Sad news for the industry broke yesterday, although there is no official word from the owners of Search Engine Strategies. The conference program founded by Danny Sullivan back in November 18, 1999 in San Francisco under the Search Engine Watch brand.
Since then it had a ton of success, that is until Incisive Media purchased Search Engine Watch from MecklerMedia (now Jupitermedia) in 2005. Danny Sullivan started Search Engine Land and Search Marketing Expo afterwards and it seems like SES and Search Engine Watch never really was able to rebound. They had some awesome moments after, but they just couldn't keep leadership around.
Yesterday I learned through multiple sources, some very close to the company, and also Bill Hartzer that SES and ClickZ Events, part of the same company, has shut down. I have seen many close with the company and events confirm in privately on Facebook. Bill wrote:
I’ve recently received word that CLickZ Events and Search Engine Strategies have officially closed down. The event series of conferences has been shut down and apparently will no longer be holding events in the future. Based in New York City, the event series has closed down both in New York and in Asia.
The SES web site does not resolve:
Most of those in the industry today got their start through events like SES. So seeing it go is a sad moment for our industry. It probably isn't a surprise to many, with the industry maturing and the competition from SMX and other SEM events. But it is a sad moment in our industry.
In fact, this site started via SES Chicago 2003, covering the event in live blog format (yes, live blogging without wifi back then). We will miss you SES.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
