On September 15 and 16, Collaborator sponsored brightonSEO San Diego 2026 at the San Diego Convention Center. It was the event’s first year at the venue, and our team spent both days at booth #62 talking with SEOs, link builders, and agency teams about how they find publishers and build links.
Below is our recap: what visitors asked us at the booth, the seal-themed merch, and how the MacBook Neo giveaway went.
First, the Quick Stats
The San Diego event brought together:
- 1,700+ attendees
- Marketers from 60+ countries
- 100+ speakers
- 150+ talks across five stages
What Was on the Agenda, and Who Was in the Room?
The main topics included:
- AI search and visibility in LLMs
- Digital PR, links and citations
- Technical SEO and content strategy
- Analytics and reporting
- PPC and paid social
The speaker lineup brought together people from companies including Microsoft, Ahrefs, Orbit Media Studios, MobileMoxie, Kick Point, Siege Media, Stacker, Journey Further and Bottled Imagination.
What Did We Talk About at Booth #62?
Most conversations at the booth came back to four topics: SEO, link building, Digital PR, and AI search.
If you stopped by to see how the marketplace works, here’s the short version: Collaborator lists 44,000+ websites across 150+ countries and 50+ languages.
Start with the niche or country, then compare publishers by traffic, Domain Rating, price, and placement terms before you contact anyone or place an order.
Why Seals Became Our San Diego Merch Theme
San Diego is known for the seals and sea lions around La Jolla, so this year’s merch went all in on them.
We brought “Seal the Deal” enamel pins, seal stickers, and a limited-edition San Diego 2026 T-shirt featuring two seals on the beach.
How Did the MacBook Neo Giveaway Work?
To enter, attendees took a photo with our booth, team, or swag, shared it on LinkedIn, and tagged Collaborator.
We drew the winner live at booth #62 on September 16 at 3:00 PM.
Congratulations to the winner, who went home with the MacBook Neo!
If you missed it this time, the giveaway is becoming a brightonSEO tradition for us, so there will be another chance at the next one.
Where Else Has Collaborator Been in 2026?
San Diego was stop number 10 on our 2026 conference tour. Here’s where the Collaborator team has been so far this year:
- March: Baltic-Nordic SEO Summit — Vilnius, Lithuania
- March: SERP Conf. Bulgaria — Sofia, Bulgaria
- April: Digital Marketing Europe — Lisbon, Portugal
- May: brightonSEO — Brighton, UK
- May: Search Barcelona — Barcelona, Spain
- June: Croatia SEO Summit — Šibenik, Croatia
- June: Campixx — Berlin, Germany
- June: The Masterminders — Manchester, UK
- September: Search Evolution Summit — Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- September: brightonSEO San Diego — San Diego, USA
Where Can You Find Collaborator Next?
Three stops are left on this year’s tour:
- October: SERP Conf. — Rome, Italy
- October: SEO On Stage — Athens, Greece
- November: SERP Conf. — Vienna, Austria
In 2027, we’ll be back at brightonSEO in Brighton and San Diego with more merch and another giveaway. Come and say hi if you’re attending any of these events.
Thanks to the brightonSEO Team
We want to say a big thank you to Kelvin Newman, Dre Pratt, Alex Nova, and the whole brightonSEO team for bringing the search community together again.
Thanks also to everyone who stopped by booth #62, whether you came to talk links or simply to grab a seal pin.
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