The events are always well-run, the crunchy snacks are always crunchy and snack-like, and the cash bars tend to be pretty reasonable. The socializing is as good as you’re willing to make it.

For anyone in the area, it’s a good event to attend. I plan on making it, unless the summer sunshine beckons me too strongly to ride my bike.

• why this conference’s food is currently winning the ‘conference prize’ for the recent past, excepting that of the MIMA Summit
• Supplemental index
• Duplicate content
• Kneeling down to speak to Vanessa Fox
• The complete weirdness of spending my weekend in a rustic northwoods cabin in Minnesota, followed by a stay in a faux-rustic Seattle hotel with ‘modern cabin’ themed furniture.

I am told that, at home, my little kitten is sad and lonely and is sleeping on my robe, as I now haven’t spent a night at home since Thursday.

This is a really brief list, relative to what’s in my head:

• Ability to understand human behavior and psychology — both from an optimization perspective, and to be a usability guru
• Knowledge of domain set-up and domain issues
• HTML skills
• CSS skills/knowledge enough to work with design gurus
• Ability to multitask
• Strategic orientation to balance short-term and long-term factors
• Voracious reader (education)
• A strong liver (for conference attendance, a must have!)
• A strong problem-solving orientation

I think there are several nice-to-haves, such as the ability to explain what you’re doing to the ‘normals,’ which can include business sponsors and people with checkbooks. While, in theory, if you’re in an agency where Account Reps are the external facing staff and you’re an SEO-in-the-closet, you’ll still have to educate the Account Reps.

Also, these days I think people who come from a content perspective have something of an advantage on those from other disciplines. Local Search, Public Relations, and Social Media all work best when someone has a strong command of branding and content strategy. However, that’s certainly not mandatory… yet.