As this was my first time attending a Search Engine Strategies conference I was very excited flying into New York. The last two conferences I’ve covered were the Affiliate Summit (2007) and Webmaster World PubCon (2006), both in Las Vegas, so my expectations for this SES show were based on those prior experiences.
The atmosphere at SES was very welcoming and friendly. I found that speakers and their audiences alike were unusually approachable and easy to talk to. The catch, perhaps, was that the conference had a much more prominent corporate presence and the show clearly catered to this audience. Many of the attendees were representing massive companies and their attitudes and interests reflected this—quite a contrast to the Affiliate Summit where a large percentage of conference-goers were individual affiliates or webmasters.
The corporate feel was not necessarily a bad thing. It was a little less appealing to me personally, simply because I’m not involved with much corporate activity, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy myself. The conference was, as with PubCon and Affiliate Summit, divided into a number of concurrent “tracks”—meaning there were multiple sessions, each catering to a slightly different audience, running simultaneously. This format provided a wide selection of material for attendees to choose from which was nice, although occasionally there were unfortunate time conflicts.
After hours, the scene was much different from the other conferences I have attended. In the past I’d always been aware of a number of large parties or get-togethers put on by major sponsors or industry companies. At SES New York, however, the parties were less abundant and those that were happening were generally very private/exclusive. Ultimately this just made the Hilton bar and the “Old Castle” pub down the street very happening places flooded with SES attendees. As usual I found that I was able to learn just as much after hours as I was during the actual event. One-on-one conversations, from my experience, have a tendency to be a lot more “frank” than what you hear in a typical presentation at the actual conference and such honest discussions can easily develop and grow into great business relationships—not to mention that genuine discussion is often the springboard to new ideas. I know this has been true in my case.
Ultimately what I took away from this event, in terms of how to get the most out of a conference was this: if possible, try not to restrict yourself to sitting in an audience and listening. Get out there and mingle with the attendees as well, and you’ll experience a unique and equally (if not more) beneficial show. It’s not about getting secrets out of the celebrities, so don’t waste your time on that—it’s about getting to know and understand the businesses, views, and ideas of others in the internet marketing industry.
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