Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago, and while the conference itself seemed like any other SES conference I've attended before, this one will certainly stick with me for the rest of my life.
Aside from the normality of a search conference - sessions, exhibit halls, and after-hour networking parties - there was plenty of excitement surrounding the Hilton Hotel this year, mainly because our president-elect Barack Obama was also in attendance. Well, in the hotel anyway.
President-elect Barack Obama uses the Hilton Hotel as his press headquarters while he is in Chicago awaiting to take office in a couple of weeks, and so there were lots to keep an eye out for. I don't think a day went by where I didn't see or hear about an Obama sighting in some fashion - him, his convoy, Chicago swat, and what I would assume was an explosive sniffing German Sheppard on the lower levels. It was very memorable.
As far as the conference goes, I'd say it was fairly average - meaning that nothing really stood out from past SES events. "Typical" is probably a better way to describe it. Nothing ground-breaking or anything like that went down. Microsoft still hasn't purchased Yahoo!, Google still has over 70% of the search market share, links and content are just as important as they were last year, and SES still tailors their sessions towards the small business owner and in-house search marketer, and not the veteran SEM like myself. Oh well, what can I say? I knew all of this going in and still elected to attend. Shame on me.
A couple of other points of interest... first, there were hot-plate lunches. These kicked ass... especially when you compare them to the traditional box lunches we were getting at past conferences. Great addition guys!
The exhibit hall wasn't too bad, but then again it wasn't anything to write home about. However, I did find it very interesting that Yahoo!, Microsoft, Bruce Clay, and even SEOmoz - companies that you'd typically see featured inside the exhibit hall - were all without booths. Strange.
The keynote presentations and "Orion" panels were pretty decent this year. In fact, I've always enjoyed them. I particularly like how these sessions cover an array of marketing topics - not just limited to search - as well as promote an advanced-level of conversation.
Lastly, I just want to comment on the scheduling of this conference. For the past 5 years, if not longer, SES Chicago has been scheduled for the month of December, while every year SES San Jose is scheduled for the month of August. This is true for 2009 as well. My question to the SES committee is why in the hell are these two conference scheduled this way and not the opposite way. To me, it would make more sense to be sporting short-sleeves in San Jose this time of year, rather then treading through snow and battling 20 and below temperatures. I mean we are an industry who prides ourselves as being intelligent Internet geeks, and yet something as simple as re-arranging the conference schedule to avoid being frost bitten is rocket science.
Anyway, I digress. The following are pictures that I was able to snag during the conference. Enjoy!
Labels: conferences
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