Upcoming Events
- “Answer Engine Ready: How United Rentals Is Rebuilding Discoverability for the AI Search Era” at Marketing Brew Summit 2026 – September 30, 2026 in New York City, New York
- “Found, Chosen, Booked: How Today’s Travelers Decide—and What Marketers Must Do Next” at the Kansas Tourism Conference 2026 – October 19-21, 2026 in Wichita, Kansas
- “How Travelers Find Destinations Online Today: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and What to Do About It” at the Iowa Tourism Conference 2027 – March 11-12, 2027 in Altoona, Iowa
Past Events
| Event | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| eMarketer Future of Digital Summit 2026, New York City, New York, USA, September 2026 | How AI Search is Transforming the Future of Digital Marketing | Search is becoming an answer, not a list of links. What does that mean for how brands get found, and how they measure visibility? |
| Outdoor Writers Association of America Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, August 2026 | Authenticity in the Age of AI: What’s Next for Outdoor Photographers? | AI can create convincing outdoor imagery in seconds, but what makes a real photograph valuable? This panel explores how landscape, wildlife and adventure photographers can protect their value and livelihoods through authenticity, ethical transparency and diversified income. |
| Campixx, Berlin, Germany, May 2026 | From Sources to Signals: Trust as the Next Competitive Layer in AI Search | AI discoverability depends on more than keywords or content volume. It increasingly rewards credible sources, verifiable evidence and editorial accountability. Drawing on her experience in both journalism and search, Heather shows marketers how to turn journalistic rigor into measurable signals of trust and visibility. |
| Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego, USA, October 2025 | The Modern Search Journey: A Creative New Approach to Cross-Platform Discoverability | The search journey was never linear, and AI is accelerating how fluidly people move among search engines, social platforms, marketplaces and other sources. This session offers a practical framework for mapping those behaviors, finding high-value opportunities and adapting strategy for AI-driven discovery and decision-making. |
| Five Elms Growth Summit, Kansas City, USA, October 2025 | The Modern Search Journey: What’s Changing in B2B, Tech & SaaS Search | B2B buyers rarely search in a single place. Instead, they move across search engines, AI assistants, industry communities and other platforms as they research decisions. This talk cuts through that complexity with a simpler framework for deciding where brands should focus to remain discoverable as search evolves. |
| Outdoor Writers Association of America, Chattanooga, USA, August 2025 | Discoverability Crash Course for Outdoor Communicators | This hands-on workshop gives outdoor communicators repeatable techniques for helping their writing, photography, video and social content get found across search engines, social platforms and AI tools. Participants learn the essentials of keyword research, web and multimedia optimization, and building the credibility and structure AI search increasingly rewards. |
| SEOCon Bali, Bali, Indonesia, December 2024 | A New Approach to the Modern Search Journey | Google taught marketers to treat search as a single-platform discipline, but people move fluidly across search engines, social platforms, marketplaces and now AI. This talk offers a simple framework for navigating that fragmented journey, and finding creative new ways to connect with customers whenever and wherever they search. |
| SEOVibes Poland, Białka Tatrzańska, Poland, May 2024 | A New Approach to the Modern Search Journey | Search is no longer a single-platform journey: people move fluidly among search engines, social platforms, marketplaces and AI tools to find information. This talk offers a simple framework for navigating that fragmentation and finding creative new ways to connect with customers wherever they search. |
| inOrbit, Portorož, Slovenia, April 2024 | A Creative New Approach to the Dynamic Searcher Journey | People don’t search in a straight line or stay on a single platform. Instead, they move fluidly across search engines, social networks, marketplaces and emerging AI tools. This talk introduces a simple, creative framework for understanding that dynamic journey and connecting with customers wherever curiosity takes them. |
| Digitalzone, MENA, November 2023 | Human-Centered: Search in the CX Framework | Search is more than a marketing channel. It is a direct window into people’s needs, questions and intentions. This talk shows how to integrate search insights into a human-centered customer experience framework to create more useful, connected brand interactions. |
| BrightonSEO USA, San Diego, USA, November 2023 | Human-Centered: Search in the CX Framework | Search can create value across the entire customer journey, not just at the moment someone enters a query. This talk introduces an actionable framework for using search data to challenge journey assumptions, measure customer experience and make every interaction easier and more valuable |
| Webbdagarna, Stockholm, Sweden, April 2023 | ||
| Friends of Search, Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 2023 | ||
| DigitalZone, Istanbul, Turkey (Online), December 2022 | ||
| BarbadosSEO, Saint John, Barbados, November 2022 | ||
| Atlassian Team ’21, Worldwide (Online), May 2021 | ||
| In Marketing We Trust, Australia, Singapore (Online), February 2021 | ||
| SEOcon, Jakarta, Indonesia (Online), February 2021 | ||
| Drupal FlyOver, Kansas City, USA (Online), September 2020 | ||
| MozCon, Seattle, USA (Online), July 2020 | ||
| BrightonSEO, Virtual Summit (Online), May 2020 | ||
| PubCon Austin, Austin, USA, February 2020 | ||
| BrightonSEO, Brighton, UK, November 2019 | ||
| SearchLove, San Diego, USA, October 2019 | ||
| SearchLove, London, UK, April 2019 | ||
| MozCon, Seattle, USA, July 2018 | ||
| SEMPO Cities, Kansas City, USA, Spring 2018 | ||
| MozCon, Seattle, USA, July 2017 | ||
| MozCon Local, Seattle, USA, February 2017 | ||
| KCDMA Summits, Kansas City, USA, 2017-2020 | ||
| PRSA Omaha, Omaha, USA, 2016 | ||
| TEDxWomen KC (Host), Kansas City, USA, 2016 | ||
| PRSA Mid-Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA, 2015-2016 | ||
| KCSEMA, Kansas City, USA 2015 | ||
| WordCamp, Kansas City, USA, 2015 | ||
| AACS, Phoenix & Orlando, USA 2010-2014 |
Other Work
University Lecturing: University of Kansas School of Journalism, University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rockhurst University
Podcasts: Experts of Experience, Human-Centered, Experts on the Wire, The Simple and Smart SEO Show, Breakthrough Innovation, ZipSprout, Behind the SEOs, RC Squared, Adventure Outdoors
