“I was surprised when getting involved with this conference how many people could not distinguish between strategy and tactic,†stated Kevin Ryan at the top of my final session of a whirlwind SES Chicago.
“Kevin Ryan Unplugged†was a chance for Kevin Ryan, the man behind it all, to share his own personal thoughts on the conference and for attendees to offer compliments or suggestions.
It also served as a great bookend for my coverage of this excellent conference.
If I were to sum up the conference as a whole, I would, as Scott Miller did in a previous session, break it down to three C’s:
- Conceptuality
- Communication
- Coordination
Today, it’s becoming increasingly vital in search that all parties involved in a website communicate and coordinate with each other on the concepts they will be promoting (how was that for including all three C’s in a sentence :))
While I had this idea in mind, Ryan received a tough question from an attendee who noted that the last 5 years of SES Chicago were focused on intense learning, while this year focused “refining.â€
I couldn’t agree with this comment more. At the same time, in no way do I take this to be negative.
The nature of the sessions I attended and the overall them of the conference did seem very geared towards refining items we had probably learned several times over. For many of us in the industry, it is not learning these skills that is most critical to our development – it is refining how we use these skills.
To paraphrase Sage Lewis from a previous session, a lack of communication between SEO and development that can spell doom for a website. Refining how we communicate with departments like design or development, determining new and effective ways to coordinate tasks and share knowledge, and the aforementioned strategy development are lessons I took away from this conference that I truly know will make me, and I hope our readers, a more effective search marketer.
With that – it appears I’m the only one left in this room…
See you next year SES Chicago!
I was only able to attend day 1 of the show and based on the first day that was unfortunate. I loved the business focus and the discussion on top level business issues associated with out industry. The Oriion panels were just great. I am very impressed with the new direction of SES (well at least on day 1) the industry needs to grow up and mature now and I think Kevin has his finger on the pulse of the role SES can play in this.