My Best Mastermind Memory of 2024 - Meeting & Interviewing Marie Haynes About AI

This was my third time attending the Mastermind event in Park City, Utah hosted by 97th Floor. Somehow, year after year, the event itself gets even better than the last one. And though 97th Floor is first and foremost a digital agency, they organize and put on a very detailed and curated "un-conference" experience brining together roughly 70 marketing industry practitioners and thought leaders for an incredible 3-day experience.

This year, I was thrilled to be invited back and to meet and spend time with SEO industry veteran, Marie Haynes. Yes, you read that correctly: THE Marie Haynes.

It gets better; not only did I get the chance to ask her my burning SEO questions and learn from her but I got to do so in an interview style on the Studio set up which 97th Floor created this year. That's right, in the main ballroom of the Pendry resort, they had a three camera set up with professional mics and lighting for all attendees to record themselves individually or their chat with a fellow marketer, for seamless video content creation. And ultimately for your viewing & learning enjoyment too!

Marie and I have never actually had any in-person time together so, please pardon my fan girl excitement while interviewing her about the latest in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its future trends.

In interviewing Marie on the topic of AI, I learned things like...

• Although it feels like AI has become more prevalent in search today (because of AIO in search results), Google has been using artificial intelligence since around 2017 and earlier.

• AI has been one of the main components that helps Google Search determine rankings.

• There are three deep learning systems that are important to Search.

• The top 20-30 results are re-ranked by part of the algorithm known as RankBrain (which is AI).

• The importance of things like user engagement towards satisfaction signals, brand recognition and true expertise.

• Highlighting the significance of the March 2024 Core Update that introduced new signals.

• Marie's hot take on the week's breaking news on the US government formally proposing a partial breakup of Google urging a federal judge to force a sale of the company's Chrome web browser.

Many more great conversations and insights were shared in the Studio at Mastermind this week. I'm sure they'll be shared out across social and LinkedIn.

Kudos again to 97th Floor and their team for facilitating this kind of content creation platform and for organizing a fantastic and intimate event. And to fellow marketing leaders & SME's like Eli Schwartz , Marie Haynes , Paxton Gray , Ashley Faus , Danita Smith for their time and sharing their insights. Mastermind is great because of everyone's unique contributions.

97th Floor Mastermind 2024 and In-Depth Guide