So last week I was at SES San Jose and thought I’d share a few thoughts …

I’ve got no idea what the actual attendance for the show was, but it seemed a little bit lighter than previous shows, which I would mostly attribute to to the weakened US economy, but the show was well attended. The keynote from Clay Shirky was awesome, and really enjoyed it. As I’ve been to a few shows over the years, I tend to avoid the beginner and introductory panels, and stay with some of the more advanced panels, such as “igniting viral campaigns” and the “Advanced SEO Roundtable”. However my favorite panels are the site clinics. The thing I really like about site clinics, are how it separates the “men from the boys”, you can tell who has some idea what they are talking about and who can think on their feet. The best site clinic panel I attended had Matt Cutts, Tiffany Lane, Greg Boser, Vanessa Fox with Elisabeth Osmeloski moderating. This clinic had an excellent variety of sites ranging from adult toys, RV’s, cheap airport parking and hookah’s, it was that awesome.

There were two parts of the show that didn’t live up to expectation, the Charlene Li keynote and “social media black hat vs white hat”. I’m not sure Charlene Li had a grasp on “who the audience was”, and I felt her material was below everyone, except the first time conference attendees. The social media panel was a great idea but IMHO opinion the moderator kept putting the brakes on it every time it got interesting. For most sessions you don’t want panelists arguing back and forth, but for a “black hat vs white hat” you want to encourage, foster, and nurture an atmosphere for healthy debate. When thst moment of conflict occurs let it happen and play out.

This was also the first year without the Googledance, but  the folks at Webmaster Radio stepped up and threw and excellent party at search bash, and the IM charity party was a success as well. However for me the most fun was shooting a PSA with Matt Cutts about hacking for links.

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To conclude, conferences like SES provide a really great opportunity for new and intermediate level marketers to grow their skill set. For advanced attendees it provides an opportunity to get face time with your collegues and peers, talk about issues, problems, theories or things you are seeing. However as my friend Everett remarked the most important thing you get from a conference is a renewed sense of motivation:

So long SES San Jose thanks for a great show looking forward to San Francisco next year.
photo credit: toprankonlinemarketing

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SES San Jose 2009 Recap

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