Written by Aisha (Skippy) Kellaway Community Manager for brightonSEO as part of the of the Wired Sussex guest blog month.
Kelvin Newman. Most of you have heard of him, a lot of you will have met him, and some of you will be lucky enough to know him personally, but how many of you really know the man behind the furry face, and everything he’s accomplished? I’ve had the pleasure of working with Kelvin for a few months now, and when I was asked if I’d like to write a blog post in the lead up to Brighton Digital Festival, and of course, brightonSEO, I couldn’t think of anyone better to write about than the one and only character himself. After all, he is quite a modest one, so I thought we’d give him the shout out he deserves and let you in on some of the quieter, less known Kelvin ventures!
(image courtesy of linkdex.com)
Early Days:
Graduating from the University of Sussex in 2005, Kelvin’s only had 8 years to make his mark on the industry, and he has done so in style. Joining the then small, but well respected digital marketing agency, SiteVisibility in 2006, Kelvin used the next couple of years to build his budding reputation and produce a number of well-received white papers, contribute to many press publications and dangle his big toe in the water, speaking at marketing conferences like a4u and SMX in London before diving in and taking on the role of lead presenter on the Internet Marketing Podcast. The podcast is still running and is the most popular Internet Marketing podcast in the UK and among the top twenty most popular in business category of iTunes, haven’t heard of it? Check it out!
If it IS broke, Fix it:
A common trend I’ve noticed with Kelvin is his “If it doesn’t exist, create it; if what exists isn’t good enough, make something better” attitude to the industry… Catchy, I know. The podcast is definitely one example of his entrepreneurship, however a more recent venture has been co-founding clockworkTalent, a joint venture with colleague Natasha Woodford in an attempt to help his friends and contacts in the search industry recruit great talent and find good roles.
Roll Up, Roll Up:
Now it’s most likely that if you haven’t heard of any of the above, you have heard of brightonSEO, you know, that big conference on the seaside which takes place twice a year where over 2000 of us digital geeks get together to talk and learn SEO and then have some fun at the infamous afterparties. Being as popular as it now is it’s hard to believe that Kelvin’s original plan for brightonSEO was an intimate get-together in a room above a pub. Turns out quite a few people were interested in this get-together and the gathering turned to meet-up turned to conference within 12 months and has since continued to grow in both size and reputation into what it is today. We reckon it’s the biggest and best search conference in the UK, and definitely the most fun, however it definitely wouldn’t be without Kelvin’s added quirks and jokes on the day. The demand for this kind of conference was getting so high, that once again Kelvin wondered what he could do to make sure everyone could make the most of what brightonSEO had to offer, he found the answer in the Content Marketing Show, a spin-off from brightonSEO covering the new found demand on content marketing, and he’s not stopping there! So much talk has surrounded data and analytics that we’re about to launch Measurefest, a new conference that will be taking place in London on October 17th, so keep your eyes peeled for news about that. Also, as it goes, a new year seems the perfect excuse for another new event so at the of January 2014 Kelvin and the team will be launching Biddable World to deal directly with paid search, performance display, social media and advertising, so keep your eyes peeled for news about these! When Kelvin’s not busy organising events, he DJ’s them. That’s right, SEO’s own Kelvin Newman, the in-demand King Of The Beats.
(image courtesy of .netmagazine.com)
Today:
Although spending most of his time working on the events from the Gatwick office with us lucky ones, Kelvin still keeps his hands more than full, working as Strategy Director for Site Visibility, continuing to present for the Internet Marketing Podcast, making regular contributions to press publications and he recently landed in Econsultancy’s top 5 most influential people in the industry. Apart from all that he still finds time to spend quality time with his wife Carolyn and their two gorgeous kids, and manages to have some crazy adventures along the way.
Call him Kelvin, call him quirky, call him anything except a Guru. Modest to the bone, and carrying one hell of a personality and sense of humour, it’s a pleasure to work for Kelvin, and to share a bit of his story.