Happy Birthday! LocalU Turns 10 Today!

Matt McGee pointed out to me that today is the 10th anniversary of the first LocalU conference – held on February 4, 2010 in Spokane, WA! Of course, Matt provided, and I could not resist, including a walk down photographic memory lane.

[rl_gallery id=”21127″]LocalU started back in 2010 – and has reached out to agency, in-house, multi-location and SMB marketers in places across the US and Canada. We’ve held events in Edmonton, Austin, Williamsburg, Dallas, Wichita Falls, Southern California, Seattle, New York City – and Upstate New York – and a lot of spots in between.

As of January 1, 2020, LocalU was purchased by Joy Hawkins & Sterling Sky, Inc. Joy has some plans to improve LocalU – but is dedicated to making sure the collegial community stays intact. Our focus will always be on arming our members and attendees with the best, most trustworthy advice available.

Joy shares:

We will be sprucing up the LocalU forums and continue to promote them as a premium membership forum where you will still have access to some of the best experts in Local Search for a fraction of what consulting fees would cost. We also would like to plan LocalU Advanced seminars in fixed locations & months year over year, so planning your attendance and travel is easier to budget. We’re working to cultivate a group of writers to regularly contribute data-driven knowledge around local search tactics, tips and news to help our readers wade through the plethora of information they might encounter.

We owe a lot to all of the people who founded and have been involved with LocalU over the last decade, we wouldn’t be where we are without you!

• David Mihm – Tidings.com
• Mike Blumenthal – GatherUp.com
• Mary Bowling – SterlingSky.ca
• Aaron Weiche – GatherUp.com
• Ed Reese – SixthManMarketing.com
• Will Scott – SearchInfluence.com
• Matt McGee – CarrieMcGee.com
• Mike Ramsey – NiftyMarketing.com

Some of the founders and alumni have shared their favorite moments/experiences with LocalU.

What I love about Local U is all the sharing that happens at every event. Everyone is there to help everyone else navigate the weird world of local search, and there’s a level of camaraderie that I’ve never found at any other marketing event.

Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point

There are too many moments to recall, many of which happened at Mike B’s expense 🙂 . Aside from the friends and fellowship, my favorite times from LocalU were when we would do live consultations with actual SMBs in attendance. We delivered so much value in half an hour and some of those folks have stayed in touch ever since.

Will Scott, Search Influence

My favorite moment from Local U was at the first Local U SMB event in Edmonton. Ed Reese forgot that you needed a passport to go to Canada, and got turned back at the airport. Someone had to do his talk, so I volunteered. All I had were the slides and no context, so I just made it up as I clicked through the slides. It was my first time speaking at an event, and I was nervous to begin with. 😆

Darren Shaw, Whitespark

We’d love to hear your experiences with LocalU in the comments below! If you have fun photos to share – be sure to tag @localuniv and #localu on Twitter!