…or why my scenes were cut from The Dark Knight

Anyway, if you’re going to be in the area, head over to SearchCamp Philly, September 6-7 2008 at Temple University, it’s only $21 so what do you have to lose?

I’m on the planning committee for the Specialized Information Publisher’s Association annual mid-year marketing conference in Las Vegas, Nevada from December 8th - 10th, and we’re getting close to finalizing the speaking schedule, but I thought I’d throw out the opportunity for people to make a pitch to see if there’s someone out there that we really should make room for on the schedule.

The focus of this conference is on online marketing, with Social Media, SEM, and Email marketing being particular focuses, so if you have something to say that you think would benefit the attending decision makers, drop me a line to simon at searchenginetigers.com.

What would you get out of it? Well, you have a legitimate excuse to go to Vegas, you’ll get a free pass to the rest of the show ($500-ish value), and more importantly, you’ll get a change to talk to companies that don’t necessarily attend the ‘regular’ search marketing shows (250- 300 attendees based on last year).

As for the other speakers, at this point that’s not my place to announce or even hint at who we have confirmed so far, although you should be able to figure out who one of them will be.

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.

If you’re interested in going to SES-London in 3 weeks, but haven’t bought the tickets yet, here’s a little deal sweetener for you:- Use the code 20spgst to get 20% of the price of the conference pass. Go on, you know you want to.

Just when you thought you’d seen everything, Search Engine Strategies announces that the last session of the first day of their upcoming SES-NYC show will be a ‘Super Session’ on ‘How to Train your Pets to Search’. This session is not restricted to just canine and feline owners, it’s also open to those who own birds, presumably to cover that whole Data Myna demographic. According to my source, the session is not open to fish owners, as evidence suggests that every 30 seconds they perform the same search over and over again (Note: there’s no proof to the rumors that MSN has seized on this knowledge to hire schools of fish to boost their share of the search market). My source informs me that the presentations currently being considered for this presentation are as follows:

• Search: Going beyond scents
• Finding the freshest catnip
• Pecking your way to the top of the rankings
• Using puppy dog eyes on Matt Cutts to avoid the spam filters
• ACME online, a case study in searching for roadrunner extermination devices

What should we expect to get out of this session? Well, we should find out whether there is any truth to the rumor that search is so easy that a trained monkey can do it.

Due to the unique nature of this session, it actually requires separate registration from regular SES-NYC, although there are benefits to registering for it before registering for the rest of the conference. So, if you’re thinking of going to SES-NYC, then go ahead and take a look at the “Search for Pets” session.

If this session is successful, I fully expect to see a session at SES-San Jose on Pet Blogging, most likely led by whom I expect to be the next star blogger on the Bruce Clay website - Jack Jack Barone (pictured up top)…

Yes, next month I’ll be attending SES London (February 19th - 21st), and I’ll be speaking on the 21st on the topic of Local Search. The week before I’ll be spending time in both the Manchester area (Glossop area really), and Swansea, with a mini trip to Swindon following the conference (what a glamorous life eh?). If you’re going to be around those areas at that time, feel free to drop me a note and we can see about grabbing a drink.

Which do you think I was at?

Yep, Chicago it was, and what a fun and informative time was had by all.   I only managed to make it for the last 2 days, but I did write up 3 sessions on RBDRodeo, so feel free to pop over there and read about:

• Selling your Integrated Marketing Plan to the C-Suite
• Selling your Search Marketing Campaigns to the C-Suite
• Dealing with Difficult Clients

So that’s the end of Search conference season for this year, but it won’t be long before it starts up again…

Unfortunately, due to my late arrival time at the conference, I was only able to take in one other session, beyond the one I spoke at, at the Kelsey ILM conference last week. However, it was an interesting presentation titled: “Maps: They’re not just for driving”

Aaron Kahlow was the Moderator, and he actually began the session with a presentation of his own, which basically asked questions of the presenters. Firstly he asked them how maps fit in to the marketing puzzle, and how they should be prioritized. Then he reminded people that while new, disruptive technologies are fun to play with, people shouldn’t just get excited for the sake of getting excited, they need to answer the big question: What are the business applications and what’s the ROII?

The first speaker up to attempt to answer the questions was Joe Abraham. He spoke on the topic of making sure that you get your data into the various mapping systems. The first step that you should take is to make sure that you have your data correctly listed, then go to the Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, Live Local, and InfoUSA to upload your data. In Google you can add multiple locations and coupons. One way to get your business ad listed quickly in Google Maps is to create a local business ad through Adwords.

Benu Aggerwal continued the conversation, reminding people that by getting their business in the mapping systems, Google maps in particular, they run a much better chance of dominating their SERPs and pushing any ‘bad’ listings ‘below the fold’. She recommended checking the data aggregators such as Acxiom and Amacai to verify that they have your listings entered correctly. Ensure that your website is fully optimized, and if using CSS use it to stick your address as high up in the html as you can, regardless of where it actually appears on the page. Use the map APIs to enhance your website i.e. showing local atractions / restaurants for a hotel.

• Get listings on 2nd tier local directories
• Get listings in vertical directories
• Get references from other local sites
• Get Reviews on social networking sites
• Use Geotargeted PPC

Up next was Danny Moon of the appropriately named company upNext. He spoke on the natural evolution of mapping systems from 2d to 3d. His belief is that the map will eventually not be the endng point of a search, but will instead become the starting point. This will be possible as users become more sophisticated, and is supported by hardware improvements over recent years that have improved rendering capabilities.

The last presenter was Andy White. He spoke on difference between a ‘free’ mapping solution and a paid solution. While the initial price may be better, the price of development will at some point push the cost of the ‘free’ solution above that of the paid solution. You really need to look at how critical the mapping features are to your core business.

During the Q&A phase, the panel reiterate their belief that mobile will be a big driver in the growth of maps for local. One question that was asked that doesn’t have a great solution at the moment was how to handle mapping for service based businesses. The response from the panel? It’s a challenge.

Tomorrow marks the start of the Kelsey ILM show, which is also doubling as SES-Local, I’ll be there on Thursday morning, and will be speaking in the afternoon. Next Monday marks the start of SES-Chicago, I’ll be there on Wednesday, speaking on Thursday morning.

So what about the changes in the title? Well, it seems as though the structure of the presentations at these 2 conferences is going to be different to the structure in the past. At previous SES conferences, the presenters would each get 10-15 minutes, with the last 10-15 minutes being Q&A. Starting with SES-Local, each presenter is going to only get 5 minutes, what then follows will be a 20 minute or so panel discussion led by the moderator, which will then dovetail into the Q&A portion of the session.

What does this mean to the audience? Well, firstly it means that they’re assured of getting new presentations, as presenters will have to rework any previously given presentations to fit into the new format. It also means that they’re going to get less structured content up front. However, this also means that the job of the moderator is now much more important as they’re going to be more responsible for shaping the flow and direction of the conversation. It has the potential to make each session ‘fresher’ and unique, but it’s going to play havoc with those of us who can’t quite type so fast when we try liveblogging (we’ll just have to sit back and watch Tamar & The Lisa’s fingers travel at lightspeed across their keyboards).

If you’re going to be at either of these conferences, make sure to say hello, and if you want to go to Chicago, but haven’t booked it yet (that’s a true procrastinator), you can use code: 20SPK to get a 20% discount, and you can then spend some of your savings on a cider for me at Kitty O’Shea’s.  

Good question.  Here’s what’s been happening over the last few weeks, and what’s going to be happening over the next few, hopefully that’ll explain to you the temporary slowdown over here.

2 weeks ago I was over in the UK for SMX-London.  Prior to the show I got to see my family (it had been 3 years since I’d been over), and such cool things as the Dr. Who exhibit and my Grandfather’s DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross - RAF Medal earned during WW2).  At the show I got to meet a great bunch of people, and with the show being in the UK it was a different bunch of great people.  The show kept it’s Lisa quotient, despite Lisa Barone not being there, through Lisa Ditlefsen.  Her husband to be - Rob Kerry was also in attendance, with his company funding the last night party at a local Swedish pub.  Other people I met, in no particular order, were Lyndon Antcliff, Darren Maloney, Matt Paines, Judith ‘deCabbit’ Lewis, Tiffany White, Jane Copland, Kelvin Newman, Dean Chew, Jon Myers, and Edward Serrano (who I actually met on the plane ride back to the US).

On the RBDRodeo work blog I put up some notes for some of the sessions that I attended - The Keynote, The Global Search Universe, Leveraging Social Media Networks, Cutting Edge Linking Tactics, and a brief overview of the session I spoke at - Brand and Reputation Management.  2 further sessions were written up for SearchEngineGuide, and should go live on Monday.  Outside of the conference, I also had my regular SearchEngineLand article to write, so I cheated and let others write it for me - Inside Information: Interviews with In-House Search Marketers.

As for the future, well this week I’ll be heading out to Los Angeles for the Kelsey ILM \ Search Engine Strategies Local show.  I’ll be speaking on Thursday on the topic of Best Practices for Using PPC for Local Targeting. Exactly one week later I’ll be back in Chicago (3rd year in a row), where I’ll be speaking on the topic of Dealing With Difficult Clients (not that my company currently has any).

So, with actual work thrown in there it’s a busy time of year.  I will try to be more diligent about getting posts up here though, I don’t want to have this blog taken out of the Big List of Search Marketing Blogs for lack of posting as has happened to the blog of a certain evilgreenmonkey…