Well, it’s been almost a week since the end of the Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2007 conference, and it’s taken me this long to get around to writing my wrap up post. Well, to be honest, after the conference I rented a car, and drove down the pacific coast highway to Los Angeles, where I spent the next few days lounging around, hitting the beach (which explains why my back is a lovely shade of what can only be described as ‘lobster red’). So now, here I am, back in VA, nicely rested and ready to write this post.

First, I’d like to say that the conference was absolutely top notch. The sessions that I attended were, for the most part, worth it. There were a few where there was a decent level of overlap on the material, but they were offset by some of the better sessions, that overran their timeslot due to the wealth of material offered. Personally, I managed to blog on 12 of the 17 sessions I attended, which was roughly 12 more than I’d originally anticipated blogging. Even the lunches were good, with the boxed lunches tossed, and a buffet line set up. I think that was a nice touch, and addressed one of the biggest complaints about SES (now if they can get power strips set up for the bloggers in the front row, they’ll be golden).

As for the networking, it was great to once again see people that I know, either from previous SES conferences, or meetups, such as Li Evans, Debra Mastaler, Kim Krause Berg, Lisa “The Lisa” Barone, Mike Grehan, Bill Slawski, Erica Forrette, Melanie Mitchell, Todd Malicoat, Rhea Drysdale, Chris Boggs, Barry Schwartz, Christine Churchill, Meg Walker, and Rebecca Kelley. Then there were those people that I got to meet face to face for the first time, and had a blast doing so, again in no particular order they were: Matt McGee, Tamar “The Magnet Queen” Weinberg, Jennifer Laycock, Chris Sherman, Rob Key, Vanessa Fox, Rob Kerry, Rebecca Lieb, Matt Bailey, Robert Clough, Jessica Bowman, Loren Baker, Jim Boykin, Chris Winfield & his wife Danielle, Patrick Shaber, Lee Odden, Natasha Robinson, Kevin Newcomb, Melinda Cayetano, Matt Cutts, Adam Lasnik, Dana Larson, Michael Gray, David Dalka, Andy Beal, Carsten Cumbrowski, Ariella Robison, Mike Yanke, Thomas McMahon, Stoney deGeyter, Diana Adams and Nate Eslinger. Thanks to all of you for making it such a great experience.

If I missed you out, let me know and I’ll add you in.