It feels like last weekend that the New Year started. Yet January is almost over. Where has it gone? It seems like the first month of what is going to be a very interesting year has flown by. The month has been very busy. And guess what, I haven’t even been out of the country!

Where last year I spent many hours on a plane, my plan was to this year do a bit less traveling. The travel I will do would be very focused. And don’t worry, I’ll get on that plane soon, because there are many things planned in the upcoming months. More about that in a minute. First I want to quickly look back onto the last month.

What have I been doing?

As said, I haven’t been out of the country, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been doing nothing. Actually, I’ve been so busy that part of my plan for January I couldn’t even get done! My plan was to make a lot of mileage on my book that I’m finally writing. Now I’ve made some progress this month, but I have to admit, I wanted it to be more. The reason for the ‘delay’ however was good and it will benefit the book as well.

This month I’ve been doing a lot of workshops in The Netherlands. Next to my regular sessions, there’s been a workshop at a Dutch Insurance company, helping them get ready for a new website they are developing. This session was very interesting because of the field, the insurance field is a very competitive one as well as very seasonably influenced. There’s also been a workshop for a foundation that supports Autism, helping them get a first grip on who they are targeting with their several different websites. There will be a follow up on that as well. And there has been a great workshop with Sports Marketers, something I also did last year, but this year with a new group. The exciting things about these workshops is not just helping people, it’s also meeting new people and learning from them as well. Each industry is different and within each industry there are differences as well. Very valuable!

I’ve also done a webinar this month with Startup Istanbul (where I’m hoping to go in October) and I’m speaking to a group of retired High Level Executives, which is exciting for many reasons, one of them being that my dad is in the room!

What’s to come in February

January has been busy and by the looks of it, the upcoming month(s) will be as well! Just looking at February I can see a few things to be very excited about. Again there are workshops (one for a team of doctors and medical experts, talk about differentiation!) and I’m speaking again. Two conferences I’d like to highlight here for February:

Friends of Search

On February 11th I will be in Amsterdam the entire day to be hosting “Friends of Search”. The entire day I will be presenting and asking questions to people on stage. Most of them will be actually my friends! This event, organised by the Dutch DMA and IAB, was one of my highlights last year. This year it looks to be awesome again. Just look at the line-up. There is Lee Odden, who I haven’t seen in ages, so I’m really looking forward to seeing him again. There are Wil Reynolds and Larry Kim, extremely knowledgeable and likeable people. And there are the amazing Emily Grossman, Stacey MacNaught with whom I always love spending time and listening to. And I’m looking forward to seeing Martijn Scheijbeler from The Next Web on stage, not to mention all the other great speakers. It’s going to be an exciting day.

Who will be there? (I think there are s few tickets left)

RIMC 2016

The evening of Friends of Search I will be returning to the world of traveling. I’m flying to Reyjavik for the yearly return of RIMC! I’m always excited to see my good friend Kristjan Hauksson, who’s organised this conference for 11 years already. The past few years I’ve been lucky enough to be part of it. Again I will be hosting the day, but this year I will also be speaking, closing the conference with a bang!

It will be great to see old friends again, like Dave Naylor, who I haven’t seen in a while and of course Russell, Matt, Pierre Far and I’m really excited that State of Digital’s Sam Noble will be speaking!

February looks to be amazing again. It will probably fly by even faster than January (it has less days anyway), but luckily this year is a leap year, so we win a day ;-). Oh and I’m going skiing in February as well, my favourite holiday!

Where will you be this month? Am I going to see you somewhere? Let me know, be great to catch up!!!

From Bas Van Den Beld Bas van den Beld