SES London 2008: The Wrap Up
After a day and a half of catching up on all the work that I cannot wave a magic wand at and make magically be done, and a day and a half of trying to decompress, and reflect on a really great conference, I wanted to do a wrap up post about SES London 2008.
I stated before, this was the best SES conference in a long time. Not necessarily if you are a higher level SEO/SEM/PPC person but generally all around the quality of content, speakers and session seemed to be raised a notch of two. I've met new colleagues, I met people I've secretly admired from afar, caught up with old friends, and I even found God at SES London 2007, a pretty amazing feet with all those sock puppets roaming around the conference, too!
There were old panels, spiced up with new presenters. I have to say, not one panel I attended that I was at before had all the same information as last year. That would be because our industry has changed so much in the last 8 months. The openness and willingness to share among speakers to the audience was refreshing, and it didn't even matter that Google reps were sitting right there in the room. Everyone knew Adam Lasnik was there and you know what, Adam openly came up and discussed things with people and speakers.
The keynote and round table keynotes were awesome. Frederick Markini just hit point after point about this industry, and even seemed to disagree with Mike Grehan, but you know what, that's what made things interesting. He didn't actually totally disagree with him, but had a different perspective. Sometimes we all need to look at things from a different angle, and if anything, that's what this conference did for a lot of experts in the industry.
If you came there looking to be educated in something all new, being an experienced online marketer, you might have been disappointed. The show is geared towards a more novice crowd. However, that being said, being in this industry part time since '95 and full time since '01, I came away with more than just 1 "golden nugget". I think the real knowledge for the more experienced marketers comes from going to dinner, and conversing at the bars with our fellow colleagues. Let me tell you, the chance to converse with Fantomaster and Dirk was worth every minute.
Key Highlights:
- Fantomaster's appearance (and he's not afraid of Google)
- Orion Panel on Web Analytics
- Frederick Marckini's Keynote
- Panel on Microsoft/Yahoo potential merger
- Sock Puppets
- Linking Strategies Panel
- Social Media Panel
- Local Search Panel
- LondonSEO.org Party
This year's event was one I'm very glad I got to attend. If this is just a taste of what SES NYC is going to be, we are in for another great conference. I just wish God would come to that conference too!
For those of you who saw me with my sheets of paper and book and writing down quotes.... don't worry that will be coming in the next day or so! Fun Friday Photo, will be up next... then you all get to hear "outtakes" from SES London 2008. Till then, check out over 300 pictures from SES London 2008.
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