There are a lot of ways to learn about search engine marketing and I will cover those in posts over the next few weeks. Let’s start with conferences because that’s where many search engine marketers have started their training and where many have learned their craft.
Search Engine Strategies (SES) – this is the “grandaddy” of search engine marketing conferences started by Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman back in the 20th century. The first SES was held on November, 18 1999 in San Francisco, California.
The conference went international that same year. It is regularly held in Chicago, London, New York, Toronto and San Jose each year. It has made a brief apperance in China as well. The conference has gone from a one day affair with a few hundred participants, to a week long event with more than 6,000 attendees. How many people get their search engine marketing training at these conferences?
Search Marketing Expo – Danny and Chris left Search Engine Strategies and started their own search engine marketing conference, SMX, in June 2007. The first SMX event was the Search Marketing Expo Advanced, a two day event held in Seattle. Today SMX has a variety of conferences including SMX Social Media Marketing, SMX West as well as several international events including SMX Munich, SMX China and SMX Singapore among others.
Webmaster PubCon – This conference actually officially started in London in 2000 when “over 125 WebmasterWorld members showed up at the Cittie of Yorke Pub in London”. The conference was first held in the US in Irvine, California in 2002 and has been hosted in many other cities including, Austin, Boston, Orlando, Las Vegas, and New Orleans. Lately Pubcon has been held in Las Vegas, obviously a crowd pleaser.
Those are the ‘big 3′ in search marketing conferences but there are several smaller conferences that are worth noting. Please add any I may have missed in the comments, thanks.
Scary SEO – sponsored by Dave Snyder and Jordan Kasteler of Search & Social and held in Boca Raton, Florida in October on the 24th and 25th.
Think Tank – put on by one the friendliest guys in seo, DK from Purpose Inc. Here’s what he says on his web page. “The think tank will start off by bringing the ThinkTankers together to meet and become friends”. This was last held in Del Mar, a beautiful upscale resort town in northern San Diego county, September 27 – 28, 2008.
Search Fest – SEMpdx is holding this Search Engine Marketing conference in the Pacific Northwest. SearchFest 09, will take place at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon on March 10, 2009
Elite Retreat – this conference is an exclusive event started in 2007 by Jeremy Schoemaker. Their tagline is ‘Two days that will change your business life!’ You actually have to apply for this event and is more than just search marketing but that seems to be the target audience. Next event to be held February 18th-20th, 2009 in San Francisco, California.
Search Marketing World 2008, Conference & Expo – held in Ireland April 3rd, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza in Dublin.
SEO Roadshow – Last held in Limerick, Ireland October 11, 2008.
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