12 Years, 12 Moments: Human Level Communications Anniversary

Written by Fani Sánchez

We are celebrating our anniversary. On December 22, 2017, Human Level will be 12 years old. Life in its fullest meaning, because sharing so many hours of your daily life with other people, side by side, gives a lot of life. You share the days with headaches, the days you woke up on the wrong foot, the days of stress and the days of joy. You share lunches, dinners, lunches, queues in the bathroom and in the microwave, unofficial outings, many hours on the road and meetings… You share moments, which at the end of the day is what a life is all about.

That’s why this year we want to make a compilation of 12 moments that we remember with special affection either because they were a remarkable milestone in our career as a brand or in our career as human fans of enjoyment and fun.
Every day until the date of our anniversary, we will be uploading to this post and to the social networks some images of a special moment. You will see looks that few would ever bring to light again, moments of seriousness and moments of I-Can’t-Believe-My-Eyes. I suggest you don’t miss our updates!

And remember that without all of you – customers, students, readers and suppliers – none of this would have been possible.

Moment #1: 2005, Venezuela.

In 2005 we crossed the pond for the first time to provide our training services. Other destinations would follow, such as Colombia, but Venezuela represented our debut. Fernando Maciá and Javier Gosende gave a practical course on Search Engine Optimization in Caracas, which was organized by FormacionCC of Condo-Consulting.

Fernando Maciá: “Javier Gosende had started working with me a few months earlier, after meeting him as a student in a Master’s program at the Fundesem business school, where I made my debut as a professor. I was still working as a freelancer – the limited company was formed at the end of this year – and this invitation from Marcos Condo to participate in this event in Caracas came as a result of which, months later, a contract with Páginas Amarillas CANTV would come to fruition, which would last almost five years and from which we acquired valuable knowledge in SEO for directories that was very useful in other subsequent projects.

An anecdote from this first trip to Caracas was our visit to Microsoft’s facilities in Madrid’s La Finca Business Park on our way to the airport. A few months before, an article of mine in Microsoft.com, initially published in Navactiva, had been rebroadcasted and from which we obtained three huge benefits: firstly, a link from microsoft.com that boosted our domain to PR5 from PR3 and tripled our organic traffic; secondly, to be part of the partner network in which we participated for a few years publishing content in Microsoft’s SMB portal in Spanish and, finally, to work optimizing the SMB portal to improve its positioning in search engines. A reference as a supplier that subsequently opened many other doors for us. We were checking out the benefits of content and inbound marketing before we discovered they were called that ;).”

Moment #2: Cintermed, 2010.

The first edition of the Mediterranean Internet Congress was the first congress organized by Human Level and we remember it fondly. Together with ABServer, this conference brought together professionals such as Sebas Muriel, Enrique Dans, Jose María González, Andrés Pedreño, Javier Casares, Ricardo Galli, Montserrat Peñarroya, Koro Castellano, Guillermo Vilarroig, Fernando Muñoz, Ricardo Tayar and Chema Alonso on various stages, where they shared experiences through various workshops, conferences and round tables.

Fernando Maciá: “When we organized this conference in 2010, Javier Gosende had just left Human Level to start his own path. The company continued to grow and we found an excellent opportunity to collaborate with Juan Carlos Cantó of ABServer, David Hornillos and the rest of the excellent team of the Institución Ferial Alicantina and Clave Informática to organize this event. Cintermed or Mediterranean Internet Congress did not have a very long life: barely three years. But it is true that we attracted to Alicante some of the best speakers of that time. My purpose was to attract speakers who would come charging, not paying, to achieve talks and presentations that were not promotional, but truly informative, as well as to be able to offer attendees quality services and an overall experience. I think we did it. Reviewing photos of these events I have discovered many faces of people I am not sure I knew at the time, but who have later become colleagues and/or friends with whom I have excellent professional and/or personal relationships.

However, some of our objectives were not met. For example, the purpose of this event was to act as a loudspeaker for the dissemination of online marketing among the Alicante business community. We wanted to attract owners, founders or managers of companies in Alicante whose structure is mainly family-owned. This did not happen. Most of the attendees were people who did not need to be convinced because they were already in the online marketing world. The other objective was to increase the visibility of our company and, in this case, this was not achieved either. The political strings that had to be pulled to mount an event like this required us to cede the limelight to third parties who had contributed little or nothing to the success of the event.

These unfulfilled objectives weighed on us to abandon the enormous effort of organizing such an event and bet on other avenues of visibility.”

Moment #3: 2007. Microsoft Partner Meeting

In 2007, another important client came in and made us their SEO partner.

Fernando Maciá: “After publishing a first article of mine that had originally been published in the Navactiva portal, the super nice Microsoft team formed, among others, by Alejandro Asúnsolo del Barco and Javier Candelas invited us to meet them in Madrid. There they offered us to be part of the team of content partners that nurtured the SME portal project for Spain, where we met people with whom we continue to share the same path, such as Antonio Domingo. Human Level contributed content for several years. We also worked on the optimization and positioning of this portal for more than four years until the completion of the project by Microsoft. We also participated in various training sessions that were held at Microsoft’s facilities in the La Finca business park in Madrid”.

Moment #4: 2009, European SEMPO Summit

Fernando Maciá participated in the SEMPO Europe Summit held in Prague on June 9. We attended on behalf of SEMPO Spain, together with Guillermo Vilarroig (Overalia), association of which we were coChair and Chair, respectively.

In this conference, the specificities of the European Search Marketing market were addressed with the intention of promoting the operation of working groups at local level, and defining an action plan in each country supported by SEMPO Global in the management of sponsorship and coordination.

Fernando Maciá: “SEMPO gave me the opportunity to meet Guillermo Vilarroig and Massimo Burgio with whom I have coincided in numerous events. Guillermo, although younger than me, has served as an inspiration to me. Both of us have managed to develop digital marketing consulting projects with a life that has lasted for more than a decade and far from the big business centers, i.e. Madrid or Barcelona. We both started almost at the same time, before 2005, and although in different business scenarios, we have shared many experiences with our respective companies. I have never felt him as a competitor, but more as a friend and colleague whom I admire and respect because I know firsthand all the work it takes to create and maintain a business project.

As for Massimo, he is pure Italian energy and acted as a dynamizer of events such as Search Congress, organized by the enthusiastic Ouali Benmeziane in Barcelona, and other cities. Massimo counted on me for the 2016 SMXL Milano where I was finally unable to attend until this year.

In Prague I also had the opportunity to meet other SEO professionals in different countries and it was a very enriching experience as well as my first contact with what has become one of my favorite European capitals.”

Moment #5: 2012, Human Level Summer Party.

In 2012 we decided that business lunches should also be held in the warm weather. Something more informal and relaxed, and that would allow us to do activities that may be more difficult in winter. We inaugurated the traditional #HLCSummerParty with a Water Party, in the purest adolescent style, in the field of our then partner Raúl. It was sooooo much fun, we haven’t stopped goofing off every summer since.

Fani: “The #HLCSummerParty is a classic that we look forward to every year. The proposed activities range from refined wine tastings to crazy go-kart races, but all with a very large and indispensable goofiness component. I have great memories of all of them and all those who have shared them with us. But my favorite, I won’t deny it, was the HLC Water Party. For being my first extra-work event at Human Level, the first summer party and the most fun. At school I never had a water party and here I got even with David, Merche and Raul, haha!”

Fernando: “Actually, I don’t know if it was the first one, although it is true that this one marked a before and after. It was a lot of fun and an excellent opportunity for people who share so many hours of our lives together to take our eyes off our screens for a few hours to get to know our co-workers on a more personal level. On this occasion, Raúl, Merche, Fani and David were the real protagonists in both the “war” and the culinary aspects.

The HLC Summer Party is now fully consolidated and every year it is a challenge to find a new activity that provides a new incentive for the team. After water gun wars, golf lessons, wine tastings, cooking classes and go-kart competition, what new challenge will we find for the 2018 HLC Summer Party?“

Merche: “We have lived great moments in the #HLCSummerParty. Unforgettable days of laughter and team fun. With the HLC Water Party we started in style, and not only for the paella that was pretty good hahaha I love to remember it in this summary of 12 days 12 moments.

Moment #6: 2012. Christmas decorations and traditional hams.

Every Christmas we perform the little ritual of making the office pretty. We set up the tree, hang garlands… and eat. No party is complete without a good meal! A pata negra and a good glass of wine are the stars of our Christmas lunch, which sometimes lasts up to a week. Nothing can be left over!

Fernando: “There are small traditions that take root. Every year we dust off our Christmas tree and decorate our office a little bit for Christmas. We also look for moments to talk and share. outside the strictly professional field. And a good ham is always a guarantee of quorum. In addition to being an excellent SEO, Jose is a master when it comes to using the knife and here we see him ready to start cutting the piece. It is moments like these that make the difference -for the better- between working in a small company and those that make tangible our commitment to prioritize the “human level of communication” 😉 above all else.“

Jose
Jose: “It’s always a very special day, even though we have a Grinch in the office, everyone participates and enjoys decorating the tree and decorating the office, it’s one of the many moments we live as a family at Human Level”.

Moment #7: 2013. Online Marketing 2.0 presentation at KSchool.

In December 2013 we grabbed our gear and the whole team went to Madrid to attend the presentation of the second title written originally and entirely by Fernando Maciá. It was held at KSchool and streamed on Youtube. A great day!

Fernando: “KSchool is not only the school where I teach the most hours of training each year but also one of the schools where it is most rewarding to be a teacher because of the motivation and involvement of both students and management. Compared to masters for postgraduates, students attending KSchool are professionals who, after several years of experience, wish to reorient their professional careers or move into different areas or departments. This previous experience and the fact that they have a clear objective makes them students who make the most of the sessions and the teachers, who ask interesting questions and who bring a high level to the class as well as to the rest of their classmates. On this occasion, KSchool opened its doors to us for the presentation of a book of which I am especially proud, Marketing online 2.0. I know it is a book that is used as a textbook in some universities, it has been cited in numerous end-of-degree, end-of-master’s and even doctoral theses and I think I achieved a good balance between the breadth of the topics covered -nothing less than an overview of all the disciplines of digital marketing- and the need for synthesis. The book’s prologue writer, Tristán Elósegui, acted as host and we also counted with the presence of the editor Eugenio Tuya, from Anaya Multimedia. The entire Human Level team traveled to Madrid for the occasion and I was especially excited to have some of my former students in attendance”.

Jose
Jose: “The presentation of Marketing online 2.0 in Madrid caught me on a getaway in Cordoba, but as it was the day we were coming back, we made a small detour through Madrid to attend this important moment that I could not miss”.

Moment #8: 2013, University of Alicante job placement award.

In our professional career, few awards have made us as excited as this prize. The University of Alicante recognized the merits of the labor insertion of its students, since most of the students who did their internships with us became part of our permanent staff. Some are still with us years later, and others left, but we remember them all: Alberto, Laura, Jessica, Juan Carlos, Irene, Mayte, Isabel, María… Thank you all!

Fani: “When I joined as an intern in 2011 I never thought that only a few years later, I would end up mentoring other interns as well as being a senior SEO consultant. In this company I was given the opportunity to learn, contribute, and later, continue to grow. I hope the interns felt valued and that their time at Human Level has opened many doors for them in their career.“.

Fernando: “I have always thought that interns are the best way to make a personnel selection. At Human Level we have relied on interns on numerous occasions from the University of Alicante, Miguel Hernández, Elche or CEU Cardenal Herrera in Valencia, as well as from the Santander Scholarships or Fundesem. The scholarship holders, together with the alumni of the various programs where we provide training are, in number, the main sources from which we have drawn to hire our staff. Many of the people who are now Human Level consultants started as interns or we met them as students in a course where we were teachers. We were very excited to receive this recognition from the University of Alicante for our efforts to hire those interns who stand out especially for their attitude and their involvement with the company”.

Moment #9: 2014. Solidarity Christmas

In December 2014 we replaced our Christmas gifts to customers and suppliers with donations to different provincial associations: a financial donation to the Adoratrices shelter in Alicante, a computer for the women’s association Area 18 and food for Acomar and Despensa Solidaria. It was a beautiful day that we remember with fondness and gratitude.

Fernando: “Sometimes we may think that certain favors need not be returned to the people who did them for us. It is true that since they were in a privileged position to provide us with what we needed at the time, it is likely that they do not need or do not have the opportunity for us to return the favor. However, that does not mean that we cannot “balance karma” by helping others who do need it. On this occasion we feel very fortunate to be able to help different groups in Alicante that help people in vulnerable situations”.

Moment #10: 2015. Sharing the stage with Rand Fishkin

In 2010 Gianluca Fiorelli called Fernando Maciá as a speaker at his conference The Inbounder in Valencia. In just a few editions, the event has become a must-attend event for inbound marketing professionals. This edition was especially exciting because we shared the stage with Rand Fishkin International, from Moz, a benchmark in online marketing.

Fernando: “Rand Fishkin is a reference for any SEO professional. Participating as a speaker at The Inbounder, organized by Gianluca Fiorelli, was a real privilege to share the stage with him. In addition, the day before we were able to have dinner together with the other speakers in Valencia and meet his wife Geraldine DeRuiter.”

Moment #11: 2016. We launched our first book as a company

November 2016 was a very special date for us. We received in the office a shipment of our first book written and published as Human Level Communications. Fernando Maciá, José Vicente, Merche Martínez, Fani Sánchez, María Santonja, Raúl Carrión and Antoni Saurina are the authors of Marketing en Redes Sociales. The publishing house Anaya Multimedia trusted us and we would like to thank them.

Fani: “You don’t get the chance to write a book every day and Fernando offered it to us, so I didn’t think twice. My love of writing and my desire to learn made the task easier. It was a very gratifying experience to write it and also to finally have it in my hands. And who knows, maybe next I’ll switch gears and write a crime novel or the script for a zombie series, haha!”

Merche: “A unique experience, writing this book with Fernando and the Human Level colleagues was a challenge that was rewarded when we had the book in our hands. A feeling of illusion and pride difficult to explain. Undoubtedly another great moment of these 12 years that I have been fortunate to live.”

Moment 12: the best moment is NOW

Looking back is very nice and evokes many sensations: nostalgia, laughter, surprise… But the best direction to look in is in the following direction is always forward. For this reason, we have chosen as the last moment THE NOW, to celebrate our 12th anniversary. And here we are today, thanking you for having accompanied us these 12 wonderful years. To your health!

Fernando: “It has never been truer that the best time is now because, fortunately, 2017 has been an excellent year for Human Level Communications. In fact, the best by far since we became SL twelve years ago. A record year in terms of turnover and in which we have landed top-tier, international client accounts. The 2017 Human Level is the best Human Level in history and I feel very fortunate to have this team of excellent professionals. 2018 looks like a great challenge: for the first time we have our own office in Madrid and projects in which we are going to have to perform at our best. But we know that we are, more than ever before, in the best position to respond to this challenge with professionalism, closeness and honesty.”