Where We've Been

Amsterdam – April 8/9-April 13

This trip overseas was another in my regular series of visits to Amsterdam, where the Unaira team is located. I was slated to attend management meetings with Rik Mulder, Managing Director of Unaira, and Michiel Vos, Unaira's Financial Manager, and to meet new additions to the technical team.

I had the good fortune to stay at the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam, which is located right on the Amstel River and is considered the number one hotel in Amsterdam. It's a fantastic place, and even though it's not in the center of Amsterdam – which means that it's much quieter – it's only a 10-minute walk from Dam Square and the Unaira offices. The hotel is very cool; not only does it boast a Michelin-starred restaurant (La Rive), but it also offers a clubby bar (Amstel Bar & Brasserie) on the river level. Wood-paneled and offering views of river traffic, Amstel is a perfect representation of a hotel bar. This place definitely gets it right.

The hotel's guest accommodations are fabulous – gracious and elegantly furnished – and I was given a huge room on the top floor, complete with a marble bath. It's easily one of the nicest hotels I've stayed in, and I'll make a point of staying here again.

Aside from meeting with the Unaira team, I flew to Luton in the UK (north of London) to catch up with clients.

Back in Amsterdam, with the work taken care of, I saw the Black Crowes perform at Heineken Music Hall. We were able to score tickets through the friends of a friend, and the concert was terrific, an unexpected treat.

I also took the opportunity to go mountain biking with Rik on the moors around Hilversum and Laren, towns that are about 20 minutes out from Amsterdam. In their vicinity are lots of protected forestlands that attract folks intent on being outdoors. You can bring your own bike or rent one in the area (I borrowed mine from a friend of Rik's) and tackle the terrain as you wish.

One of the most interesting things I saw on our ride was a viaduct made expressly for animals. When the railroad was built nearby, it bisected two natural areas and initially cut off accessibility for creatures in the area. The viaduct took care of that and was dressed with rocks and vegetation to make it place-appropriate. We could tell that it was a success from the amount of wildlife that we encountered. Although there are no mountains in the area, the bike-riding was still really good.

- posted by Brice J. Bay, CEO

New York City – mid March 2008

Deep Thoughts & Rough Metaphors, or Things About Stuff

SES 2008 NYC

With search trends evolving as they are, it's essential that folks who generate web content (like 10Best's writers and editors) expand their know-how wider than they ever imagined way back when they submitted those first museum write-ups or feature articles for publication. These days, the responsibility for determining components like title tags, key words, meta keywords, and optimized captions shouldn't fall into the laps of the office's techies. It can't. After all, who knows what the key phrases of a 500-word article are better than the person who wrote it?

With that in mind, 10Best jumped at the opportunity to send me to NYC (contrary to popular belief, not just to give everybody else a break) this March to attend the weeklong Search Engine Strategies Conference at the Hilton on Sixth Avenue. We (yours truly and another 10Best editor, Aubrae) left the Sunday before St. Pat's Day and landed at LGA around 5pm or so after a bumpy flight.

The most noteworthy part of the first half-day was the dinner we had at John's Pizzeria Times Square, which somebody recommended with not-so-subtle emphasis on it being a "shrine to pizza .. literally." I guess he has a strong affinity for NY-style pizza, but what do I know? The place, in fact, does have holy aspirations – it's a converted church. And though I hate to resort to pun-isms, let me just say the Pizza Bianca was nothing short of divine and leave it at that.

It was a decent walk back to the hotel that night – something we both needed after the number we did on that poor pie. As the blocks passed by, my "pub-dar" kicked into high gear ... I laughed thinking of Will Hunting rattling off the very Irish names of his twelve imaginary brothers. "Soon – now's not the time," I told each Connolly, O'Lunney's, and O'Brien we passed by.

The four days that followed are still a blur of panel discussions, expert lectures, work shops, and lunch meetings that hovered between "huh?" and helpful, along with a dart out one day to catch the St. Pat's Parade and on another day to stand in line for discounted show tickets. It was my understanding that SES had done a better job this time than ever before in terms of diversifying the sessions so that content generators and copy writers like me walked away feeling we got our money's worth. That was true to a degree, and though the conference was by and large a techie affair, I found a lot of value in attending. This is particularly true of sessions I went to focusing on social networking, viral marketing, and generating keyword-friendly copy. One thing I can tell you for certain is this: Tech conferences do "it" far better than any literary conference I ever attended. The digs, the complimentary lunches, the coffee, and, most importantly, the giveaways far exceeded the folder and postcard I received when I delivered a paper at the American Conference for Irish Studies!

At night, in an effort to get out of conference mode (and out of the hotel), we splurged on meals at DB Bistro and Gotham Bar. Both are great experiences and well worth all the accolades and countless write-ups they've received. What I'll remember best, though, are the places we went to that nobody recommended ... the ones we Forrest Gumped our way into. A rustic East Village joint called North Forty was such a place. If you happen to end up there one night and they have the bourbon-n-burger special on the board, get it. Another place, Natsumi, we found one night after catching a show, and their sushi was just what I needed at 10pm. We happened on Patzeria on West 46th in an act of desperation – it was cold, windy, and we ducked into the first restaurant we saw. It ain't much (when I say four stools and a cash register, I mean it), but that little joint had the nicest guys behind the counter and the meanest stromboli I've ever eaten. Every trip has its gem, and for this trip to New York it'd have to be the Astro on 6th. We ate breakfast at that little diner three out of five days, and it was terrific every time. Note to self: feta, spinach and onions DO belong on an omelet!

There were more than a few pub stops – for research-only purposes, of course – as well. Ulysses down Pearl Street was solid, and I had a great conversation with a Dutch couple at O'Lunney's. The capper, though, was my first-ever visit to McSorely's, which definitely lived up to the billing. It's as gritty and authentic as I imagined. I could have done without the cheese-and-onion snack ballyhooed by a friend (quite literally, it was as follows: a paper plate with rings of raw onions and sliced white cheddar accompanied by a sleeve of saltines); otherwise it was a real treat to visit that place.

I knew coming home that, inevitably, somebody at the office would ask me what the conference taught me about search engine strategies and that I had better formulate something more intelligent than "things about stuff." I thought about this question long and hard. There are so many different ideas about how to employ this strategy or how to maximize the effects of that strategy, and most all of them have one common goal in mind: to increase the number of eyes on your site.

And while there are tons of SEO strategies out there, the key to finding the one that works is a lot like trying to find a good restaurant in New York. (Hey, you knew a metaphor was coming, right?) For starters, there are good ones everywhere, but if you want to have a good experience at a restaurant, do your research, pick one that interests you or best suits your needs, and just go. Give it a chance to impress you; drink the wine, try the special, eat the dessert ... let the restaurant do its thing. If it's good, you'll know.

- posted by Joseph K. Hall, Jr., 10Best Editor

Las Vegas and Minneapolis – Late February, mid March 2008

What a Difference a Few Weeks Makes

Business travel is a funny thing, a breeding ground for a love/hate relationship. Some days I think that I could definitely do more of it, and other times I think that if I never went on another business trip again it would be too soon. In fact, recently I experienced this dramatic pendulum swing in the space of just a few short weeks. My business travel "high" was in Las Vegas where I was attending the global business conference of one of our clients. Of course there's gambling and partying aplenty in Sin City, but that's not what made my trip so spectacular. Rather it was what I did during a small window of time when I was able to sneak away from a busy roster of conferences and meetings. I treated myself to a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. It was really amazing to fly over "The Strip" and see the glitz and glitter of Vegas and then head over scrubby desert terrain to the beauty of the Canyon. A landing for a champagne lunch on a small butte in the south end of the Canyon was icing on the cake. This short yet marvelous experience had me thinking that I could definitely handle more business travel. However, shortly thereafter, these thoughts came up quite short on a trip to the suburbs of Minneapolis where I was meeting with a client to work out processes and procedures for a website content management project I am managing for them. The temps were just clearing the freezing point and snow was on the ground. I was lodging at a nice, but very basic, hotel. I lived essentially for an entire two days within the confines of a small conference room and spent my one evening ordering a greasy burger to go before hitting the pillow with a migraine. This experience had me murmuring something about the ills of business travel to anyone within earshot. Who knows what the next trip will hold? It's the unknown along with the unexpected pleasures that fuel my on again/off again love affair with traveling for the company.

- posted by Aubrae Wagner, Director of Content Management