The trip to SMX West was a blast except for a bit of bad weather on my way down PCH from San Francisco to LA.  Other than that, I enjoyed a few days off to explore the west coast and relax on Venice and Santa Monica beaches.  Although my original plan was to stay in Santa Monica, I ended up finding some great deals on Los Angeles hotels but ended up on a cozy Venice Beach hotel which I found as I searched for hotels in LA at a great price.

It was crazy, from Friday to Monday, I went through rain and fog through the mountains – so bad that I had to pull over on the side of the road at times because I couldn’t see 5 feet in front of me.  I also got scattered showers, at times while the  sun was shining as I drove down on the Pacific Coast Highway creating a surreal, almost dreamy and spiritual experience for me.  Once in LA, although I was glad the rain was gone, it was followed by a cool breeze at nights that made me wish I had brought more winter clothes instead of beach attire… well, I had heard the weather was always beautiful in LA!  The weirdest climate change was on Monday as I left the LA area and started seeing snow covered mountain tops as I drove up to Santa Clara on I-5.  Although they were beautiful to look at, once I got up high enough driving through the mountains it got real nasty real quick.  All of this sudden the sun was gone and I was in the middle of a an ice and snow storm that made me feel more as if I was driving through the mountains of Alaska and not anywhere near southern California.  Maybe next time I visit the LA area (which will hopefully be soon), I will have better weather!

Once in Santa Clara, I met up with everyone else from Linkworth.  We set up our booth and headed to the Pixelsilk launch party.  On Tuesday, the show seemed to have started with a nice number of attendees but kind of seemed to dissipate later on that afternoon.  The following day was about the same. Although the show itself was not as busy as I would have liked for it to have been, everyone came back with a good number of fresh contacts and new opportunities for business until we head down to Ad Tech South in Austin in March.  I’m particularly glad to have met Paul Stark of HRH Business Consulting – he was fun to hang out with and definitely knows this business.  I am looking forward to working with him and his team in the near future and I’m glad to welcome him as one of the first agencies listed as one of our SEO firms in our agency directory.