Thanks, Marilyn

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According to her LinkedIn profile, longtime friend and SES Conference colleague Marilyn Crafts is now a “Retired Event Planner”. It seems like only last week that she was spearheading the usual great success of SES New York. Well, actually it was. And that makes it feel so abrupt. 🙁

Frank Watson is encouraging people to say hello in the comments of his post over at Search Engine Watch, but another post here seems more than fitting.

Marilyn – unlike many people – scarcely needs a LinkedIn profile. For the past twelve years, she has been the glue that holds together the world’s leading search marketing conferences. Whether in content planning meetings, speaker invites and logistics, on-site operations, or as a member of the SES Advisory Board, Marilyn was a driving force. Without her, quite simply, the show could not have gone on.

There isn’t a lot of downtime when you have to work full time to make it all happen — but that being said, it beats a lot of jobs, right Marilyn? We got to see all those great cities together and enjoy the great company of the team, whether under the shadow of Big Ben or the CN Tower. Add to that the opportunity to see big time digital media politics as they unfold behind the scenes, to meet and greet all those famous keynote speakers from cantankerous to brilliant and everything in between.

As a longtime speaker, many people would assume I don’t need any soothing or reassurance. But of course, given stressful schedules and above-mentioned politics, sometimes I did. I always appreciated it when you had my back and were there to reassure me. Most recently, giving me a pat on the back for a cheeky column I wrote for the Acquisio blog, which I suspect appealed to you because of its implied subtitle “Talkin’ Bout My Generation.”

I know you will probably miss a lot of the glitz and glamour of the industry, but I know there’s a big part of you that won’t miss the endless travel and stress. Enjoy the happiest of retirements!

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