I love LocalU. Traveling around the country and interacting with small businesses and marketing agencies has been a blast for a number of reasons. Many of my reasons for enjoying the time spent giving these seminars should be enough reason for you to attend as well.

I get to meet up with the likes of Matt McGee, David Mihm, Mike Ramsey, Mary Bowling, Aaron Weiche, Ed Reese, Will Scott and Joel Headley of Google to get picked on. And of course to learn from. And talk local. The learning for me has been key. The picking on not so much.

We get to help digital agencies, big and small, and small businesses better succeed in the sometimes confusing world of local. We often do one on one sessions and help marketers and businesses solve sticky problems like if and why they are being penalized or why their sites are not being indexed. Helping someone find a solution is incredibly gratifying and instructive.

At a LocalU in Cleveland several years ago, an audience member was attempting to have a listing for a women’s shelter hidden because of threats. The Googler there emailed home and within the hour, the listing was gone and the inhabitants of the shelter were safer. That was impressive.

At LocalU Advanced last fall, an attendee that had been de-listed from Google Local due to a call from India, explained the situation to Joel Headley of Google and within days, their listings were back. During that seminar he gave out his email address and told attendees that they could contact him directly. Now thats cool! Where else can you get that.

During the last LocalU in Austin, we were explaining the importance of a consistent NAP both offline and on. Joel Headley chimed in that NAP consistency was important not just offline and on-line but on your incoming phone calls as well. It was later reported out on blogs but the world first heard at LocalU. Makes sense but who knew?

Lots to learn and lots of folks to learn from. We have all new sessions for LocalU Advanced and some great content. The session is in Baltimore and is easily accessible by rail and air. We hope that you can take time out of your busy schedules to join us next Friday night and all day Saturday for 24 hours of learning for both you and us! Read more here or just sign up already: