My First Public Speaking Gig At #MancSEO

Earlier this week I did my first public speaking presentation in my capacity as a website optimisation consulant at the quarterley SEO meetup MancSEO, which “is an informal group of like-minded people, who enjoy talking SEO and getting to know their peers.”

I’ve been planning on doing something like this for a while now, and whilst I had some apprehension about getting up and talking in front of 100+ people, in the end it was a great opportunity to share some knowledge and tips which were well received.

The venue was held at Impossible, a Manchester bar that has a function room that conveniently has a stage and is perfect for an event such as MancSEO:

There were 3 other speakers on who all did great talks:

Jane Hunt
Rory Truesdale
Dom Hodgson

Whilst post talk it’s always a good event to do some networking with like minded individuals.

The takeaway for me from this is that if you’ve been considering doing public speaking at all then forget about the nerves and just do it – you’ll get a buzz and it’s great to hear positive feedback and get asked questions by folk who are genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Am certainly looking forward to speaking again in the future. Below are some vidoes / pics and a slideshare of the presentation I did.

About The Author

I’m Dave Ashworth — a freelance SEO and website optimisation consultant with a background in development and a focus on fixing what’s broken, improving what’s working, and helping businesses grow through clear, practical SEO.

I combine hands-on technical know-how with years of experience in analytics, content strategy and platform optimisation. Whether it’s an audit, a migration, or ongoing performance support, my work’s about making websites stronger, faster, and easier to understand — for users and for search engines.

When I’m not writing guides or sharing insights, I’m working directly with clients to solve problems, track results, and keep their sites moving in the right direction.