Online Marketing Blog

Our next installment of ongoing ad:tech Chicago 2006 coverage provided by Online Marketing Blog focuses on link building.

This SEO related session was two thirds full, which dispells my earlier suggestion that interest in SEO might be slipping here at ad:tech. What was to be a rounded topic of on-page and off-page optimization turned out to be focused on linking as one of the presenters was not able to attend.

Here is the next installment of Online Marketing Blog coverage of ad:tech Chicago 2006:

With a slight delay, this standing room only session started off with Moderator Henry Copeland of blogads.com introducing the speakers which included: Michael Moore of Nestle Purina Pet Care, Robert Claypoole “Consumer and Professional Relationship Marketing” for Johnson and Johnson Vision Care division, Heather Sefcik of Henkel Consumer Adhesives (Duck Tape) and Brian Bloom of Ligget Stashower, a marketing PR firm that works with the Duck Tape brand.

As part of the ongoing coverage of ad:tech Chicago 2006 Online Marketing Blog is doing for the ad:tech blog, here is the first installment on the sessions about SEO that I was able to attend. Above is a photo of (L to R) Dana Todd, Bruce Clay and Fionn Downhill. Bruce is actually wearing a tie!
While there was no fireplace, there certainly was a good share of chatting in this session on organic search engine optimization. Introductions were handled by Fionn Downhill of Elixir Systems (I love her accent) to a room that was surprisingly 1/2 full. Perhaps search marketing is losing some of its luster with the ad:tech crowd? The need for SEO certainly hasn’t abated as Dana Todd of¬†SiteLab and Bruce Clay of BruceClay.com were able to attest in this mostly Q and A formatted session.

Well, here’s the first big announcement during ad:tech Chicago, Drew Ianni was appointed Chair, Programming.

ad:tech Executive Chair Susan Bratton, who oversaw the production of ad:tech Chicago comments: “Drew and I have been friends and colleagues for years, and I‚Äôm proud to announce him as my successor,” said Susan Bratton, CEO of Cendara, Inc. and new ad:tech advisory board Chair Emeritus. “I am excited to see him continue to grow ad:tech as a premium brand.”.

Ianni has a pretty extensive backround reaching back to 1995 with CKS and most recently with Sheridan Square Partners.

I am sitting here in my hotel room in Chicago getting things lined up for the ad:tech conference which is to start tommorrow. As I walked through the lobby I waved hi to Bruce Clay who was chatting with Dana Todd, no doubt strategizing their session for tomorrow morning, “Organic SEO Fireside Chat with the Experts”. I am looking forward to the session and will be covering it for the ad:tech blog. Both Bruce and Dana know their stuff to say the least.

Next week is the next installment of the most popular event for interactive marketers, ad:tech. This year’s Chicago conference promises outstanding keynotes on multicultural marketing, creativity and new ways for marketers to reach customers. Sessions range from search marketing to word of mouth to the development of personas.

The event will be covered on the ad:tech blog by Steve Hall of Adrants, David Berkowitz of 360i, Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing (me) and Carly Lesser from CDG Solutions. The sessions I plan on blogging include:

• Organic SEO Fireside Chat with the Experts - Monday 10:30

If you’re looking for sources of information on search marketing, conferences can be a great resource. Or. if you’re a conference junkie like me, then you’ll find the SEOBook “Must See SEO Events” calendar exceptionally useful.¬† Some disclosure here, I am editing the calendar along with Aaron.

Some of the conferences listed include:

• Search Engine Strategies
• WebmasterWorld Pubcon
• ad:tech
• DMA conferences
• MIMA
• eMetrics Summit
• eTail
• Shop.org Summit
• Search Insider Summit
• OMMA
• Affiliate Summit
• SEO Roadshow
• SEO Bash
• And more