Internet Marketers of New York a non-profit group along with BOTW have joined forces to host an event where proceeds will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The IMNY Charity Event will be held at the Town Tavern Bar & Grill at 134 W. 3rd Street/6th Ave at 7pm on Monday 10/15/2007 and all internet marketers are welcome.  There is a $40 donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society that can be paid at the door.  Your donation includes 3 hours of open bar networking (isn’t that the best kind?) as well as raffles and prizes at the end of the evening.

My son Ryan had a friend in kindergarten named Ryan Baker who was diagnosed with leukemia at 5 years old.  They were in a bowling league together and Ryan Baker loved to bowl because it was one of the few sports he could participate in.  He was very competitive and would get very excited when he’d bowl a strike, even on days when they’d come straight from him getting a spinal tap as part of his treatment (I was always amazed at his courage, he never let that bother him).  At the end of the bowling season, the boys got a trophy that was almost as big as they were.  It was their prized possession for a while until the excitement wore off.

A few months ago my son’s friend Ryan Baker passed away after a 7 year battle with Leukemia.  He was 13.  Our family cherishes the moments we had with him and the passion and zest he had for life at such a young age is inspiring.  

Ryan Baker is on the left and Ryan Boser on the right. 

My son still has that giant trophy and treasures it now more than ever since it’s all he has to remember Ryan Baker by along with a great photo and fun memories. 

We all know someone that either knows someone with cancer or has an experience or story to share.  This is a great cause and kudos to the group that put this together.  Thanks to Chris and Danielle Winfield for letting me know about it this awesome event.

If you are going to SMX, I hope that you will attend this event and force the BOTW guys to break out that Black Amex because they are covering the party tab (because they are cool like that) so that even more money can go towards the fight of cancer.

Danny Sullivan and his amazing team of coordinators really impressed the search world with this advanced conference. I think they also proved that size does matter. With about 500 attendees, it was really a quality group and the networking was a lot easier. Everyone was invited to the search engine parties, so it was really easy to see old friends and make new ones.

Sunday 6/3/07
We arrived at SeaTac to some nice weather and checked into the Fairmont. (I haven’t stayed at a Fairmont since SES San Francisco about 5 years ago.) At any rate, the Fairmont is a fabulous and luxurious hotel that really made us all feel like rockstars. We then headed over to the MSN party where we found out we could check in and get our passes. That was very convenient. The MSN party was a blast.

Monday 6/4/07
We headed over to the conference and sat in on the SEO Meet SEM session. The room was full, so we watched from the back row. The Q & A went on for awhile and it probably could’ve gone longer, but time ran out. The next session we sat in on had to do with personalized search. The banter back and forth on the panel was not only entertaining, but very informative. &psr=0

After dinner we headed over to the Google party. There was some girl there on roller skates, that was kind of weird. Anyway, we got to see Rand dance, so everyone was excited about that. Dax discovered that the beer he was drinking was non-alcoholic. I swear. Check out my flickr pictures below if you don’t believe me. So if you drank Beck’s all night and wondered why you didn’t even feel it, now you know. I didn’t drink the non-alcoholic stuff, as anyone who went out with me and my SEOH afterward can attest to. Enough about that.

Tuesday 6/5/07
My SEOH had his sessions today, so he was off to work while I stayed back and nursed a soar knee and a pounding headache. We later made it over to the SEOMoz party at Garage Billiards. We played pool and hung out. It was pretty mellow, but very fun. Chris Hooley brought a beer bong and while at first nobody would touch it, it didn’t take long. Even Rand gave it a whirl, but the outcome wasn’t pretty. Anyway, thanks Mozzers for the party.

I noticed that there were a lot of wives and girlfriends there. That’s pretty sweet. There’s a few potential SEOWife guest bloggers in the works, so check back for that.

See everyone in August at SES San Jose.

The party schedule looks super sweet. I like the fact that ‘all’ conference attendees are invited to the ones on Sunday and Monday. I think that’s a great benefit to some of the newcomers that want a chance to mingle with some SEO rockstars.

Sunday night we’ll be going to the Microsoft SMA Bash, then on Monday night we are looking forward to being wined and dined by Yahoo and Google.

I’ll have my camera and am hoping to find one or two celebrity look-a-likes.