As a result of winning the TopRank challenge, I am excitedly off to SES San Jose next weekend where I will be put up in luxury shared accommodations (Note from Lee: That’s supposed to be a 900 sq ft suite – I bet you never even see Thomas while you’re there.) and spending the week filling my head, and yours through my regular postings, with every last detail I can possibly acquire regarding search engine marketing and optimization.
So what am I looking forward to most, outside of the Google Dance, of course?
Well, how could I not be excited to learn about, rather than experience, public relations train wrecks with the session, Public Relations Train Wrecks in the Interactive Biz: Disaster Can Be Avoided! This is an early Monday morning session, so I will no doubt be in the thick things just hours off the plane. For those attending, this session happens at 9am and is being moderated by Kevin Ryan, Vice President and Global Content Director for Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch. I’ll be front and center. (Or on the left hand side of the room, three rows back, in the second seat if front & center is taken.)
Equally, I’m looking forward to the session One Billion Searchers being moderated by Mike Grehan, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Vice President of International Business Development. This is an entire session dedicated towards understanding how search engine strategies will apply to the next great frontier of China.
This session holds particular interest because even those at the forefront of reshaping traditional strategies to sync with an unknown market are unsure exactly what the new rules will be. In that sense, it’s reminiscent of SEO as a whole – a dynamic and every changing discipline where one must always be willing to learn, relearn, and learn again as the only thing certain is change.
In the end, the true joy of these conferences is experiencing a vital blend of practical lessons on the directly, immediately relevant, while also learning how traditional, and as of yet unknown, strategies, will co-exist as our marketplace continues to grow.
Imparting the lessons I take with me with those who share the same passion I have for public relations, SEO, and marketing will be most enjoyable – and I truly look forward to sharing what I’ve learned in this forum starting early next week.
