Neil Sinay, Jason Brown and Chad Meisinger (L-R) at the New York Stock Exchange during the Yext Onward17 after-party.

The Big Apple was the site of this year’s Yext convention, Onward17. Attending on behalf of Over The Top Marketing were chief operating officer Neil Sinay, chief executive officer Chad Meisinger, and Jason Brown.

Jason, our SEO Guru Excelsior — his description, not ours (but we’re inclined to believe him) — anchored our activities at the Conrad Hotel and New York Stock Exchange from Nov. 1-3. The biggest takeaways from the conference were these:

• Every business has the same struggles with listings and ensuring that their data is correct and updated on the internet
• Everybody is trying to figure out how to connect all of the data together
• Brands need to find their true voice and use that for marketing campaigns
• Arby’s Restaurant launched a major campaign while their business listings were incorrect or had the wrong data, meaning even a big player with a big firm can make a fatal flaw

Jason says there is some information from the conference that he thinks will be a game-changer for clients. “We’re not ready to share it just yet,” he said. “OTT has several plans in place to benefit all franchise owners.”

The event began a day after the New York terror attack that killed eight people. Chad was already in town, two blocks from the tragedy. “It was like a war zone,” he said.

Featured speaker Mark Hamill at Yext Onward17 in NYC.

But New York wears big boy britches and the conference went on as scheduled with featured speaker Mark Hamill. It provided for some interesting meetups.

“I was able to meet a lot of great SEO people,” Jason said. “Thursday morning, I was having breakfast and got up to get a second cup of coffee. As I was making my way back to my seat, somebody was attempting to sit in the chair. Once he realized that the seat was being used, he moved. It turned out be Greg Sterling, a writer for Search Engine Land and I was able to chat with him for 15 minutes about Google and SEO.”

But Jason had an even more memorable chat where money changes hands.

“There was an after-party at the New York Stock Exchange,” he said. “I was able to talk to the SEO team from Home Depot while eating sliders on the trading floor.”

Maybe, just maybe, Jason really is an SEO Guru Excelsior.

“Jason knew a lot of people, and a lot of people knew Jason,” Neil said. “I was pretty impressed.”

Yext Onward17 at the Conrad Hotel in New York City.

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Martin Henderson

Martin Henderson is editor at Over The Top Marketing; he spent 18 years at the Los Angeles Times and, in 2013 while working for Patch.com, was named Online Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club.

Latest posts by Martin Henderson (see all)

• OTT Gets a Yext Message at Onward17 - November 10, 2017
• OTT Launches Weekly Broadcast to Benefit The Joint Franchise Partners - February 16, 2017
• Meet the Team: James Sunderland - March 22, 2016