Kevin Ryan of Search Engine Strategies spoke with Daron Babin and discussed the current state of the conference circuit with regards to individuals believing that they have been banned from either SMX or SES events.

Danny Sullivan kindly transcribed the event on Sphinn (which I'm very grateful for!) Here are some key points:

According to a series of events, Rand Fishkin believes that he was banned from SES events. To respond to that allegation, Kevin says:

. There are folks we’ve asked not to come to the event primarily because they were on the competing side of the business from the commercial side of the business and defaming SES. So naturally what kind of a business manager would I be if we didn’t meet with our senior management and ask these people not to come. You don’t go to a Coca Cola convention and the Pepsi people don’t show up at the Coca Cola convention and defame Coca Cola. It’s just not done. It’s childish and foolish and I’m disappointed that Rand is perpetuating a rumor. That’s just not accurate.

Kevin also adds that he believes that there was some sort of exclusion due to his focus on paid search versus organic search:

I was an ad guy doing search, so the red-headed stepchild in the ad community, and I come into the search community and I’m not welcome because I not a search insider.

In his response, Danny says that there was never such a thing and that Kevin has always spoken on panels in conferences that Danny himself arranged.

Finally, one of the last key points is that Kevin believes that the attendees were looking for "fresh" content at the events. Danny responds that the content issue was addressed, but the primary selling point in his experience was the better food (which SMX boasts over SES).

What about banned attendees? Danny says:

At SMX, we banned the staff of one particular show from attending finally in February, in reciprocation for a ban placed on our staff stretching back to December 2006, for a myriad of reasons that would change. If that ban is ever lifted, I'll happily lift ours.

However, Danny is quick to mention that he's always looking for good talent to speak at these events and there should be no perception of exclusion at all.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

After Barry's incredibly successful SphinnCon Israel in February, the SphinnCon series is continuing with a get-together in North Carolina on May 2nd. If you're in the area or want to attend, here are the details:

Date: May 2nd, starting at 10AM
Location: Kress Terrace (Greensboro, NC)
Cost: $150 which includes a really good lunch
Hotel Accommodations: Special arrangements have been made with the nearby Proximity Hotel for $169/night.
Number of tickets: 150.

So sign up today! And if you're going to attend, reserve your spot at the Facebook page.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

So you can't travel the globe for every conference, but finally you discover that there's a conference in your area. Now you need to justify the expenses. Is it worth $1500+ for just a few PowerPoint presentations, or is there more to it?

The session in question is actually one of the SMX series, so Danny Sullivan chimed into the thread and provided some insights about the cost vs. value. The cost really does justify the content and other conferences aren't much different in this respect. For SMX in particular, Danny notes that there are lower cost networking passes if you already consider yourself a pro.

In the end, one of the bigger questions drills down to the number of people you can potentially make business deals with. At an SES conference, for instance, there are a lot more people you can partner with. On the other hand, SMX is much smaller and business opportunities aren't as abundant.

But Danny admits that attending the conference is not just to gather "tidbits" of information and instead says that it's full of value. I can't agree more. In fact, someone who already attended an SMX event vouches for it:

For experienced SEMs, SMX Advanced is definitely worth the money. I can personally vouch for that!

If cost is a question on a regular basis, though, don't attend every conference; just attend those specific to your area of expertise (whether it be advanced tactics, social media, or a general conference like SMX West/East).

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Todd Malicoat wrote a funny post about the 15 ways to be a SEO conference douchebag, that is, what you should not do at the search engine conferences to upset other attendees. His list includes being a pushy salesperson, soliciting people to write for you for free, drinking too much, asking questions that have already been answered during the session, stalking women, blog everything you overhear in confidence, and more.

What irks me as a liveblogger? The people whispering in the first few rows when I'm trying to liveblog a session. If you've chosen to sit near the front of the room, it's hopefully because you've intended to listen to what the people have to say. I also find it annoying when people run to the front of the room to get a front row seat and end up surfing Facebook. You don't need to sit in the front of the room for that. Go to the back and give those seats to people who actually need to work.

So uh yeah, now you know Todd's pet peeves and my own. Behave at the conferences and give the front row to the livebloggers. We already try to get there early enough. ;)

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

Jennifer Laycock made a super cool video showing you why you should attend the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference:

Looks fun, right? Jennifer discusses on Search Engine Guide the planning behind the video too: it required no editing and cost $148 over 18 hours.

Was it worth it? The coverage on different blogs was vast, and you just got yourself a mention on Search Engine Roundtable, Jenn! ;)

By the way, if anyone will be attending the event and wants to liveblog it for our readers, please email us.

Forum discussion continues at Small Business Brief Forums.

Two threads erupted yesterday all on conference controversy in the search industry. We have a thread on the controversy of paying speakers at Cre8asite Forums and a thread on the controversy of sponsor paid and run sessions at Sphinn.

Should Search Conferences Pay All Speakers?
This is far from a new question, this question is on the minds of all speakers and those who have been in the conference circuit forever. There is knowledge that some speakers are compensated for their flights, hotel and food and sometimes even more. Some smaller conferences actually cover speaker costs and pay a hefty fee to them for speaking. But conferences like SES and SMX typically do not pay speakers and if they do pay speakers, they typically don't cover anything outside of covering flight, hotel, food and miscellaneous fees. But yes, some speakers are compensated at SES and SMX for their costs.

Let's start with keynote speakers. People like Barry Diller, Eric Schmidt, Louis Monier, Jerry Yang and so on are likely not compensated. Think about it, these guys are well off, how much money would a person like Diller, Schmidt, Yang accept to speak at a conference? I doubt any real money an SES or SMX can afford would entice them. So these guys, in my opinion, are not compensated in any way.

How about company representatives from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and so on? Their companies pay for them to fly to conferences, book their hotels, pay for their meals and so on. Why do they do this? For webmaster and advertiser relation. I doubt the conferences pay them, because in a sense - you, the advertisers are already paying for them to come with your PPC spend.

Mostly everyone else who speak do it for the face time and potential business they might get out of it. So the air time and business cards they get from speaking, covers their costs in the long run.

But there are some who don't get business out of going to these conferences. If they are invited and attendees love to hear them, they are paid. Danny Sullivan did twit that the conference do cover some speakers who are "small consultants doing solo stuff," and adds "say you're doing a session where you're not likely to get much client work but you kick ass on a regular basis. that's one example."

The forum thread at Cre8asite Forums is neutral on the concept of paying some speakers. I suspect if one speaker doesn't get paid, while another one does - it may be possibly insulting or upsetting to the one not getting paid.

How about us? The press who cover the sessions? No, we don't get paid to cover sessions. I mean, we do have ads on the page, but those aren't from session coverage, they are from posts like theses. Our live blog volunteers pay their own way, we don't cover their hotel, food, travel but we do provide a press pass that comes from the conferences (which do cost the conferences money). We pay our own way. The only person I compensate completely is Tamar, since she is a RustyBrick employee. But everyone else shells out a ton of money on travel, hotel and so on for the conference experience, to network, see old friends, learn stuff and also to give back to the community by sharing for those who cannot be there.

So that covers paying speakers and others to come to these events. Forum discussion on that topic at Cre8asite Forums.

Sponsor Paid & Run Sessions?
The second debate is taking place at Sphinn on the topic of sessions designed to enable the sponsors to speak and promote their products. This debate is much more heated and lively then the previous one. There are two sides of the story:

(1) The attendee is paying very good money and they don't want to pay for a speaker to give them a sales pitch. Most attendees can get the sales pitch for free by calling the company's 800 number and expressing interest in their services.

(2) The sponsors who pay big money want to be given the opportunity to pitch their products. They want the attendees to have a way to learn about what they can offer. They feel, if the attendee is interested, they will go to the session.

SMX & SES conference have been having these sponsored paid and run sessions for a while now. The main concern, and I noticed this when I began working on the session coverage for SES, was that SES is having a whole time slot to only session paid presentations. If you look at the SES NY Day two agenda, and scroll down to the 3:15pm-4:30pm time slot, you will notice that the only sessions being offered are classified as "Sponsored Sessions." That gives the attendee no choice but to either skip the whole time slot or visit a sponsored session. Typically, a conference will have a single session that is sponsored amongst three or four additional sessions that are not sponsored - giving the attendee the choice. Here, attendees may feel they have no choice.

The debate on that topic is pretty lively but civilized, so check it out at Sphinn.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums and Sphinn.

Guess what, my friends? SMX West is next week. And just a few weeks later, SES NY 2008 is occurring. The party is about to start and you shouldn't be left out! Fortunately, the forums have you covered (or we do if you came here first).

The SMX West parties are as follows: on Monday night, the SMX bash will be held, followed by the Search Bowl on Tuesday night. The party on Wednesday night, the last night of the event, will be hosted by Google and is called the Google Groove. (Will I see Susan Moskwa in rollerskates again?!)

During SES New York, there will be a SEMPO party and a sponsors and exhibitors on Monday night (March 17), in addition to an SMG party. On Tuesday night, the festivities continue with a "private party" (hint: I want an invite). Wednesday night should be a fun time with a WebmasterRadio bash, and on Thursday night, there's nothing scheduled -- yet.

I know that an IM-NY and Best of the Web charity party is in the works and I'll be posting about that when more details come along.

In the meantime, I hope to see you at the events!

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums (SMX West) and Search Engine Watch Forums (SES NY 2008).

SphinnCon Israel has officially sold out today. In fact, we added 15 additional seats, increasing our capacity to 165 people from our original 150 people. I apologize to all those that did not get to come to the first ever SphinnCon and the first ever sudo-SMX event in Israel, but there is always next year! One thing is for sure, we know there is real interest and support for such an event in Israel - which makes me incredibly happy and proud.

Here is our revised speaker list:
SEO Panel

• Branko Rihtman, SEO Specialist at Tens Technology (Presenter)
• Ophir Cohen, CEO of Compucall
• Sam Michelson, CEO of Five Blocks
• Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at Nekuda.co.il

• Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promedia Corp (Presenter)
• Itai Levitan, Managing Partner at EasyNet
• Alon Sheafer, Founder of Kenshoo
• Tal Cohen, Finance and Technology Industry Manager at Google Israel
• Michael G. Samet, Ph.D., CEO, Referral Technology, Inc.

• Eli Feldblum, CEO of RankAbove (Presenter)
• Tzvika Avnery, Partner at Tagadam
• Roi Carthy, TechCrunch
• Lior Hener, Yedda

I have to thank the sponsors who stepped up to be part of the first SphinnCon Israel. Sponsoring this event not only made it possible for us to financially pull this all together but also shows how giving the SEM community is worldwide. It is a true honor to have these local Israeli companies be such a big part of the SphinnCon Israel event. The sponsors include:

• Compucall
• K.co.il
• Play65
• eToro

Also, we have a free venue, free! The Department of Technological Management and Marketing at the Jerusalem College of Technology has given us a large large class room and lobby to host the event.

Thank you all for sponsoring!

Now for the mushy girly part. When the concept of such a social networking event was first drawn up, there were a few individuals in the Israeli SEM community who stood up and decided to help in so many ways. I wanted to specifically mention each of them by name. Each of these people helped organize this event for me and the SEM Israel community and they all deserve our deepest gratitude. I cannot express how much time, leg work, negotiating, diplomacy and all the stuff that goes into making an event like this work - went into this SphinnCon Israel. I personally thanked each one over here, with additional comments on Sponsors as well. But here is the list of individuals that deserve a mention, in alphabetical order:

• Michael Barnett
• Eli Feldblum
• Roi Hildesheimer
• Gilad Sasson
• Mayer Reich
• Branko Rihtman

Like I said earlier, I wrote a personal thank you to all these people and companies at my personal blog. But they deserve kudos here as well.

For $50 each person, I think the real winners will be the attendees. The presentations look outstanding. I personally prepared a 15 minute introduction, in Apple Keynote, so that should be cool. Now instead of me covering a search conference, I will try to help run one. Should be interesting.

Thank you all again!

Forum discussion continued at Sphinn.

Rand Fishkin wrote a blog post on the reasons why you must attend SMX West. Among his reasons: you can meet potential employees and clients, you can perform competitive analysis, you can brainstorm with speakers, you can test your elevator pitch, you can set goals for yourself, and applications of the right tip may increase your ROI. This works for any conference, really, and it should be part of any Search Marketer's agenda.

But why SMX West? Well, for one, I'll be there. Rand mentions that great people will be going, and you bet I'll be blogging from the front row as always. Rand argues that in comparison to other conferences, there's also great food (just make sure you prepare Kosher food this time, Danny!) He adds that the timing is great, the sessions are new (the lineup is revamped), three days is a perfect length (I like it better than two, especially since I'm flying cross country), it's in Silicon Valley, there's free wifi, there are great after-parties (really?!), and there's breakthrough content.

So if you haven't signed up for SMX West yet, do it. The deadline for a discount registration is two days from now, so do it right away! You can register at the official SMX West website.

Also, as you know, Barry (you know, the guy who runs this blog) is arranging SphinnCon Israel next month (February 5th). If you're a local or near Israel, you're encouraged to attend. There are representatives from many search agencies in the country in addition to Google Israel representation. It should be a blast.

Postscript Barry: Danny wrote a post on SphinnCon Israel at Search Engine Land, please make sure to check it out.

SphinnCon has a limited number of seats available, and the full agenda has been posted. I won't be there, so it won't be as fun as if I would, but you're encouraged to attend. If I could make it, you bet I would!

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

I would like to formally announce the first SphinnCon event, a "Low-Impact Networking Event" under the SMX brand and Sphinn brand named SphinnCon Israel.

It is my hope that the small half day event will turn out to be a huge success that we will have a full fledge two-day SMX Israel event the following year. Here are some details for SphinnCon Israel.

Date: February 5, 2008
Time: Noon to 6pm
Venue: Jerusalem College of Technology
Location: 21 HaVaad Haleumi St, Givat Mordechai, Jerusalem -- (see map)
Cost: $50
Max Attendance: 150 people

I, Barry Schwartz, will be chairing the event. I have an awesome crew of organizers helping me, including Tens Technology, Rank Above and Gilad Sasson.

The agenda is fairly flexible, we hope to have a ton of time to network as well as hear from local SEO/PPC and Social Media experts. We hope to have an after hours party as well.

You can register for the event by clicking here, again, it is only $50!

The Facebook group can be found here and more details on the event can be found at SphinnCon Israel.

Please help me make this first SphinnCon event a success. I would really love to have annual SMX Israel events!

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Our coverage of the December search marketing conferences is now complete. We have extensive coverage, in raw-live format from SES Chicago and PubCon Vegas. Both conferences were a huge hit and lots of fun and learning took place.

Again, a huge thank you to our contributors and writers including Carolyn Shelby, Dave Rohrer, Chris Boggs, Justin Davy, Marty Weintraub, Avi Wilensky and Tamar Weinberg. Your hard work does not go unappreciated by the SEM community and industry - we all thank you.

We covered 28 sessions from PubCon and 24 sessions from SES. Here is a recap of the sessions we covered by conference:

PubCon Vegas 2007 Search Conference Coverage Recap:

1. Keynote Conversation with Craig Newmark
2. SEO 101 - The Timeless and Classic Hits
3. PPC 101 – Beginner to Intermediate Level
4. Monetizing Social Media Traffic
5. Reputation Monitoring and Management
6. Social Marketing 101
7. Link Building Campaigns and Strategies
8. Link Baiting - 96 Different Strategies
9. Optimizing Your Site for Contextual Ads
10. Content Creation - Cranking it Out
11. Link Buying
12. Domain Names and Trademarks - Legal Issues
13. Effective Domaining Strategies
14. Web Hosting Industry Overview
15. SEO Design and Organic Site Structure
16. SEO and the Big Search
17. Alternative Discovery and SEO - Feeds, PDF's, and Blog SEO
18. Brand Management
19. Keynote with Matt Cutts
20. Responsible Web Design
21. Effective Action Based Copywriting
22. CSS and HTML Coding Today
23. Ecommerce and Shopping Cart Optimization
24. Search and Blogging Reporters Forum
25. Competitive Intelligence
26. International and European Site Optimization
27. Organic Keyword Research and Selection
28. Tools of the Trade

SES Chicago 2007 Search Conference Coverage Recap:

1. Search Around the World - Part One: Asia/Pacific & Australia
2. Mobile Search Battle Royal
3. Redefining the Customer
4. Meet the Web Analytics Players
5. The Human Equation: Giving Back Internet Style
6. Orion Panel – Search, Privacy, and the Community in the Digital Age
7. Igniting Viral Campaigns
8. There’s Still Money on the Table!
9. Orion Panel - Universal, Blended, and Vertical Search
10. The Transformation of Local in a Search Driven World
11. Retailer Track: Shopping Search Tactics
12. Are Paid Links Evil?
13. Maximum Conversion in Retail: Raising the Bar
14. Actionable Social Media
15. Online Maps: Plotting the Direction of Local Search
16. Case Study: Moving from Paper to Online
17. Managing Automated PPC Bid Management
18. Your Marketing Program in Context
19. Calling All Clicks: PayPerCall and You
20. PPC Advertising on Influential Blogs and Social Media
21. Last Minute Holiday Search Tactics
22. Just for Fun Track: So You Want to Be a Search Marketer?
23. Fun With Dynamic Websites
24. Dealing with Difficult Clients

Our top five stories across both conferences by pageviews are:

• Monetizing Social Media Traffic from PubCon Vegas written by Tamar Weinberg
• Link Buying from PubCon Vegas written by Tamar Weinberg
• SEO 101 - The Timeless and Classic Hits from PubCon Vegas written by Avi Wilensky
• Shopping Search Tactics from SES Chicago written by Marty Weintraub
• Link Baiting - 96 Different Strategies from PubCon Vegas written by Dave Rohrer

That wraps up our coverage. See you all in February, for our next major conference coverage event!

Would you want to visit one of the most beautiful countries in the world while attending an esteemed SMX event? Barry will be in Israel on February 3, 2008, and he'd like to organize an event.

If you're Israeli, would like to make an excuse to travel to Israel, or just want to meet Barry (trust me, he's a cool guy, and he hasn't paid me to write this endorsement), you should sign up for the event on Sphinn (yes, please register) to indicate that you have an interest. Barry explains more in his blog post.

Seriously, you all need to vote and have a real interest to go. :)

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

Last week, SearchCamp was held in Chennai, India. While none of us at Search Engine Roundtable were able to cover the event, there is a lot of coverage on other blogs from those who attended.

• Review of the First Search Camp Event
• Eight SEM Predictions at SearchCamp
• Search Camp Day 1 Live Update
• Pictures of Search Camp
• Search Camp Day 2 Coverage

Overall, it looks like the event was a huge success. Now we just need more livebloggers for the next one. ;)

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and Search Engine Watch Forums.

If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas and want to know of 51 essential tools for SEM, Jeff Martin has announced that there will be a meetup at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson, TX on October 15, 2007 between 6:30PM and 8PM. The meetup is intended to cover "51 essential tools for managing paid and natural search engine marketing campaigns." The presenters include Christine Churchill, Rob Garner, and other members of the DFW SEM association.

If you're interested in attending, the event is free for members and $20 for non-members. Additional information can be found on the DFW SEM website.

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.

This post was composed on September 24 and has been scheduled for publication on September 28.

Poor Kim Krause Berg. She got stuck in Chicago on the way to SES San Jose and arrived a day late. To make matters worse, she got stuck on the way back home. She shares her frightening travel adventures on Cre8asite Forums and wonders if anyone else has run into the same thing.

Fortunately for Kim (?), she's not the only one that it's happened to. Forum member khalidh used to spend 21 hours traveling for work:

On the last project, I was travelling from Rochester, NY to Houston. The flight was suppose to take 5 hours. I usually left Rochester on Thursday at 5 pm and got to Houston at 2 pm the next day.

Creepy.

swainzy's friend hit a 35-hour delay once:

My girlfriend had a flight cancelled last spring and had to sleep on the Denver Airports floor. The delay was 35 hours.

joedolson has a story that's similar to Kim's:

When I was coming back from Vienna last summer, my flight from NYC to Minneapolis was cancelled twice in one night.

Oy. Time for a fully virtual conference? But then I wouldn't be able to take all these great pictures. Ah well, the end result is worth it. :)

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.

Joseph Morin, who has been posting the party and events schedule for the Search Engine Strategies conference has just announced his resignation. Well, he announced he won't be posting the schedules anymore.

But yesterday, he did post the SES San Jose 2007 Party & Events Schedule at Search Engine Watch Forums. I guess it is his swan song, like it is Danny's and Chris's swan song from SES. But Joe is not stepping away completely, he will still moderate the SEM Related Organization and Events forum at Search Engine Watch Forums.

To view the schedule of events, see Search Engine Watch Forums.

Back to Joe resigning... I don't remember ever seeing Joe officially accept a position for posting the party list. It just landed in his lap. Joe explains why he needs to step down from this role:

Nowadays it seems to be all private parties as the engines and vendors try and trim their budgets, also the conference grew in size to a point where no one wants to foot the bill for a conference now numbering in the thousands of attendees. Perhaps it's the end of an era, but after compiling this years list and waiting forever for any word whatsoever to compile an even somewhat decent party schedule and getting 'we're only having a private party this show' or 'we aren't doing anything for this show' time and time again plus given that unfortunately PubCon Las Vegas 2007 and SES Chicago 2007 happen to fall during the same week (where I happen to be one of the conference organizers), I now have a good opportunity to relinguish my role as party coordinator and pass the torch on to someone else. I'm not sure who will take over my position or if there will be enough event activity to warrant an 'official person' but I wish them well and I cherish the time that I have spent in this role.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Mick at Search Engine Watch Forums says that he is organizing a UK SEO meet-up in Manchester on September 14th and 15th at the Britannia Hotel. If you're interested, please let him know.

And it's finally August! Search Engine Strategies San Jose is coming up at the end of the month. We'll have conference coverage (with a schedule to be posted soon).

Also, a heads up for SES SJ travelers: Andrew Goodman has posted at the Search Engine Watch Forums about the 3rd Annual San Jose Golf Classic. It will happen on August 21st in the morning. If you're interested, let Chris Boggs, Andrew Goodman, or John Krystynak know.

Forum discussion about the UK SEO Meet at Search Engine Watch Forums and the Golf Classic at Search Engine Watch Forums.

One of the Search Engine Roundtable's trademark features is our extensive, quick and comprehensive coverage of the major search marketing conferences available to the community.

Most of our readers see the hard work we put in time and time again to type up and publish our notes on this site. In fact, we have covered 26 conferences dating back to 2003. In fact, we have covered 546 sessions over those 26 conferences. We have done so across America, and globally, including places like San Jose, New York City, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Seattle, New Orleans, Sweden, Toronto, London, Germany, China, and more. We have had dozens of hard working contributors type away hard at their keyboards to get this done for you. You can find our past conference coverage by scrolling through our search conference archives.

As we prepare to cover the approximate 75 sessions at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies San Jose conference, I thought I share a little behind the scenes on how we prepare to cover such a huge conference amongst several authors.

I recently released RustyBudget a tool to help coordinate the stories bloggers and authors write about on a daily basis. We are now using it to coordinate the sessions each of our writers will be covering while at the Search Engine Strategies conference. For more information about this tool, which I use to manage the topics here, at Search Engine Land, my personal blog and other places, read the RustyBrick press release named RustyBudget - the Writers Budget, see my personal blog post on it, or read TechCrunch's review.

The screen shot below shows a screen shot of the budgeting system:

As you can somewhat see, we place all the sessions into a folder named "Available Sessions." On a first come first serve basis, the authors login and drag the topics from the "Available Sessions" folder to their own folder, titled by their first name. Here is a video of me dragging a topic into my folder.

That is what goes into preparing to schedule several authors over a four day conference with 75 sessions.

We hope to cover all 75 sessions. We currently have about 40 to go, but I suspect we will have no problem covering 90% of the sessions. If you are interested in helping with the coverage, please contact us.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

As we mentioned earlier, WebmasterWorld has partnered with SEO Class. This is just a reminder that upcoming SEO Class will be held on 7/30 and 7/31 in New York City.

The presenters will be Greg Niland, Brad Geddes, Michael Gray, Todd Malicoat, Brett Tabke, and Joe Laratro, and the training will be held at the Affnia hotel in Manhattan.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

It's only July, but people are already talking about the highly anticipated Search Engine Strategies conference of the summer, SES San Jose, to be held on August 20 through the 23rd. Already, Jim Lanzone of Ask.com and Marissa Meyer of Google are lined up as keynote speakers, and there is a great amount of sessions, so I know that people are eagerly anticipating the conference. I'll be there, Barry will be there, and if you don't know either of us, say hello!

In any event, the forums circuit is buzzing about the conference. At the High Rankings Forum, people are already collaborating and announcing that they've made their travel accommodations. Jill Whalen says she'll be there, because after all, she's speaking.

In a Google Groups thread, Adam Lasnik says that he'll be there.

A party thread has already started in the Search Engine Watch Forums, but nobody knows of any parties just yet. I guess it's still too early. But I know Jonathan Hochman wants to know: when is the Google Dance?

Will you be there?

Forum discussion at High Rankings Forum, Google Groups, and Search Engine Watch Forums

A Search Engine Watch Forums thread on "Guiding the Future of Search Engine Strategies" has finally started to pick up some steam.

Ammon Johns offered some suggestions and then finally, the "future of SES," Kevin Ryan stepped in to make his first post at Search Engine Watch Forums.

First, he commented about the comparison of food between SES and Danny's new SMX conference. He said, "On the food subject: I am open to suggestion and, yes, it is easier to feed 100 people as opposed to 1000." Fair enough, but I have seen plenty events feed thousands of people at the level of the SMX conference. But still, it is a ton of work.

Kevin Ryan then comments on the challenges of finding good speakers. He said, in the "vein of quality control" and making the right balance between speakers with training in presenting versus speakers who have less skill in presenting but can offer a wealth of knowledge. He said, "Generally, people want to hear more from the "buy side" [aka less presentation skill but more knowledge] so balance is the key."

For one thing, Danny starting SMX is encouraging the conference circuit around the search industry to get better.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

With Danny Sullivan's departure from Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine Strategies conference series, the future of the Search Engine Strategies conference is something that many people wonder about. Kevin Newcomb, news editor at Search Engine Watch, has posted in the Search Engine Watch Forums with an update to past and future participants. Kevin Ryan has been brought in to oversee the conference series, and Incisive Media is in the process of creating an advisory board for the conferences that will be comprised of search industry professionals. Kevin also solicits feedback from the community to guide the future of the Search Engine Strategies conferences.

Forum members are looking for smaller conferences, for one:

One of the great things about SMX, in addition to it being geared towards advanced SEMs, was its small size attendee-wise. While there are many good things about a bigger conference (a great expo floor, for one), one of the things that's hard to do at SES is break into the "groups," so to speak. It's hard to chat with speakers, because they're mobbed after every session, at lunch, in the bar, etc.

Printed notes, albeit old fashioned, could be extremely useful to some (and I agree!)

Bring back the printed presentations and hold speakers accountable for providing something for the book, even if it's not the final version. I have all my books w/notes dating back to Boston 2002. The notes from NYC just don't provide the same value without the data and charts found in the presentaitons.

Of course, looking for more advanced tracks -- like addressing the new Google Universal Search -- is also something that people are seeking out.

Maybe a "Universal Search" track would be a good idea! Helping folks understand more about how widgets, maps, xml/rss, images, audio and video aid with SEM/SEO.

That's the feedback so far. Does anyone have anything else? Join the discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

If SES and SMX have not been enough for you, or you haven't been able to attend any conferences in the past few months, we're happy to inform you that Jill Whalen, administrator of the High Rankings website and regular conference speaker, is holding a High Rankings Seminar to be held on June 28 and 29 in Denver, Colorado. The seminar has a great lineup of speakers, including Christine Churchill and Jennifer Laycock. The seminar will cover topics in keyword research, social media, Pay Per Click, and copywriting, in addition to many other SEO issues.

We're happy to inform you that if you register for the High Rankings Seminar through this website using the coupon code RUSTY, you will be entitled to a 25% discount. Also, non-profit organizations can enter to win one of two free seats if you submit your information by June 15. If you are a non-profit organization looking to learn some great SEO tips from industry experts, you are encouraged to apply.

By the way, I know I mentioned it yesterday, but we don't have coverage of SES Toronto after all. Both Carolyn Shelby, our conference reporter, and WebProNews did not make it to Toronto.

Forum discussion continues at the High Rankings Forum.

As I was checking some upcoming conference websites yesterday after recovering from a great SMX Advanced conference, I noticed that Brett Tabke's head all of the sudden showed up on the SEO Class website. I hadn't seen that before, but little did I know that big changes were coming. Brett announces in a WebmasterWorld thread that PubCon has partnered with SEOClass, thereby bringing his expertise to the table.

From the press release:

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--WebmasterWorld Inc. (http://www.WebmasterWorld.com) and SEO Class Inc. (http://SEOClass.com) today announced a partnership to produce a PubCon SEO Class, a premium Internet marketing training program. The two-day premium SEO Class SEM training programs are limited to less than 50 participants and focus on midrange to advanced Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization curriculum.

This should be pretty good. I heard three of the speakers (Todd Malicoat, Brad Geddes, and Michael Gray) at SMX, and I know that they have a pretty good lineup.

The next SEO Class conference will be held on July 30th and 31st in New York City.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

The conference competitiveness has really started to heat up while at SMX.

Rand reported of rumors of exclusivity contracts that speakers who wanted to speak at SES conference had to sign. In this contracts, SES supposedly did not allow speakers to speak at both SES and SMX.

Kevin at Search Engine Watch denied that there were exclusivity for speakers between SES and SMX. He said, "There have not been, nor will there be any plans to institute any kind of exclusivity agreement for speakers at any of our events."

So I spoke with Danny Sullivan who said that this is not entirely true. Danny told me that he put clauses into the speaker notes that says they do not want speakers to speak at another conference within two weeks of the SES conferences. I then spoke with Chris Sherman, who has chaired dozens of SES shows and he explained that the speakers technically do not have speaker contracts - they just ask that speakers do not talk at two conferences within two weeks of each other.

I am told, they have never enforced this exclusivity clause. But I am aware of some speakers who have told me, probably over two years ago, that they could not speak at WebmasterWorld's PubCon conference because they are speaking at Search Engine Strategies. So there must be some truth to the exclusivity.

Danny told me, he has no plans to add speaker exclusivity to SMX conferences but he was the individual responsible for the exclusivity clause in the SES speaker notes.

Since SES has always been run by Danny Sullivan, I suspect he would know best. It is possible that Incisive Media, the new organizers of SES, can remove any of these clauses or simply not enforce them in the future.

Chris Sherman added that since he is chairing some SES conferences, that he has a special contract that won't allow him to speak at SMX or moderate at SMX now. Nor can he speak or moderate at WebmasterWorld's conference.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

An interesting question has arisen in the Search Engine Watch Forums about whether there's any benefit to attending the Search Engine Strategies Latino Conference if you're not particularly targeting the Latino demographic.

According to moderator Nacho, there's a benefit to attending, even if you're not particularly targeting this market. However, you might end up focusing on a multilingual market in the future after attending the valuable sessions.

There are actually two tracks during the two day event. The fundamentals track is primarily focused on those SEM needs that you want to get better at, which doesn't really have to apply to the Latino market. It's like learning math no matter if you adding apples with apples or using examples of oranges. The principles are the same. On the other hand, there are really awesome new sessions at SES Latino on the Landscape and Tactics track that may help you understand how to take your site from being monolingual to multilingual. In our case, we use the prime focus of Spanish or Portuguese driven targeted markets. However, the principles again will also help you with other languages. With regards to the Latino market, you'll be surprised the enormous potential it has, so if you are not targeting them, maybe SES Latino will help you change your mind.

I personally won't be there, but it sounds exciting. If you haven't ever been to a Search Engine Strategies conference and you're near Miami, you should definitely consider it. In fact, Nacho provides a 20% discount with coupon code: 20IHIS

We will have conference coverage if you can't attend, and if you are interested in covering any sessions for Search Engine Roundtable, please feel free to contact us.

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.

This article was written this past Monday and scheduled for publication on Thursday, May 24th.

Next month is a pretty busy month for conferences. Week after week, we have conferences to attend most of the month. The Search Engine Roundtable will have representatives at each conference, covering the sessions live for you.

The first conference is SMX Advanced in Seattle on June 4th & 5th. Both Tamar and I will be attending and covering the conference. I wrote more about this conference at Danny's First Search Marketing Expo Coming!

The second conference is SES Toronto in Canada on June 12th & 13th. This is the first time I am not personally covering SES Toronto in two years. Carolyn Shelby will be covering this conference and we may add more reporters to this event (if you are interested, let me know).

The third conference is SES Latino in Miami on June 18th & 19th. Last year I covered the kick off of Nacho's SES Latino. You can see our 2006 SES Latino coverage to get an idea on the niche this conference fulfills. Carolyn Shelby will be covering this conference and we may add more reporters to this event (if you are interested, let me know).

Carolyn Shelby (aka cshel) will be our "Conference Reporter" for as long as she loves doing it, since she has done such an excellent job at SES NY 07.

FYI - if you are going to SES Toronto from USA, you probably will need a passport. In the past you did not, but I think there is a new rule, so don't forget it.

Also, if you want to see my personal conference checklist for the upcoming events, see my personal blog.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.