This was my first SES in the country of my birth, but my 6th SES altogether (I did also attend SMX London last year). I would have to say that this was a very enjoyable conference. The sesions seemed to be well put together, with the moderators being encouraged to meet with their presenters in advance of the show, which I think really helped. The moderator for my session was Jon Myers, and given that he works in Manchester, and I was staying at my parents house, 20 minutes outside town… we met at his work the week before, as well as meeting for breakfast the day of the presentation.
Unfortunately I came down sick with a rather nasty cold, so I didn’t get to attend as many sessions as I would have liked, but those that I did attend were great, there were a great batch of presenters at this show, and like Li, I didn’t see any blatant plugging going on in presentations…
The only ‘official’ after party was the London SEO party on the last evening, when everyone that didn’t have a raging cold (that would be me) really did their best to try to drink the Camden Head pub dry, but every night there were opportunities to head out to dinner with presenters, organizers, and other attendees, which really went to show what a friendly conference this was (so friendly in fact, that I’ve been receiving emails all weekend thanking me for sharing my cold with everyone). 
It was great to see old friends, and meet new ones, so here’s the shout out to one and all: The Incisive / SEW / SES / ClickZ crew (Rebecca, Marilyn, Stewart, Jackie, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin (I think that’s enough Kevin’s)), Conference co-chair Mike, the Ayima crew (Rob, Melissa, Dean, et al), Matt, Nick, Patricia, Jon, Dave, Kristjan, the SEO-Chicks (Lisa & Judith), Lee, Dave, Greg, Adam, Matt, Dixon, Christine & Li, Scottie, Frank, Andrew, Amanda, Anne, and many others who I either can’t remember right now, or I put their business card in the back pocket of the jeans I washed last night… whoops.
Thanks for a great conference, and a great time, and for those of you headed to NYC in a few week… see you there.
February 26th, 2008 - 5:49 pm
Hi Simon,
Good to see you again and enjoyed moderating your session on Local Search, see you in NYC in a few weeks.
Regs
Jon
February 27th, 2008 - 6:46 pm
Hey Simon.
Was great meeting you at SES. Really sorry you had to leave early on the Thursday night. I was looking forward to picking your brains on something! You seemed a little sick, but I see from your post you were getting a cold. Not to worry sure.
Next time for certain.
Will you be at SES-NY and SMX Advanced?
February 27th, 2008 - 11:30 pm
Good to meet you too Dave.
Yes, I’ll be at SES-NYC, although it’ll be a flying visit as I’ll just be there on the Wednesday. I should be at SMX-Advanced for the whole show though.