Search Engine Conferences

Well I am at Search Engine Strategies San Jose; the weather is beautiful, the company great and the discussions so far excellent. The following are point form notes from an interesting seminar that discussed how search can be used to aid in branding instead of just as a direct response sales vehicle. Each point, stat or anecdote is in itself intriguing but overall add up to a helpful overview of how to use search to brand. Please brace yourself, however, this discussion went to many edges of the marketing universe so this post will have gems from many disciplines.

Google Vice President of Engineering, Udi Manber gave a short outline of challenges Google faces in a 15 minute presentation at the Supernova 2007 conference. Billed as a conference examining “…the effects of an increasingly connected world on business, life, and public policy”, Supernova looks to be as much a conceptual show as it is a technical one.

I am finally back in Victoria from SES Toronto. I’ve had a few days to contemplate the experience, (which was wonderful) and to think about the state of Canadian search marketing, (which isn’t). It feels odd writing the word “the state of” in relation to the search marketing sector in Canada. For the most part, the word up here is “provincial”.

Ross Dunn provides readers with a concise list of the news and tips that really stood out from the rest. In part one of the SMX Advanced summary he discussed duplicate content issues and some other tips that deserved immediate attention. In part two, he will tackle tips for efficient marketing and SEO and a list of the top SEO tools including.

Danny brought together an impressive gaggle of leading names from the search engines and search marketing industry including: Matt Cutts, Tim Meyers, Vanessa Fox, Amit Kumar, Todd Friesen, Bruce Clay, Neil Patel, Greg Boser, Christine Churchill, and Jennifer Slegg just to name a few. Now let me get to the meat of the matter… what can I and what can’t I share with you?

I spent the past week in San Francisco attending the ad|tech SF07 conference. Billed as “The Event for Interactive Marketers”, ad|tech is among the largest and most influential online advertising shows anywhere. ad|tech is serious business. The show presents a heavier atmosphere than Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld’s Pubcon, Affiliate Summit, or other search marketing focused shows do.

Whether you are an old hand SEO and online marketer or a noob, large conferences like Search Engine Strategies offer a number of excellent benefits. Here are my top five.

Going to the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo, which takes place Monday, Dec. 4, to Thursday, Dec. 7, at the Hilton Chicago, is like going to a toy store a couple of weeks before Christmas. If you don’t know in advance what you’re looking for, then God bless you and good luck.

Gracious, precious, kind and extraordinarily intelligent people. A common language and interest shared with thousands of others over four days of intense action. Lots and lots of booze and other inebriates (did anyone else catch that smell from the trees near the south building at the GoogleDance?) ingested, most of it for free. Several career long friendships developed and enhanced. SES San Jose has ended but the memories and experiences are the type that will endure.

For anyone who has not had the exhausting pleasure of attending one of the SES Conferences, be assured this is, at best going to be a working vacation, a very hard working vacation.

The halls are packed, the banners hung, and the coffee is continuously brewing.Wires crisscross the floor carrying reams of data from fingers to blogs to readers, as the communal knowledge of the search marketing industry's experts is conveyed to four massive but full rooms. The suits are pressed shoulder pad to shoulder pad, some sweltering in the heat of an Augustan California morning. It doesn't matter that half the speakers are hung over from last night's BoDog party, the audience doesn't know and the professionals can carry their end of the conversation with cannons roaring in their heads.