It was fistastic!

More about thinktank here.

There has been an overwhelming response to the survey.

The general consensus has been, don’t change much, get easy light charcoal for the BBQ on the beach, have more intellectual thinktank type  small groups. Also, more structured networking like our “speed dating” early on in the event, so you can make friends earlier in the event.

Oddly enough no one suggested removing the open bar.

For the surfers in the group I am planning on getting a thinktank Stand Up Paddle Board we can all use.

Expect more of the best stuff, less of the lousy stuff, and always a few surprises.

I apologize this year for those who don’t get in.

The pricing my surprise you, but I still expect it to sell out fast.

thinktank Sep. 17, 18, 19.

Dave Dellanave with his special friend.

Cameron Olthuis who arranged the surfing, provided the boards, instructor and enjoyed the ride!

Danny DeMichele was one of the surprise amazing surfers of the event. I have video of him just killing it. Eric Itzkowitz was also just amazing, video to follow one day.

The real stars of the surfing were Dave Dellanave and Jonathan Holloway (Jon show me where to link ) above paddling into the wave, and below dropping in. Jon and Dave just went for it like there was no bottom, no waves, no possibility of breaking their neck, just fearless!

This is me, dk. The board was too small for my dainty frame. Seriously. No really.

Todd Malicoat paddling into a wave. It made me so happy to have Todd out in the water. He is one of my early heros in the internet business world. He is a great natural athlete, and took right to this. Todd, let me also publicly apologize for how long it took to get you that software. It honestly is in the mail now I swear!

The leaders of the internet business world conducting a board meeting.

Remember, whenever you are trying to figure out how to handle a situation, just ask yourself. WWCHD? (what would chris hedgecock do?) On twitter that is #wwchd

Makes me honestly sad looking at these pics. Can’t wait till next year. Just imagine what it will look like for us to see these pics in 50 years.

This is life at its most perfect for me. Honestly, not drugs, no booze, no lies, no cheating, not even any competition. Just hanging with friends out in the wet and wild, warm water, warm blue skies. Truly a moment of enlightenment. More surf pics.

Dennis Yu came to thinktank. I got quite a few comments about how brilliant he is. His mind moves faster than almost anyone I have ever seen. He is a PPC wiz, promoting all kinds of stuff, and all kinds of companies.

Dennis’s company is BlitzLocal. In addition to local they do alot of work in the ppc area.

Their clients include companies like Quiznos, WWE, Analog Devices, Equifax, and some other major brands. They charge $5-10k a month in PPC management fees, but Dennis asked me to promote that they’re running a special for the next 10 days to audit your PPC campaigns for $799. You must be spending at least $10k a month on PPC to qualify. They look at things like ad group structure, negative keyword lists

Dennis says, Most advertisers have giant lists of keywords,  which create bloat and management problems. He told me that the average advertiser doesn’t know to seperate out their list of search keywords from their content keywords. Dennis said he has found that the proper grouping of keywords for search and content PPC is important. With content you are interupting the person, and with search, you are showing them what they are looking for.

I know from talking Ken Jurina from Epiar last year, who schooled me about negative keywords for the first time, that a massive amount of money can be wasted on large PPC campaigns unless you have the right negative keyword list.

Aaron is my super hero for a few reasons. One of which was when he took the time one of my first years of pubcon to spill all the beans on how to do great SEO, while his competitor sat next to us. The part that made it so funny, was that his number one competitor was hearing all the secrets that Aaron was using to beat him, but the competitor was terribly frustrated because he was so intoxicated he knew he would never remember any of it!

Aaron also had one of the most entertaining, if not the most entertaining blogs on the internet, until he caved in to fame and fortune, and has put it on hold to finish his book. This is a real book, with a real publisher and the whole bit. The rumored title, literally rumored because I pulled it off another site, not Aarons is BBQ makes everything better. (I just want to rank for that term for a few months till the book comes out!)

Aaron became uber famous when his “pull it out of thin air one day before Christmas” bacon explosion became world famous. They unveiled it I think on their best BBQ in the world website.

Aaron also is not afraid to use gratuitous cheesecake on his blog, so since his site is not up, I am adding this pic. It has nothing to do with my story, except that Aaron is a bit of a hillbilly and I think this picture captures that viewpoint.

In fact Aaron and his crew actually took something like 4th in the world BBQ championships which is unbelievable.

So somehow I conned persuaded Aaron this year to make Bacon Explosions for everyone at thinktank. I had never eaten one before, but everyone who had ever even stood within 15 feet of one of these monsters said they were fantastic.

On my way surfing, I grabbed one off the grill, just to get some food in me and was stopped dead in my tracks. The thing was perfect. Forget sushi, salads, or anything else I have ever eaten. This was the most perfect concoction of pork making love to pork that I had ever seen.

You can actually buy bacon explosions online here. It would almost be worth getting my site banned from google for paid blogging if Aaron were to send me one of these things every week for a new blog post, hint, hint! (Just kidding Matt

So this thing is dripping down my throat, just unbelievable. I had made it almost to the sand, turned around and came back to get another one.

Around this time at the thinktank the sun had also just come out, and about half of us went surfing, and the rest dined on pig loving pig and had the time of their lives. We ate like 300 pounds of this stuff split amongst around 50 people. I think it worked out to be around 6 pounds per person.

Do you guys have any idea how much fun it is to have a blog like this where you can write exactly what you want? And know that the people you are writing this crazy stuff about are going to be totally o.k. with it?

Aaron, thank you for making the event even more special, and calorie dense that it allready was!

If you want to see more pics of the bacon explosion picnic, just pop over to the baconey gallery here.

Personally I rarely pay attention even to the keynote speakers at the biggest conferences. Even when they are some of the brightest most famous people in the industry. The reason is, I would much rather get to ask them my questions personally, one on one, and in about 5 minutes get THE information I need. Gary V. at Elite Retreat was a huge exception to this, but then again he is one of the best speakers in the world!

So for the opening ceremonies I wanted to see if I could get this group to really interact without any booze. Not an easy trick!

Some of these guys like Neil Patel and Chris Winfield are ALWAYS up for fun, anytime, anywhere.

Others, I did not know if they would jump in or not.

My opening remarks literally lasted less than 2 minutes, and then the fun began.

The plan was to have a game of dodgeball in this Powerhouse park community center. I have been talking to Neil Patel about this for years, and was finally going for it.

As soon as I started to put the tape on the floor, security for the place told me no. Really? O.K., then we will just put the tape down upside down. No? Really? O.K. then we will use chairs to set the boundaries. Remember this is the first official part of the conference, and the first two minutes my plans are being squashed!

So we went for it!

Started off a gently, then within a few minutes was completely out of control.

So out of control in fact that security for the place told us we couldn’t do it anymore. (He was great and simply protecting a historical monument!) So with quick thinking, we moved it out onto the beach.

By this point, the nice florescent soft hairy balls that I had purchased at the drug store were all popped, and now a soccer ball had gotten into the game. I almost jumped in fearing a broken nose, or worse on the beach.

My mind remembers seeing one team get all the balls, with Dave Dellanave looking like a quarterback in a huddle. The next thing I see is every player on the team running at once against the opposing team, with all the balls hidden, and no one knowing who was about to throw the ball. That appeared to be the turning point of the game.

We have video of it, which will come out when we finally release Purpose Inc. the movie!

Then back to the community center for a game I created called Death Row. It deserves its own blog post, so I will hold off on it for now. But needless to say, after working 20 hours a day, two days in a row, the night before the thinktank started, myself, Fajar, Sarah and Alicia sat in my garage and invented a game called Death Row.

The end result of death row is someone facing a firing squad of 50 of their peers, and getting shot by 50 nerf darts at once.

John andrews put a new spin on optimizing a site.

The nerf shooting got totally out of control. I was surprised we never got thrown out on that one. I didn’t know exactly how it would all go down, but I did know that if you get a nerf gun inito the hands of 50 brilliant people, something was going to happen!

Shoemoney was gracious enough to get up and do the “Shoemoney Show”. I have never learned more about internet marketing than when I have sat in front of Shoe, and with no preperation he just talked. The legendary day he did this with me at Stratosphere was amazing. Sure enough he wowed the crowd. Jeremy stood up, very humble, very polite, and answered questions. As the questions rolled, and his answers rolled, you heard more and more laughter and enthusiasm. Since everyone was under NDA, Jeremy spoke very openly and frankly and literally answered every question he was asked. I of course asked him if you had $100 today and needed to start over.. He truly is a brilliant, brilliant guy.

While Jeremy talked my staff started roaring up to speed with snacks and drinks. While the guys sat they were handed amazing concoctions with California grapes. One of the reasons I do the thinktank exactly the week I do it, is the produce. I love high quality produce, and the middle of September is some of the best produce you will ever see anywhere, especically the grapes!

Chef Rasta set up outside, and when he realized some of the guys had arrived late and missed the crepes, he started busting out over $20 per pound prociutto de parma, imported from Italy for sanwiches. Some of the priceist sandwhiches ever made for our honored guests.

In honor of Bob Raines I did a little spoiler in what would otherwise have been a beautiful picture. Please make it next year Bob!

If you really want to see more, the rest of the thinktank opening ceremonies pictures are here.

Hey DK

How are you? Hopefully all is well and you have rested up from all the ThinkTank fun. I have to admit it took me close to a week to re-group after the fantastic show that you and your team put on. It truly was a fantastic few days. I owe you and your staff a hundred sincere thank you’s that is for sure. Please be sure to pass them on for me.

Okay now away from the expected thank you’s and onto the more personal stuff I have to admit when you first approached me via email & IM I was a bit nervous as to what to expect. Although I knew a few of the faces going to ThinkTank, I also knew that for one of the first times in my professional career I was really going in blind. I had heard great things of course, but as a girl who prides herself in being prepared (perhaps too often at times ha) I was definitely a bit nervous when I was driving down to Del Mar. I was wondering what sort of events to expect, and if the conversation’s would be hard to join, and of course wondering how (if) I could handle three days with a group of men that seem to already know each other on such a personal & professional level. In short for one of the few times I was actually worried that signing on with so many unknowns was a bad idea.

I can honestly say that I have never been more pleasantly proven wrong in my life.

From the first hello at the tent I felt welcomed (your sincere hug was part of that as well). The people you have involved with this event are truly amazing people and I felt lucky to be sharing ideas and conversations with them. I met so many people that enabled ideas of mine to come out, and I felt good that I was able to offer them ideas regarding PPC, social media, and more. Even better, I was happy to shake hands and tap cocktails with the people I have (unfortunately) passed by at so many conferences. Your event is perhaps the first time in years I have felt truly engaged in the space I love so much. I can’t thank you enough for that.

Without getting even more mushy on you, I also want to thank you for the number of times you “checked in” on how my weekend was going. I could tell you were genuinely working toward making me feel comfortable & it worked. Thank you for that.

Okay okay that’s enough girliness for me. In all seriousness you put on an amazing event, and I only hope one day I can repay you for your generosity and kindness. I feel a renewed excitement for the projects on my plate and have already started talking with new friends from Thinktank on certain ideas we discussed. You have put together something very special here DK, and I am proud to have been a participant in it.

Please don’t hesitate in the future if I can ever help you with anything… anything at all.

Take care & see you at PubCon

Sincerely & many thanks,

Joanna aka “The Tiara Wearing ThinkTank Goer”

By the time breakfast was over, it was pretty clear the sun was not coming out just yet. Before the silliness of the opening ceremonies was to begin, we had our invention of speed dating.

You will see in this group everything from the top SEO’s in the world, to the webmaster of the Brazillian Jiu Jitsu world champion.

The picture below is classic. We have George Avery, founder of Getads, one of the largest affiliate companies in the world, sitting across from Jon Henshaw of Raven SEO tools.(H of John being held hostage)

I don’t know if they ever met before, but my guess is no. Why would this be a bid deal if they do meet? See Jon and his crew have been working non stop the past few years developing these in depth, killer SEO tools. George, his guys, and affiliates move a crud load of traffic around on the internet. Traditionally affiliate guys have not taken a second look at SEO tools. Now I have no idea what they were talking about in this pic, or if anything happened as a result, but beauty of this, is the diversity it throws together.

The juxtaposition of different groups of people, all tagged by “internet” and “business” and their mixing and interacting in this little thinktank, leads to all kinds of ideas, businesses, and money making, which probably never would have taken place without it.

Come over here to see more pics of everything getting warmed up at thinktank. Remember these pics when you see the next ones showing up.

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For those of you who couldn’t make it I want to give you a feel. thinktank 2 started off mellow. Folks had flown in from all over the world and wandered into the park. It’s the kind of crowd where you don’t need crowd control. You look around and everyone knows if everyone else should be there or not. Even if you haven’t met many of the people, you probably know them as soon as you see them. One guy referred to it as a speakers conference, since so many of the attendees are the most sought after speakers in the internet world.

At this point, I was just stoked that we were done prepping, that we were fairly organized, like a bajillion times more organized than last year, and I was ready to just enjoy myself. Nico from Crepes and Corks came through as I knew he would, with world class crepes cooked up on the beach. Nico is actually Italian, but is a maker of crepes. He told me that lots of guys came by after thinktank and hit him up for more crepes at his shop. He makes killer food and I eat there whenever I am able to.

It was interesting this year. The mood appeared more upbeat and the people more lively right from the first moment than it did last year. There is this crew that is forming that is composed of some of the best and brightest in the internet business world. You will see a lot of these guys at thinktank, and at the elite retreat (Next week in New York!). You will also find them hanging as a pack at the poker tournament at Pubcon, and I have also seen them glomming together at Affiliate Summit, and heard they were together at SES. Expect big things from this group in the future. Not just the money they will make, but what this group will become. I have a lot of faith in our power and what we can do with it in the future when everyone has made enough money.

The first morning the grey sea fog had not burned off yet, and it felt like a surfers early morning. Warm greetings, and a little chit chat. The fun was about to begin. Check out the gallery for the first set of thinktank photos.