I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that I'll be attending the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in Chicago all next week, and will obviously be out of the office during that time. As of now, I am planning on Blogging through most of the conference as a way to share some of the highlights and my experiences. However, I'd expect a day or two delay between posts.

In the spirit of the Search Engine Strategies conference, I've compiled a small list of tips for those of you who are planning to attend. These tips are more so for first-timers of SES Chicago, and not conference veterans.

• Bring Business Cards.
  This may seem like a no-brainer, but I can't tell you how many times I've been to a conference where someone I knew or someone I'm meeting for the first time had forgotten their business cards. Exchanging business cards is a huge part of networking, and having them assessable at all times is a great way to ensure that you'll be remembered after the conference. This is of course unless you gave one to Kid Disco. He tends to loose his in his state-of-the-art rolodex... aka the floor of his hotel room. Just kidding disco!



• Attend Parties.
  After a long day of attending back to back sessions and meeting up with vendors in the exhibit hall, the very last thing you're going to want to do is attend the nightly parties. However, I encourage you to do so. In addition to having a good time on someone else's dime, sponsored parties (those typically from Yahoo!, Google, Ask, and Webmaster Radio) are feeding grounds for making new business acquaintances. Everyone that you'd ever want to me or chat with will be attending these parties, and unlike at the sessions, the information they share will be a bit more personal, as well as valuable.



• Buy A Round.
  If you find yourself sitting around the bar chatting with a group of people, I encourage you to buy a round of drinks (especially if I'm among them). The friendships / business relationships you'll attain, in addition to the very enlightening conversations, will certainly be worth the few "C Notes" you drop on the bar tab.



• Dress for December.
  Out of all of the tips I could ever provide, this is probably the most valuable one there is. Here in Illinois, December tends to be a bit on the cool side... and just so that I'm clear, I'm not referring to a breezing day in San Francisco. Instead, Chicago will either be very windy, rainy, or snowy or any combination of the three. Prepare for a freezing-cold wind that will be blowing off of Lake Michigan, in addition to temperatures ranging from zero to below-zero.

As it looks now, I'll be arriving Sunday evening and staying through Thursday. If you happen to see me at a session, in the exhibit hall, at the bar, or at any one of the few sponsored evenings, please be sure to stop me and say "hi". I'm always interested in meeting new people in this industry, especially if they happen to be Klog readers.