Storytime!

I moved to the UK in 2022, and that same year, I attended my first SEO meetup in central London. One of the largest companies in the world was hosting, and they promised a culinary experience that excited me. 

As a proper foodie, I went to the gym in the morning, skipped lunch, and prepared my tummy for a new dining experience, but I was greatly disappointed when I saw the menu only included a charcuterie board and wine.

As I sat in a corner, hungry and annoyed, I promised myself that someday I’d host SEO meetups unlike anything anyone had experienced in London.

Friends, I’ve finally achieved that goal, and I’d love to share my learnings with you.

I’m from Nigeria, and back home, you can’t host a gathering without good food because it’s extremely important to the success of an event.

The guests might not remember much a few months after the event, but they’ll remember how good food made them feel.

During our July Sip & Search, I served Ghanaian food that included:

• Jollof rice
• Fried rice
• Plantains
• Turkey tail
• Beef suya
• Spring rolls

When I say the food was banging, I mean it was absolutely delicious, flavorful, and satisfying.

People would arrive looking anxious, maybe unsure of how to mingle. We’d point them toward the food table, and just like that, conversations would spark between strangers in the queue. 

As they filled their plates and sat down to eat, you could see the tension leave their bodies. 

The room softened, as laughter bubbled up and strangers let their guards down.

Food is an integral part of community gatherings. It has the power to create joy and foster that feeling of ubuntu that is so important in community.

I looked around the room and saw 60+ marketers laughing, talking, and looking energized after an exhausting day. You could tell the vibes were immaculate.

One of the main things I’ve noticed at events is that people tend to zone out or get distracted during talks.

I have ADHD, and sitting still for long periods, especially after a full workday, is a struggle. My attention span is running on fumes by the evening.

I needed a way to keep the momentum going after the high of good food, and made the crazy decision to start the panel session with a group karaoke session.

As SEOs and digital marketers, we spend most of our week in front of our computers, and there’s rarely space to be silly and playful.

So, we tapped into our inner child with Queen’s iconic “We Will Rock You” and everyone got into it.

For three minutes, we were young again and having the time of our lives as we bounced our hands and feet to the rhythm of Queen’s classic tunes.

Here’s a video from Jahed Quddus that perfectly captures the moment.

At the end, everyone was smiling, and I knew I had their attention; now, I just needed to hold it.

The next challenge was keeping the audience engaged during the panel session. I have been to many SEO meetups where people zone out as soon as the talks begin.

Call me selfish, but I wanted all eyes glued on the speakers or me, no one holding their phones, and everyone visibly engaged.

Here’s how I achieved it:

• Established a good rhythm with the speakers, so it felt more like a conversation happening in a living room
• Asked the hard questions everyone wants answers to
• Ensured speakers kept their answers to 2 minutes
• Involved the audience in the panel session to hear their thoughts on the most divisive questions
• Adopted a banter-style where I moved from panelists to audience so they felt like they were part of the panel session
• Had an ad break after five questions and ensured people were laughing while hearing from our sponsors

And it worked. People leaned in, notepads were out instead of phones, and the audience was alert.

I want to thank Ryan Law, Crystal Carter, and Luke Carthy for being such incredible panelists. I don’t know how I’m gonna top this in October, but I’ll try.

MozCon has always been tied to Seattle. We’ve held it there for so long that people naturally associate the brand with the city.

This year, we decided to take MozCon on the road (London and New York), but we faced a challenge. 

Many people still assume MozCon is in Seattle, so we had an awareness problem. Our UK audience didn’t know we were hosting a London event, and we needed to fix it.

I had the idea of using Sip & Search as an activation event to raise awareness for MozCon London, since this is the audience we’re targeting.

My nonprofit, The FCDC, owns the event, and Moz came in as a sponsor.

During our first event in June, I made some mistakes:

• Spent two minutes promoting MozCon. [You need more than two minutes to sell a big ticket offer]
• Worried that folks would get annoyed if I talked about sponsors. [Wrong, they get annoyed at boring ads that have no value] 
• Assumed that the credibility of the event would convince people to buy tickets. [You need to give people a reason to act and value that makes the expense worth it.]

The result? We only sold one ticket.

Fast-forward to July, and I decided to do things differently:

• I created seven slides for MozCon London 
  • One slide showing all the speakers
  • Five slides highlighting the talks I’m excited to see, and the big takeaway the audience will gain
  • One slide with a pitch kit to help folks get internal buy-in
  • One slide with a special offer exclusive to attendees
• I spoke to the audience like they were my friends instead of people I was trying to sell to

When I got to the QR code for the offer page, everyone had their phones out, ready to take pictures. We have sold enough tickets to justify Moz’s sponsorship of the event.

We ended the night with karaoke, more drinks, and an endless supply of food. One resounding feedback I heard from everyone was:

“Chima, this is the best SEO meetup I’ve ever attended!”

I didn’t know most people experienced similar feelings:

• Frustrated with SEO meetups where organizers spent 30 minutes talking about sponsors (Use funny and conversational ads to break it up)
• Annoyed at the limited food options (Serve food that feels like home home-cooked meal)
• Bored with lengthy talks (Conversation-style panels work for meetups)
• Scared to talk to others or network because there was no soft landing to ease them in (Lots of conversation happens in the food lines. We also provided LinkedIn QR code badges to make networking easier.)

Ryan Law said the secret to creating engaging content is to entertain your audience. I like to think I’ve achieved this with Sip & Search. 

It all started with a charcuterie board disguised as dinner, and similar to most origin stories, we build things when we’re frustrated with the status quo.

We’re bringing those same vibes to MozCon London, so if you’re looking for a conference where you’ll learn a ton of useful skills while having fun, grab a ticket now at our discounted Early Bird tickets for only £350.