This past week, as Sarah, Adam, Jeff and I left the office for our Tuesday lunch meeting, they asked me how the Iceland conference went. I believe my exact words were "It was the most fun I've had since my wedding." The more I reflect on the experience, the truer it is.

I arrived in Keflavik airport at 6:15am last Thursday morning. I walked outside to take the bus to Reykjavik and was promptly greeted by a frozen wind flinging rain that stung like pebbles against my cheeks. The landscape seemed utterly barren - almost like another planet. As the sun came up while we drove into the city, a violent seascape and miles of mossy, green rocks filled the horizon. I've traveled to a lot of places, but never seen anything like it.

At our hotel - Arnarhvoll - in the center of Reykjavik, Pauline Ores, IBM's senior marketing manager for social media, offered to take me along as she and her daughter Lea explored the Icelandic countryside. Despite being up for 24 hours straight, I knew I needed to power through the day or I'd never get on the right schedule.

A bit punch drunk, I photograph the landscape outside Reykjavik from the car window

We visited geysers, including Geysir, the original spout from which the English word was adopted. We saw a massive waterfall - the giant Gullfoss, and got caught in a foggy snowstorm that gave us less than 20m of visibility on the road. 

The mighty Gullfoss waterfall pushed freezing cold wind & spray onto the overlook

Near the original geyser, "Geysir"; it smells of rotten eggs (from the sulfur)

On our return, we were whisked out to dinner by Kristjan Már Hauksson, the director of Nordic E-Marketing and founder of the RIMC.

The conference itself was exceptional, particularly given the short program and great distance speakers needed to travel. Kristjan managed to pull together some amazing talent, and after experiencing Iceland for myself, it's easy to see why - everyone should want an excuse to go. Some interesting bits from the conference itself included:

• Sion Portman, Nike's European marketing manager, had some phenomenal slides about the branding power of their advertisements, particularly leveraging UGC - and user-driven campaigns like Wayne Rooney's Nutmegging
• Mark Killingley, NFL Europe's director of online marketing, shared an equally fascinating success around advertisements the NFL built for their Fantasy Football programs - "Pick Me" (note the millions of views). Again, the unexpected virality of it has made them into a use-generated success - so much so that players who weren't featured are filming and submitting their own clips for the campaign
• During a site clinic, Adam Lasnik revealed a site issue I was sure Google had solved. Anne Kennedy called attention to an Icelandic optician website's lack of canonicalizing the non-www and www versions. Adam noted that via his tools, he could see that Google was not automatically canonicalizing these two (although they were virtually identical; a slightly older version was on the non-www), and thus they were losing out on link juice and rankings. It was a great reminder to 301 to a canonical version!

However, this show wasn't just about the content, and in fact, since it was mostly a beginner-level conference, I'll instead share the experience visually. These photos can't nearly do the trip justice, but it's far better than the thousands of words I'd need to describe RIMC and Kristjan's incredible "Day Money Can't Buy" the Saturday following the show.

I get a little excited during the morning keynote on how to derive value from multiple Internet marketing channels

Kristjan, Ingvar, Andy, Adam & me on the "Meet the Search Engines" Panel

The crowd listens intently during a presentation

 
Kristjan attempts an American Football toss at a party thrown that evening at the Nordic eMarketing offices (thankfully, he didn't break any of the large monitors in the room)

Kristjan's stunningly beautiful wife, a professional singer, serenaded the crowd at the Nordic eMarketing party

The dinners, the conference, the party - these were not all Kristjan had in store. For weeks leading up to RIMC, we'd been receiving emails about the "Day Money Can't Buy." It started early - 8am for breakfast, then downstairs, set in cold-weather hiking gear for a day adventuring around Iceland's natural beauty in massive jeeps.

Haraldur Friðgeirsson (Halli) was our driver, and he gave Geraldine, Anne Kennedy & a day we'll never forget.

When Halli, our driver, handed me a beer in the car at 11am, I thought he was kidding, but when in Iceland...

While our guides forded the rivers, we crossed via a rickety bridge in the background 

The glacier Eyjafjallajökull covers a volcano (and we had front row seats)

Apparently, we should have eaten a lighter breakfast (note the bridge bending down)

Amazing shards of glacier ice from Eyjafjallajökull

In the volcanic valley, Þórsmörk, nestled between two Icelandic glaciers, we took an hour hike to the top of a tall overlook

After the hike, our hosts prepared a traditional Icelandic BBQ - hot dogs & hamburgers!

Left to Right: Pauline, Lia, Katya, Patricia, Gisli, Andy, Ashley, Richard, Oli, Dan, Paul, Mel, Siôn, Alex, Matt, Geraldine, Rand, Adam, Mark, Ben & Dixon at Þórsmörk

Next, we visited the grand waterfall, Seljalandsfoss, where an indented cave allows you to "walk behind the falls"

Geraldine & I get soaked behind Seljalandsfoss

 
To celebrate life, we drink Icelandic "Black Death" before heading back to Reykjavik

A dramatic snowstorm gives way to sunshine - nearly the first we'd seen on our visit - as we drive back

When we reached the hotel, we had two hours before the relaxing ended and a night on the town began. First, dinner at a traditional Icelandic restaurants, where we dined on fish salad, tender Icelandic lamb and skyr - a sort of dessert-like yogurt. After dinner, drinks were served and Kristjan thanked us for coming & broke into song.

 
Oli & Kristjan sing a traditional Icelandic folk song as we sip armagnac after the conclusion of dinner

Dixon & Mel follow up the Icelanders with a song to defend England's honor

Tragically, I have no photo evidence of what followed - the Americans were asked to contribute our own piece. Anne looked at Adam; they looked at Geraldine and me... We panicked, briefly, until Anne stood up and belted out Janis Joplin's classic, Mercedes Benz. The entire room joined in - it was magical. On the plane flight, we talked about the experience and Geraldine said, "I want to be Anne Kennedy."

From dinner, we went downstairs to the touristy, but fun ice bar, where more Brennivin awaited.

I hoist up my wife for a photo in the glacier-carved ice bar

 
Finally, we ended the night in an Icelandic disco, where Richard Chinn had been invited to DJ. We made it back to the hotel at 1:30am, but heard that many were out until 5am the next morning.

Looking back over this photoset, I'm reminded not just how lucky I am, but how lucky we all are to be in the search marketing industry, where relentless spirit, goodwill and hospitality shine, even in the harshest of climates and even in the darkest of times. Our thanks go out to Kristjan, Halli, Oli, Gisli and the entire Nordic eMarketing crew. I only wish we could repay the favor in kind.

BTW - Next year's RIMC should be equally exciting, and if you live in Boston or New York, the flight is only 4.5 hours (shorter than coming to the West coast)!

p.s. Expect blogging from me to be very slow this week, as I'm leaving tomorrow to keynote Australia's SMX Sydney conference on the subject of SEO for the CEO. From one side of the globe to completely the other!