.
The idea was to share ideas and chat about all the
interesting stuff that we can’t really talk about with
anyone outside the industry for fear of them falling
asleep.

13. Word got out and more people showed up than
we expected.
So, next time we booked a larger room… again,
more and more people showed up.

14. We realised we might be
onto something
A free industry conference, talking about real issues,
with practical advice from people who actually know
what they’re talking about. brightonSEO was born.
Since then we have seen the conference continue to
grow into the beautiful, if scarily large, thing we have
today.

15. A place where search
marketers meet, learn
and discover ways to do
their job a little better.

16. These aren't like your usual digital trade-shows
where you're herded round a bunch of exhibition
stands while business cards are shoved in your
hand by over-zealous sales people.
And they're not like most digital conferences
where you need to re-mortgage your house to sit
in a generic hotel or football club function room
and get generic advice.

17. We're digital marketers not event organisers. We
don’t organise SEO conferences one week and
pharmaceutical conferences the next.

18. We worry about how to put
on a decent event first and
worry about how to make
money later, which is pretty
much the opposite to the
rest of the industry.

19. For April 3,500 tickets sold in
under five minutes
*With over fifteen hundred people on the waitlist

20. Some practical
lessons for people
looking to develop
a career in digital?

21. @kelvinnewman
Develop a bit of a
philosophy on how you
think work should work
* this isn’t actually me developing a philosophy,
I’m reading my emails, but it makes me look
moody and enigmatic

22. For me it was these three books
There are now probably horrible “early-noughties”
now, but they shape the way I think about profoundly

23. It’s much easier to create a job
than find one.

24. @kelvinnewman
Most of the stuff about being a
“founder” or “CEO” is bullshit.
Being able to regularly pay your rent and take holiday is much more
important to me than being the “boss”

25. @kelvinnewman
You have a value to a business
and the market, do your best
to understand it.
@kelvinnewman

26. @kelvinnewman
Never do a job a machine
could do quicker
Or better than you…
@kelvinnewman

27. I've often thought of my
experience of adulthood thus
far as one of incrementally
discovering that there's no
institution, or walk of life, in
which everybody isn't just
winging it.
Oliver Burkeman
https://www.theguardian.com/news/oliver-burkeman-s-
blog/2014/may/21/everyone-is-totally-just-winging-it

28. @kelvinnewman
Two quick favours?
@kelvinnewman

31. We’re on the look
outs for volunteers for
the 7th April.
If you or anyone you
know is keen email
hey@roughagenda.co
m

32. Thanks for listening
Kelvin Newman - Founder of BrightonSEO
@kelvinnewman
kelvin@brightonseo.com
http://www.slideshare.net/kelvinnewman