Last week’s Search Engine Strategies conference was jam packed with information, networking, some fun and a little business too. What I like about conferences in Chicago is that it’s only an hour flight from Minneapolis, so I can leave on the last day of the conference and get home at a decent time. These days with a growing family and the biz, I need all the productive time I can get.
For anyone that reads this blog, you know we try to do our part and walk the talk on the social media front by offering photos on Flickr, videos, tags and bookmarks – and the SES Chicago conference was no different. We blogged 14 sessions, did 7 video interviews and posted 61 photos (so far). Our SEO Designer and go-to guy for anything related to blogs, Thomas McMahon joined me on this trip and earned his keep by doing a great job blogging most of the sessions covered here.
I think what made our coverage of this conference with just two people go well is that we planned our sessions out beforehand. We’ll debrief on Monday regarding any contacts made and any new tactics. At our next team training meeting (we do that every 2 weeks) Thomas will do a presentation to the rest of the TopRank team on what he learned.
Below is a wrap up of sessions, interviews and photos posted here at Online Marketing Blog
Sessions:
Duplicate Content and Multiple Site Issues (Lee)
Optimizing for Video Search Engines (Lee)
Vendor Spotlight (Thomas)
Drive Traffic with Google (Thomas)
Google Webmaster Central (Lee)
Podcast & Audio Search (Thomas)
Bulk Submit 2.0 (Thomas)
Fun With Dynamic Sites (Thomas)
Advertising on Social Media (Lee)
Combined Analytics Sessions (Thomas)
Link Baiting & Viral Search Success (Thomas)
Big Ideas for Small Sites & Small Budgets (Thomas)
Ad Copy & Landing Page Optimization (Thomas)
Video Interviews:
Gord Hotchkiss
Stephan Spencer
Joshua Stylman & Peter Hershberg
Neil Patel & Cameron Olthius
Stacy Williams
Bruce Clay
Laura Thieme
Post Conference Event Videos:
Cover of a Janis Joplin tune at Dick’s Restaurant
Chico Banks covering a Stevie Ray Vaughn tune at B.L.U.E.S.
All OMB Videos
Parties and Miscellany:
SES Chicago Day .05
Trust in Search! SES Dinner
Some SES Chicago Swag
Danny Sullivan’s New Empire
TrueLocal Party at B.L.U.E.S.
ClickTracks Party
Photos:
SES Chicago 2006– Flickr Set
Besides covering sessions, doing interviews and taking photos, there was abundant networking going on at this conference. It was also great to see old friends (too many to list) and make a few new ones as well. Some new faces and some not so new (I just haven’t met them in person before) that I enjoyed meeting include: Marie, Meg, Becky, Rob, Gord, Dana, Pauline, Chris, Li, Allan, Matt M., Matt, Kim, Giselle, David W.(finally!), David, Jarrod, Rob, Jonah, Phil, Jessica and Traci. Whew! That’s all I can remember off the top of my head and I apologize if I missed anyone. 🙂
A big thanks goes to Michael McDonald and Chris Richardson from WebProNews as well as Loren Baker, Todd Malicoat, Neil Patel and Cameron Olthius for being great people to hang out with.
People I missed seeing at SES Chicago include Greg and Brian from BOTW, David McInnis and his team from PRWeb, Jim Boykin (congrats on the baby!), Aaron Wall and it would have been great to chat with Michael Gray. Maybe next time!
