EightBlack.

Des is a fellow Aussie. And we reckon that out of the 1000 odd attendees at Blogworld, there were only 4 Aussies in the audience. One apparently is a permanent resident, so that technically doesn’t count. Actually, it was also rumoured that he now lives in Des Moine, which sort of says it all really. Ok, I made that bit up.

Anyway, Des is a breath of fresh air in the technology space. He’s passionate, knowledgeable and definitely older than 23! Which makes me feel better after seeing Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook and Matt Mullenweg from Wordpress, who incidentally, are both 23.

I’m not even holding the fact that Des lives on the Gold Coast against him. He obviously has his reasons for living there - which make no sense to a Melbournian like me.

Des writes a blog (in fact a couple), but his Thinking Home Business blog is ranked as the 33rd most popular blog in Australia, according to The Top 100 Aussie Blog Index.

If you need to hire a consultant to teach your organisation about Social Media, then Des is your man. Companies like AMP in Australia already have.

If you have anything to do with marketing online, and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock - you no doubt will have heard of Joel Comm.

He’s one smart bastard. And he clearly has the midas touch.

Joel’s latest creation has taken the web literally by storm. The Next Internet Millionaire is a very successful adaptation of the proven TV reality series. And after talking with Joel, it sounds like it was no mean feat to execute. In fact, it sounded like a nightmare. The logistics must have been astonishing. Over 300 auditions, a full size production and camera crew, a 9000 square foot warehouse, multiple sets etc. The list goes on.

It’s this effort and attention to detail that sets Joel apart from a lot of the “snake oil” salespeople that exist in the online marketing world. He’s all about content. And delivery.

The thing that struck me about Joel is that he knows how to build online businesses that are “saleable”. Ones that have clear exit strategies and ones which don’t depend on the sole efforts of the lone “guru”.

His background includes writing a gaming site that was eventually sold to Yahoo! and then renamed “Yahoo Games”. He then went on to write a New York Times best seller with “The Adsense Code”.

And now The Next Internet Millionaire.

One thing is for sure. Joel has impeccable instinct when it comes to the online space. He’s a good guy to know. A better marketer you will not find. And like I said at the beginning, one very, very, smart bastard.

More about him here.

Interviewing Marc made me feel a lot better. For one, he’s about my age. And second, his background is not too different from mine in the sense that he started out his career working for a Madison Ave Ad Agency.

(Small trivia point - my very first job was with Ogilvy & Mather Advertising).

I met Marc via Alex Mandossian and we hung out in Sydney for a few days when Marc was on one of his juggernaut trips. Marc is considered by many to be the online PR guru, which he is. He’s also successfully made the transition from the offline world to the online world and works with some very large corporates in the PR space.

He’s a true content provider. And one very good operator. More about him here.

For a guy who’s just pulled together what is the largest gathering of “bloggers”, Dave is one cool cat.

I met Dave about 6 months ago in Chicago at an internet gig and was so impressed with his actual presentation and his approach to blogging, that I asked if he did any private consulting.

Thankfully for me, he did. And about a month later, I flew back to the US to his home town of Boulder, Colorado. Dave was an exceptional host and provided me with a lot of sound advice on how to optimise our own blog.

He sort of mentioned off the cuff back then that he was organising “Blogworld”. I thought cool. But then quickly dismissed it. Although something told me that I should attend.

When you actually see what is unfolding here in Vegas, you quickly realise that Dave has done an amazing job. He’s corralled together industry leading talent and content. People like Mark Cuban, Matt Mullenweg, Richard Jalichandra, Michael Arrington and more.

Not to mention being physically able to put more than 2,000 bums on seats. And in a city as distracting as Vegas. I know from personal experience just how tough that is.

In many respects, Dave is the father of blogging. He makes a very comfortable, very full time living from his own online efforts. And when you meet Dave in person, the annoying thing is that he makes it look easy.

Which it aint. But it is worth it.

My mother always used to say to me “if you can’t say anything nice about someone, then don’t say anything at all”. It was one of those sayings that old people like parents liked to constantly drill into you.

Now that I’m a parent, saying this to my 4 and 6 year olds is about as effective as Britney Spears is at staying checked into any one of the random “clinics” in Beverley Hills. Or something like that.

A couple of posts below this is my re-cap of my time with Seth Godin in New York. Because Seth had set the “ground rules” in previous emails, it was clear to me that if I was to post about his get together, then I needed permission. Which I got.

Just because the net has made the world we live and work in a “boundary-less” environment, doesn’t mean that common manners shouldn’t prevail. Thank you still goes a long way - even in cyber space.

Bloggers like Avinash are fantastic at responding to comments on his blog. He even follows up with personal emails. He’s presenting at Blog World in Vegas in November later this year. There’ll be thousands upon thousands there. And I bet if you were in the audience and wrote to Avinash to ask him a question or request a copy of the slides, he’d respond. Because that’s what he did with me when I saw him way back earlier this year at the Web 2.0 Expo.

It’s the attention to detail, the follow up, the setting the ground rules that sets the standard - even in the blogosphere.

I seem to be knee deep in start up’s lately. And proudly, all Aussie. Well, actually - that’s patriotic nonsense. In fact, I would argue that it’s much harder for a start-up to get traction downunder than it is offshore. Our funding sources are too limited. As is the talent pool.

If you put down on your tax return “Venture Capitalist” in the box occupation, 2 guys in a government vehicle would come around, put you in an immigration detention centre and a very unpleasant women with a rubber glove would proceed to crawl up your arse with a very large toilet brush.

Or something like that.

Before you start wailing, I know there are always exceptions to the rule.

I reckon Hippo has legs. Thats why we’re delighted they’re our newest client. I think Chris and Johnny are on to something. And I definitely think Mark and Rob are going to give the search industry a run for it’s money.

We’re also having a crack at something ourselves. Too early to tell but I’m listening to Marc Andreessen and reading this post by Rich Skrenta and Uncov.

God, I pissed myself laughing when I read this on Uncov. Open the page. And then look to the right hand corner. Exactly.

I remember being at Guy Kawasaki’s Garage.com conference in New York back in Web 1.0 (or whatever you want to refer to it as). I remember being interviewed 3 times by PeoplePC and contemplating moving from the midwest to San Francisco with a 4 month year old son. God, I’m glad I didn’t.

Remarkably, PeoplePC is still alive.

The crazy thing is that even amongst all the hysteria back then, people’s logic sort of went south. I know mine did. I got carried away with the internet dream without understanding the most important thing.

Who are you going to sell it to? (the”it” being the product, the service, the application).

Personally, I think its been a bit quiet on the web.

I know Facebook is all the rage at the moment (and picking up speed like a runaway freight train), Google is defending its recent financials, as well as quietly tip-toeing into the spectrum race (about as quietly as a 300 lb gorilla can anyway), Microsoft is buying up as many online ad companies it can get its hands on and theres somewhat of a renaissance going on at Yahoo!

There’s also a little company called Twitter thats making a splash - I first came across these guys at Web 2.0 Expo earlier this year.

But its all a bit “Business As Usual” sort of stuff. Nothing riveting. Nothing that jumps off the page. Or so I thought.

I was listening to a voice post from John Battelle and he was talking about the preparation thats going on for the upcoming Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco in October.

I’ve talked about this a little bit before, but you cant help but be impressed by the line-up of presenters and key notes. Battelle goes on to state:

“I do this thing with some of the players of the big platform players - Google, Yahoo!, Vicacom, EBay, Microsoft and I’m really going to push with these guys towards the edge. Its not just the new hot start ups or edgy markets or places where the web hasnt caught up yet, but what are they doing about operating on the fringe….”

The voice post is here for those who want to listen.

It got me thinking about a meeting I had late last week. I’ve posted about MyLiveSearch before and the 2 smart brothers behind this new search technology. They’ve had some decent initial coverage.

Well, there’s not much I can share at this stage due to a non-disclosure agreement - but I will say this. I think, just maybe, that these guys might be on to something. I saw a real, live, working demo of the search interface and it took me a while to truly appreciate what they have done.

If successful, MyLiveSearch could well and truly invert the entire search space. Thats if they’re allowed to. The beta version is due out in 3 weeks or so. It might very well change the way you think and “search” on a daily basis.

Will it threaten the Google juggernaut? Maybe not. But it will catch their attention. And the Gabriel boys might just find themselves working from a Mountain View address in the not too distant future.

These sorts of applications are the “edge” that I think Battelle refers to. And its not until you see it first hand, that you truly marvel at the way the web is continuing to evolve.

5 years is a long time to work with anyone. Especially when that person is me.

Today marks the last day for David Galt, our Client Services Director. Most people know him as they guy who makes things happen or the guy who’s “Mr. Reliable” when they either can’t find me or cant get me to respond.

I honestly dont know how I would have run our business in the beginning (and now) if it wasnt for Dave. From those early days working beside each other in the 4th bedroom of our house, to our cramped office in Latrobe Street, to now our digs in St Kilda Rd.

I remember when I jumped off the corporate treadmill and I wanted to go and have a muck around with this internet stuff. Dave was a junior marketing assistant at the company I just left. I called him and said “Hey, I dont know what I’m going to do in the online space, but I sure could use your help”. To his credit, he jumped straight in. And I am eternally grateful for the faith he put in me in the beginning.

Like all start-ups, we’ve seen the good and the bad. Our seminar, back in 2004, would not have been possible without his contribution. He’s met some great people, both here and principally in the US. And he’s travelled well. He’s developed formidable online skills, he approaches an industry that suffers from hype and hysteria with a sense of calm and he is, quite annoyingly, mostly right with his calls. Which shits me.

My humble words here cant do the guy justice. Let the evidence speak is all I say. In the time he worked with me, I never had a client say one bad thing, in fact, all I heard was praise. To such an extent, a client hired him for a year to work on site. He handled that assignment with the maturity of a consultant 10 years his senior.

Dave has earned his stripes. He’s earned my utmost respect. More importantly, he’s earned the respect from each and every client we’ve ever worked with. Which is no mean feat.

Next week, his career takes off. He assumes control of the online efforts for Webjet, one of our clients. A public company with revenues in excess of A$250 million and a significant online budget. I know he’ll handle the new job with ease.

Dave deserves this opportunity. And from the bottom of my heart, I thank him for his contribution over the last 5 years.

(And next week will be an interesting environment for us all. Dave becomes THE client, not the employee. He’s joking with me that he’s going to give me a hard time. I’ll resist the urge to go and tell him to “sit and rotate” when he needs something done. After all, he knows how to do it all anyway).

Dave, I am indebted to you my friend. Always.

This event is a lot bigger than I first thought. And the attendee numbers around the 500+ mark. Thats in Sydney alone.

We just returned from Omniture in Utah, where we completed our Implementation Certification. It will be interesting to see how the senior team from Omniture perform in front of an Aussie audience.

More importantly, there’s a featured case study in the travel sector, with a company called “travel.com.au”. Now that should be interesting, given we have a client in the same space.

In my mind, web analytics is the future of the web. And so few people understand it. Its the single reason that we are determined to lead in this space and why were investing heavily in our people and training.

Omniture is not the only web analytics company in the space. But its got one thing that a lot of its competitors dont.

Momentum. And great people.

I’m going to interview Josh James, Omnitures CEO and founder in the next week or so. Should be an interesting chat. Stay tuned.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about creating this blog is the people I’ve come into contact with - online and off.

And one of the things I am concentrating on is building a guest speaker line-up - of people who I can interview over the phone, transcribe the content and then post the entire content (audio and written) to the blog. You can check out the recent interviews with Avinash Kaushik here and Michael Hewitt-Gleeson here.

So this post is somewhat of a challenge.

Here’s the list I’m working on. Some of the people on the list have no idea who I am or have no prior relationship with me. In fact, some are going to be down right impossible to either contact or track down.

But I learnt a very valuable management tip from my good friend, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson a few years ago when he was training our regional management team from a prior company I was involved with.

The tip is this. If you want to meet anyone in the world, no matter who it is - this simple rule applies (and it may seem relatively obvious, but its beauty is its simplicity).

The rule is, if you want to meet someone - follow this saying (G.S.E.T.D.I.F.Y).

It stands for - “GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU”. Meaning, if you want to meet say Bill Gates, its probably not a wise idea to send a message to his hotmail address or simply call up Microsoft Seattle and ask for him by name.

But what if you knew someone who knew how to get hold of him. That might make a difference. As would the very reason or nature of what and why you wanted to talk.

I met Jeff Raikes a long time ago. Still have his email address and the email conversations we shared. If I wanted to meet Big Bill, I’d start with trying to convince Jeff to have Bill’s PA just listen to my pitch. By the way, Jeff has worked for MS for many years and is considered one of the most trusted guys on the senior management team.

So the reason for this post.

Ok, here’s a line up of people I’d love to interview. Some because I am naturally curious and want to know their thoughts and opinions. Others I want to chat to because they are literally rock stars in their field. And some are just plain, borderline crazy. Or maybe a little wierd. Nevertheless, I reckon it would be a hoot to chat with them on the phone for an hour and throw questions at them.

I promise nothing to them in return - apart from distributing the content to some 12,000 people (roughly the size of our email database).

My challenge to everyone reading this is simple. Help me get to the list below and I’ll rate the persons efforts, along with who I think might be (or is the most difficult person to reach) on a scale of 1 to 10 and the winner will receive a business class airfare, plus accommodation, plus entry fee to Blog World Expo, held in Las Vegas in November this year. My good buddy Dave Taylor is arranging it. (And no, I don’t have a competition permit, my decision will be final and I get to choose who and what I ask in the interview).

Simple enough.

Well, don’t make any judgements until you’ve seen this list. And by the way, I have no real expectations in making it even half way through the line-up. I realise I’m aiming high.

Here it is (in no particular order):

1. John Batttelle - Best Selling Author and Entrepreneur

2. Marc Andreessen - Serial Entrepreneur and founder Netscape

3. Seth Godin - Author

4. Adrian Giles - Hitwise co-founder

5. Robert Scoble - Well known, outspoken American blogger and technical evangelist.

6. Matt Cutts - Head of Google’s Web Spam team. Well known blogger.

7. Jeremy Zawodny

8. Mark Zuckerberg - co-founder, Facebook.

9. Danny Sullivan - leading SEO authority.

10. Guy Kawasaki - well known VC, Entrepreneur and technologist

11. Tom Peters - if you dont know who Tom Peters is, you’ve been living under a rock.

And by the way, if you want to add anyone to this list (or even think you qualify), drop me a line to (eightblack AT gmail dot come) and we’ll chat.

There’s an existing list I’m working on right now - and I think I have these folks covered in terms of access. I’ll let you know who they are in due course.

Stay tuned…