Here is a quick summary of the conference, with a few quotes from each speaker.

Wil Reynolds

“Believing in ‘quality links’ as the way to dominate competitive SERPs is the biggest SEO mistake.”
“Over 30% of exact anchor text links is too aggressive.”
“Backlink research can show you who is ranking for the longtail. Pay attention to your market overview.”
“Don’t try to game people. Build relationship, retweet, and read their stuff. Much more effective.”

Jane Copland

“Quit complaining about paid links and do what you’re comfortable doing.”
“A good link network doesn’t just link to one site or subject matter.”
“If a site is penalized, you can 301 and the new domain will rank.”

Russ Jones

“Watch for inbound forum traffic and get involved. Social could carry you to Digg/StumbleUpon.”
“Clicky provides real-time analytics. Use these contacts to get permanent links to the real content.”
“Contact webmasters of sites voting for you on Digg/Reddit. Be willing to pay for a real link.”

Tom Critchlow

“Site language can be used to shape user language. Build a brand.”
“Have a page with a lot of focused links, but no rank? Build a new page, optimize, and 301 old to new. BOOM!”
“Make a list of 5 places you really want links from and put the effort in.”

Paddy Moogan

“You can’t outsource giving a sh*t.”
“Educate people who matter. Organize and scale. Don’t let your bosses think ‘more is better.’ Scale after benchmarking.”
“You can use old linkbait/resources in the future for big link targets.”

Rand Fishkin

“Google is looking for sites that people will trust.”
“Become a content resource in your niche.”
“You have to be willing to sacrifice short-term gains for longterm ones.”

Martin MacDonald

“To have a longterm you need a short term.”
“Any SEO that does not test the boundaries is not an SEO.”
“If you want to work in a black box, you gotta accept the consequences.”
“Buying a lot of links is not blackhat. It’s just lazy.”

Will Critchlow

“Any sufficiently scalable technique is indistinguishable from blackhat.”
“The most links go to something people need, not what they want.”
“When you block eHow, etc, SERPs get worse. Normal people like eHow.”