YoastCon 2019 ~ next level

The Yoast Conference (YoastCon 2019), was like no other conference I have ever attended. The level of detail that went into everything was absolutely next level. The branding was brilliant and made me realise I definitely need to up our branding game!

I am incredibly grateful for their #YoastDiversityFund, for sponsoring my trip and making it possible for me to attend and be a speaker at the conference. 

I am by no means a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert, I do however know that if you don't have your reputation management building blocks in place, you'll be wasting your money on fancy websites and SEO. I stuck to what I know best, and talked about building reputations. 

Some of the super quirky things, that I particularly loved:

Instead of someone dashing around with a mic for audience members to ask questions, they had this fun take on a roving mic; you throw this foam block to the person wanting to ask a question, a whole heap of fun!

During the breaks we got to build our own Lego person. I love the synchronicity of the building blocks of Lego and the building blocks of reputations. The little block that the character is holding says: "Don't postpone anything to tomorrow that you could start building today." 

How cool is this! Guest speaker Rand Fishkin and Geraldine De Ruiter's books!

Funky Yoast socks

Flirting with Yoasie! Love that Joost (Founder of Yoast, photo bombed us!)

The networking was excellent, met incredible people

From left to right: Kate Toon, me, James Brockbank, Jason Barnard

Ines from EasyJet

After my podcast recording with Jason Barnard

With Marieke van de Rakt, Yaost CEO

The conference was ended off with the whole Yoast team taking to the stage and doing a synchronised dance to Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling", very impressive! (When I was walking in a shopping centre the next day and heard the song playing I almost broke out in a dance! Isn't is wonderful how music can transport you immediately to a time and place and have the ability to immediately sky rocket your mood).

I will always treasure the memories and friendships made at this very special conference. 

Made it to Nijmegen | YoastCon 2019 | 06 February 2019

Normally quite a boring and ignored procedure, British Airways has taken a new spin on the in flight security procedure, a fresh take on something quite banal. [For a giggle, take a look]: 

The flight from London to Amsterdam was choc ‘n block and people took their time to get to their seats; there was an announcement asking passengers to please rather take their bags with them to their seas as the overhead lockers were full.  I nestled into my window seat; my hand luggage on my lap, as it was just a bit too big to fit under the seat. Fueled on only a couple of hours’ sleep I nodded off as the last passengers dribbled on. An agitated air hostess woke me up rather abruptly, terribly annoyed that I had not put my bag under the seat. I explained to her that it didn’t fit and that I was following the announcer’s request of keeping my bag with me. She was hugely frustrated, so I passed my bag to her to make a plan with it. She then shoved my bag under the seat along the aisle seat just in front of me, and started kicking it in! I asked her to please not kick my bag, to which she snapped that she was just pushing it in with her foot! Seriously uncool British Airways!

Within an hour we were in Amsterdam and I made my way to the train station; got my ticket and directions to the platform number and was told that it was a direct route. Checked the signage and saw Nijmegen, got on and engrossed myself in my book for the next hour or so; I knew it was about an hour and a half journey, so didn’t really look at the train station stops. Then there was an announcement saying that we all had to disembark due to an accident on the tracks (from conversations on the platform, I heard that someone had apparently committed suicide!). I asked the security on the terminal what train I should take to get to Nijmegen, they looked a bit confused, was rather unhelpful so I went to find a ticket office. The lady was very confused, and said that I was on the wrong train! It was going in totally the wrong direction! [I realise what had happened, when I had looked at the signage earlier at Schipol on the platform, I saw Nijmegen at the bottom of the screen, assuming that it was the final destination of that particular train, not that that was the next train. Aaaanyway finally got onto the right train; a double decker one! [There is free wifi on the trains and most public places. Thank goodness, there is no longer a real need for international roaming; my MTN bill racked up in Dubai years ago, still sends me into a cold panic (R50 000!)].

I have no idea where I was travelling from, but I knew that I had to change trains at Utrecht, then all the way through to Nijmegen. I was meant to arrive in Nijmegen early on Wednesday morning, with the visa / wrong train debacle, I arrived in an already dark, wet Nijmegen at 19:00. 

I forgot how much I enjoyed the European winters, the crispiness in the air, and the wonderful warmth that envelopes you when you go inside buildings.

Boutique Hotel Straelman where I was booked in was about a kilometer away from the train station, I initially thought that I would walk, but after what felt like the longest journey ever, I hailed a cab. Got very excited when we drove past the venue, and I saw the YoastCon banner. 

The hotel is in an old house and beautiful, if anyone ever visits Nijmegen, I highly recommend this hotel.

Obviously not taken late at night, but it gives you an idea of the beautiful architecture; absolute joy of safely walking at night and super early in the morning.  

I won’t lie, I was quite ready for bed but an evening dinner had been organised, and I thought, jeepers, I didn’t traipse half way across the globe to sleep. The restaurant was about a block away from where I was staying. The other thing that I really like about Europe, is that I feel perfectly safe to walk alone at night…late at night.

It was my first interaction with the Yoast crowd; this is what I absolutely love about conferences, meeting new people, making new friends. Exciting times!

Nijmegen, Netherlands ~ Travelling to YoastCon 2019 | 05 February 2019

“We need to leave promptly at 16:00, to be at the airport by 17:00, so that you are there two hours before your flight…” was pretty much Mark’s mantra for the past week, “do you have everything that you need?”.

“Ja ja ja…” was my chant back at him each time.

I was chuffed that everything had pretty much gone according to plan, collected my passport and visa from the Dutch consulate in the morning (admittedly this was cutting things a bit fine, important part, I had my visa).

Traffic was an absolute nightmare to the airport; bumper to bumper with the obligatory taxi cutting us off every now and again and the moustached Mitsubishi driver behind us, oblivious to any kind of safe following distance; fortunately, we made it all according to plan with time to spare.

Clocked in at British Airways and proudly presented my passport as part of the process before heading towards the check in counter. “Where is the transit visa for Heathrow?”  I was asked as my passport was being flicked through. I indicated that I was not going into London, just transferring. Apparently, even if you are only in transit, you need a visa, who knew? Bizarrely if you have a Canadian or USA visa, you’re good to go and allowed to transfer via London.  I renewed my passport in 2017, so I didn’t have any of my previous visas with me; the only one that I did have, Côte d’Ivoire, unfortunately wasn’t going to help in this instance.

I couldn’t remember when I was in Chicago, but I knew that the American visa is valid for quite some time, at least five years. I couldn’t be sure and there really wasn’t much I could do, other than wait until Mark got home to check it for me, about a 45 minute drive / wait.

Once he got home, I directed him to where he could find my old passports. He found it and then worked through all the visas, Canada ~ expired 2008; UK 2011, Canada 2011, USA… 2024 relief! The man then had to traipse all the way back to the airport through the traffic… another 45 odd minutes.

While I was waiting, I started chatting to a holiday maker from India, who had forgotten his mobile phone in a cab and together we waited in anticipation of getting our respective items before the boarding of the flight closed. He had some really good advice for me, staple all your passports together, in that way you have everything with you; am going to do that the minute I get hold of a stapler.

Mark made it back to the airport in record time! I am / was super impressed and so so incredibly grateful!

Old and new passports with all the necessary visas presented, everyone happy (possibly not Mark… or Bella and the cats who were apparently highly unimpressed to be fed their dinner late…)

What a palaver! Long and the short of it, you need a transit visa when travelling through the UK, and always take all your passports and visas with you.

After a 12 hour flight (direct flight from Cape Town to London), I’m ready for the next stretch.

Nijmegen, here I come!