Christoph, Harald and Derek at Chino Latino London. October 27, 2014
On October 28, 2014 Christoph C Cemper did a presentation at the PMI Conference 2014 which was all about the post Penguin 3.0 Link Research Tools strategy of Recover – Protect – Build. Christoph had previously been in Istanbul presenting at SEOzone14, but he had a spare day on Monday October 27th. There was quite a discussion in our LRT Certified group about who was going where during that period. I think it was Tom Black from Birmingham who came up with the idea of meeting up in London with a few other Certified Professionals and Xperts.
It just so happened that I was over in the UK during that period visiting family and friends, so I was well up for it. At this point of my trip we were staying with friends who live in rural Essex, so it was an easy, but reasonably long, journey into London. The nearest station would have been Braintree, but there are more trains that go through Witham so that is where I caught the train. This goes straight into London Liverpool Street from where you can take the London Underground.
My last internet communication with the other guys said that the arrangement was to meet up in the Park Plaza Hotel at about 4pm and then go for a meal at Chino Latino which was located at the Park Plaza Riverbank at about 7pm. I decided to check where both venues were, so from Liverpool Street I took the Central Line and The Victoria Line to Vauxhall and then walked along the south bank of the River Thames.
Even though I worked in London from 1987 to 1998 I had never actually walked along the Thames as the sun was setting over London. The river, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament all looked pretty spectacular on this sunny warm October day. I was actually feeling rather proud of my homeland’s capital city. What I hadn’t realised all this time was that there had been a Facebook discussion about the two Plaza hotels. It was OK though, Tom Black and Derek Devlin both called me and by 5pm I was in the bar of the Park Plaza Hotel with a pint of Spitfire Ale in front of me. Christoph was staying at the Park Plaza Hotel and also giving his presentation there the following day.
The final line up for our meeting was:
- Myself (Rick Lomas)
- Christoph C Cemper
- Tom Black
- Derek Devlin
- Harald Tschuggnall
- Andrew Edwards
I’d met everybody before in Vienna in May, except Tom and Andrew. I’d been having quite a few discussions with Tom Black over the past few months in the LRT Certified Group so it was great to meet him face to face. Andrew was quite unlike any other Internet Marketer I’d ever met, dedicated to his gambling niches and full of ideas and cool tricks. It was quite funny really as Christoph mentioned the case study I had written about using Link Research Tools for the rather black hat technique of building private blog networks. Soon the conversation had crossed over into ‘the dark side’ and we were talking about PBNs, spamming, cloaking and all that stuff that should never really get discussed in public! We had an excellent chat and, as Andrew said, “It’s always great to put face to a name”.
We did of course discuss how Penguin 3.0 had affected us and our clients and the importance of Christoph’s ‘Recover – Protect – Build’ idea. Here are the slides that he used at the PMI Conference.
Soon it was time to walk along to the Plaza Riverside to the Chino Latino Restaurant. We had all preordered various menus from the ‘Tasting Menu’, but I don’t think anybody had actually remembered what their particular menu involved, so everybody just ate everything. It was unlike any Chinese meal I had ever eaten before, each dish was immaculately presented and everything tasted superb. I don’t think I was totally sure what I was eating most of the time, but it really was very good. We drank a South African Shiraz wine that was also excellent. I hadn’t tasted any Shiraz for quite a few years and it was a very welcome change to the French wines that I normally drink at home.
After the meal we walked back to the Park Plaza Hotel and had a few more drinks in the bar. The bar had filled up quite a lot since we left earlier and there was now a duo playing a very ‘hotel lounge music’ style set. I was aware that the trains from Liverpool Street to Witham did not run all night, so I was keen to get on a train before midnight, so sadly I was the first to leave.
I look forward to meeting Christoph and the crew again soon, I’m hoping there will be another LRT Certfied Event in the Spring of 2015, like there was this year. If so, see you in Vienna.
