I have been running a website design and digital marketing agency for 10 years now (literally as of this month, happy decade in business to us) and have “threatened” to go to BrightonSEO on numerous occasions. It just never actually came to fruition, until this weekend.
Rather than going solo, which, looking at the published statistics, a huge number of attendees do, I decided to take three of my team along for the ride. That turned out to be a great call, as it allowed us to cover more ground and attend more talks than I could have managed on my own. (It also saved me having to feed everything back myself.)
Being new to the event I didn’t have much to go from. We have attended MozCon before, which we also found very valuable, but nothing on the scale of what BrightonSEO offers, which is why I’ve put together this guide to hopefully help other agencies on their first visit.
What is BrightonSEO?
If you have got this far you probably already know what BrightonSEO is, so I’m not going to state the obvious. Here is the short version.
The event runs over two days (three if you decide on the training), where numerous speakers from agencies, SaaS platforms and other places come together to share the latest insights into the ever-changing world of SEO and, more importantly now, GEO, AEO, AI SEO or whatever everybody wants to call it. What do we even call it? I’ll let you decide.
The speakers are split across different rooms. This year there were five stages plus a masterclass stage, where more in-depth talks and training on specific subjects took place.
On top of this, visitors can walk around the stands bought by suppliers of digital marketing tools, learn all about them, and pick up plenty of freebies along the way.
Attending the event
We actually got to Brighton the night before and went for dinner and a few drinks to soak in the local atmosphere. What a fantastic place Brighton is. There is a huge amount of nightlife, shops, restaurants and more. I was honestly dead impressed and really didn’t expect it.
Arriving in the city you already feel the buzz, and I mean as soon as you hit Brighton, let alone the event.
The whole city gets taken over by digital marketing folk, and everywhere you go you can almost guarantee you will bump into somebody else who is attending. It was also nice to see such a diverse mix of people, who seemed to be from all over Europe, with quite a few from the US too.
Event start (Thursday, 9am)
When you get to the venue this is amplified. We arrived at around 9am and the queues were pretty big but manageable.
They are split into two queues: those who were organised and printed their own tickets in advance, and those who didn’t and had to go inside to get them printed.
We fell firmly into the not-organised camp and ended up having to get ours printed at the door. In honesty, I’m glad we did, as we got a nice premium card lanyard rather than the paper-in-a-plastic-wallet version you got if you pre-printed, so I’m really not classing us as the fools here.
Once inside you walk straight into a hall full of exhibitors. These are predominantly SaaS companies in the digital marketing sector, some you should already know about and others new to the game.
This year the exhibitor spotlight shone firmly on companies selling AI visibility tools. It felt like every corner you turned you hit another product offering the same output with a different UI and a slightly different unique selling point, but that is to be expected given the nature of the AI industry and how fast it is growing.
The talks
First things first when it comes to the talks: if you want to get the absolute most from them, use the scheduling feature on the BrightonSEO website and build a full schedule of talks before the event. Don’t leave it until the day, or you will be walking around aimlessly, or paying for talks that aren’t relevant to you or of interest.
What we did find nice was the length of the talks. They were generally around the 20-minute mark, which meant the speakers had to get to the point in a relatively short time. That really works for somebody like me who struggles to hold attention for long periods, especially when I learn faster by doing rather than being shown.
The morning session covered four speakers before a half-hour break. The same goes for the second morning session, before you break for an hour and a half for lunch. The afternoon sessions have three speakers per session and a 30-minute break.
Again, this felt right. It let you take notes and not feel overwhelmed by a subject before moving on to another talk.
The great thing is that the speakers are just normal people in similar positions to you as an attendee, and they are more than happy to answer any questions you have about their talks.
Overall we really enjoyed the speakers and found most of them genuinely insightful. There were a couple who were trying too hard to plug their software, or a software they are affiliated with, but in honesty that is to be expected. Just pick talks around what you are interested in and you will be fine.
I can’t comment much on the quality of the masterclasses as I didn’t get round to one, but Talia from my team went to the technical SEO masterclass and said it was very beneficial to her as an SEO.
Finish and drinks
You will probably notice that at about the 4:30pm mark people start slowly peeling off and appearing in the bar area, which this year was a floor up from the ground floor (I think, if I remember correctly).
A huge number of people end up here to grab a drink and talk to other attendees, share their thoughts and do some networking. It’s also a great time to catch up with the speakers if they are around, as they end up here too.
Quick tip: the free newspaper you are given has a free drink token in it. Make sure you cut it out (or just rip it) and hand it over to get your first pint or drink of choice completely free. There was a good selection too.
From the venue the “party” moves over to a bar called The Tempest, right on the seafront, which was a nice quirky venue that felt as much like a cave as it did a bar. Everybody gathers here whether they are at the conference solo or as a team, which makes it easy to mingle.
BrightonSEO tips
- Plan your day. I have mentioned this already, but it is really important, so here it is again. You will get your money’s worth if you spend an hour or so the week before planning.
- Get there early. It was fairly busy arriving at 9am, and when I walked past at 8:30 after breakfast it was much less crowded.
- Make the most of the freebies, if that is your thing. There are some really good exhibitors, some of whom I hadn’t actually exchanged details with but who had great software, and I remembered them after looking at one of the T-shirts I got from their stand.
- The talks are short, so if you write slowly, take photos of the slides. Especially in an AI-driven world, we found it easier to photograph the slides and drop them into Claude or similar at the end of the day to create a full overview of everything we had taken in.
- Talk to people. I know that sounds alien, but everybody there is in the same position: there to learn more about search marketing. You make great connections, and in some cases even end up with work from other companies, which is a nice bonus.
- Free drink token. Remember it is in your newspaper, which feels almost useless until you realise it has a free drink token in it. So if nothing else, it will save you £5 or more on a drink after the event.
- Do both days. While it may feel easier to just do one, we definitely benefited from attending both. The subjects are diverse and need both days if you want to make the most of them.
Key takeaways
Overall, attending the event brought home the importance of keeping up to date with the search industry. With the rise and ever-advancing uses of AI, the SEO industry is changing faster than it ever has.
The event let us keep up with the latest trends in the industry, network with like-minded people who share the same struggles, and go away feeling more confident that we are all in the same boat.
I’m definitely looking forward to putting some of what we learnt into practice for our customers (and ourselves) to help them grow even more, which is the main reason we went.
