SES Chicago Early Bird Discount Deadline Tomorrow & What's Going On At The Show?

Our last big Search Engine Strategies event of the year comes to Chicago from Dec. 5 to 8. I wanted to summarize some of the many sessions that will be going on, as well as remind everyone that tomorrow is the early bird deadline to save on registration. If you're considering going, now's the time to act and save.

You'll find a full agenda and rundown on what's happening at the SES Chicago 2005 web site. The show covers a range of search marketing issues, involving both search marketers sharing experiences from the trenches and speakers from the major search engines themselves, including AOL, Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo.

I'd recommend reviewing our Conference at a Glance page for a fast look at all that's offered. But among the new sessions for Chicago are:

• Video Search
   
• Podcast Search
   
• Book Search
   
• Reputation Monitoring & Management
   
• Global Search Landscape
   
• Targeting Search Ads By Demographics & Behavior
   
• News Search SEO
   
• SEM Via Communities, Wikipedia & Tagging
   
• Measuring Success Through Phone Calls
   
• Search Head Or Search Tail? Getting The Mix Right
   
• SEO Overkill
   
• Measuring Success Case Studies & Tactics

There are four or five different tracks running each of the four days of the event, sessions that are especially focused to help you if you fit particular interest areas. The Fundamentals Track runs on the first and second days, and it's designed to bring someone new to search marketing up to speed. These are sessions it includes:

• Introduction To Search Marketing
   
• Search Term Research & Targeting
   
• Search Engine Friendly Design
   
• Search Advertising 101
   
• Fun With Dynamic Web Sites
   
• Writing For Search Engines
   
• Link Building Basics
   
• Successful Site Architecture

For those who perform SEM services for others, we have a new SEM Agency Track on the third day of the show covering these topics:

• Working With Clients
   
• SEM Campaign & Project Management
   
• Developing Your SEM Niche

There's an increasing number of search marketers who do in house work for their own companies. To cater to their special needs, the third day of the show has an In House Track with these sessions:

• Big Site/ Big Brand SEM
   
• Working As A Team
   
• In House Forum

For the online or offline retailer, a new Shopping & Retailer Track on the third day offers these sessions:

• Shopping Search Tactics
   
• Shopping Search & Merchant Reputations
   
• Retailer Forum

Links are a crucial component of any search marketing campaign, and to help search marketers understand this constantly changing and challenging area, we have a variety of panels devoted just to the topic of linking, including:

• Link Building Basics
   
• Linking Strategies
   
• Buying & Selling Links
   
• Search Engine Q&A On Links
   
• Link Building Clinic

Those into the advertising side of search marketing will find plenty of sessions to suit, including:

• Dealing With Contextual & Other Non-Search Ads
   
• Earning From Search & Contextual Ads
   
• Targeting Search Ads By Demographics & Behavior
   
• Creating Compelling Ads
   
• Landing Page Testing & Tuning
   
• Search Ad Buyers Forum
   
• Meet The Search Ad Vendors
   
• Ad Copy & Landing Page Clinic
   
• Local Search Ads
   
• Auditing Paid Listings & Click Fraud Issues

On the organic/free listing side, beyond the aforementioned panels on linking, you can also look forward to specialized panel involving search marketers or our classic "Meet The" style panels that offer lots of Q&A time to talk with representatives of various search engines about how they operate. Session of interest include:

• Business To Business Tactics
   
• Meet The News Search Engines
   
• Meet The B2B Search Engines
   
• Meet The Blog & Feed Search Engines
   
• My SEM Toolbox
   
• Site ECG
   
• Organic Listings Forum
   
• Meet The Local Search Engines
   
• Meet The Crawlers
   
• Local Search Marketing Tactics
   
• Business To Business Tactics

Search Engine Strategies always has a number of featured sessions where we explore big issues or tackle topics in an unusual way. For Chicago, you'll want to check out:

• Keynote: The Search Marketing Community: My kickoff talk for the show, I'll look at how search marketing has done some growing and gained some reputation over the past year.
   
• Pimp My Site!: This popular session returns, revisiting sites that have been "pimped" to make them more search marketing friendly. It looks at further improvements with them. Check out the review from the session when held at our San Jose show. There's been more pimping and changes since then!
   
• Google Print & The Copyright Debate: Google squares off against critics in the debate over its library scanning program. Come hear the arguments on both sides and make up your own mind.
   
• Future Of SEM: An eclectic panel of search marketers will discuss roundtable-style where the industry is heading from their perspectives.
   
• Evening Forum With Danny Sullivan: No PowerPoints, no set agenda -- we just talk about whatever the audience wants and generally have a lot of fun doing it

There are even more sessions beyond the ones I've summarized, such as Converting Visitors Into Buyers and Measuring Success Overview. Plus, our special "Birds Of A Feather" seating for lunch returns on the first three days of the show, allowing people to easily find and network with those having similar interests. And beyond the show are two days to visit our giant expo hall.

There's a lot going on, so don't miss out! Registration information can be found here. Detailed daily agendas begin here. See you in Chicago!

Some Speaking Spots Left For SES Chicago

I've got a few places left for those interested in speaking at our SES Chicago 2005 event next month. If you're a marketer into video search, book search or dealing with merchant reputation systems, I'm looking for you! More details below.

Speaking At SES New York 2006

Want to speak at SES New York 2006? Hey -- we're totally not ready for that right now. We're all about SES Chicago 2005! If you're wanting to pitch for New York, stay tuned to this blog.

SES Chicago 2005 Speaker Openings Now Posted

I've now posted a variety of sessions where I am still seeking speakers for SES Chicago 2005.

SES Chicago 2005 Speaker Openings Posted Tomorrow

Sometime tomorrow -- Nov. 10 -- I promise to have openings for the SES Chicago posted on this page. I'll also repost to the blog to let all those watching and waiting know when they are live.

SES Chicago 2005 Agenda Is Live!

The agenda for SES Chicago is now live! In about a week when I'm back from vacation, I'll be blogging some of the highlights and new sessions for the show. In the meantime, you can read everything over at the SES Chicago 2005 web site. Links to the agenda day-by-day are on the left-hand side navigation area of the site. Those interested in speaking should read this page for my production timeline and when and how to pitch.

Further SES Chicago Agenda Update

OK, the agenda's still not posted, but it will be sometime early next week. I've further revised the timeline here. I'm also on vacation as explained more here. As I say in my vacation post, please do NOT even think about pitching or asking about speaking until you've read the timeline and speaking info page. You'll save me time and yourself time if you do this.

SES Chicago 2005 Agenda & Speaking Update

I'd hoped to have the SES Chicago agenda ready by this date, but that won't happen until next week. I've posted a revised timeline here. That page also covers when I'm accepting speaking pitches. At this time, I'm no longer taking suggestions for new sessions. I will have sessions openings posted in about three weeks, and that's the time to pitch for those.

SES Stockholm 2005 Speaker Openings

Just putting out a quick note on behalf of Chris Sherman, who is organizing our SES Stockholm show next month. He's got a few opening for speakers that you'll find listed here.

SES San Jose 2005 Coverage

A final post about our SES San Jose 2005 show! Over at the Search Engine Watch Blog, I've posted a round-up of news coverage out of our show. Check it out here: SES San Jose 2005 Coverage Wrap-Up

SES Chicago 2005 Agenda & Speaker Development

As chair SES Chicago 2005, I'm in charge of preparing the agenda and selecting speakers for sessions. Interested in speaking? Here's everything you need to know!

Overview

Parties, Events & Fun @ SES San Jose 2005

When SES began, the big event was the cocktail reception at the end of the first day. Then people usually grouped up and headed off to dinner in different directions. These days, it's a dizzying collection of parties and events that are on offer. I wanted to highlight a few such as the traditional Google Dance, the brand new Yahoo Search Night Off, the Ask Jeeves "Dan Band" Opening Night Bash plus tell you how to find more.

Other New Sessions: SES San Jose 2005

I'd hoped originally to blog up each of the session for our SES San Jose 2005 show next week as I've already done for many sessions. Sadly, time didn't allow for this. Still, I wanted to at least highlight a few of the remaining sessions that are all new for the show, such as My SEM Toolbox, Should You Chase The Algorithm?, Video & Podcast Search, Search APIs and Pimp My Site! Here's a further rundown:

The SEW Forums & SES San Jose 2005

Our Search Engine Watch Forums just turned a year old last month, and SES along with other search-related events has a home there, the SEM Related Organizations & Events section. That's a great place to visit if you want to see if there are any discussions going on or to comment on the show or things on this blog.

Copyright & Trademarks - SES San Jose 2005

I love the legal aspects of search. It's intriguing to see how old laws are applied to this new medium, sometimes usefully, sometimes showing how archaic they are. Jeffrey K. Rohrs of Optiem loves the legal aspect as well. He was one of our earliest SES attendees and a recovering attorney who asked me way back when if I thought our audiences would like a panel on legal issues. Would they ever, I said! I'd done a "hands up" audience poll not too long before this and found that plenty of people wanted to know about search and the law.

Jeffrey's been diligently pulling together panels on various legal issues for years now at the show. Copyright & Trademarks is a new one for SES San Jose 2005.Click to read the rest of this post...

Other Recent Posts

• Spanish Language Search Marketing Tactics - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 28)
• Mobile Search - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 27)
• Site Clinic - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 26)
• Vertical Creep Into Regular Search Results - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 26)
• Beyond ROI: Getting Creative With Search - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 25)
• Link Building Clinic - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 25)
• Meet The Blog Search Engines - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 25)
• Linking Strategies - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 25)
• Converting Visitors Into Buyers - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 25)
• Local Search Ads - SES San Jose 2005 (Jul. 25)