Off To SES NY, Our Biggest Search Marketing Show Ever

I’m off to our Search Engine Strategies New York show, which is turning out to be our largest ever event. We’ve got
over 1,300 full conference attendees so far, up 200 from our biggest show prior to this — New York 2004. It’s
likely we’ll hit 1,500 or more through registrations at the event itself.

Add in those who are simply attending the expo floor, and there will be 3,000 to 4,000 people all gathered to talk and learn about search and search marketing. I’m the
chair of the show, and it amazes even me the numbers turning out!

That floor, by the way, is breaking another record with over 100 exhibitors. Accoona is even
giving away a red Mini Cooper, parked out on the expo floor. Meanwhile, the number of official parties and
special events has grown as well.

I’ve said in the past that to me, SES is like Search Engine Watch coming to life. I organize the conference sessions, and it’s a chance to come up with topics and find great people who will educate the audience and explore issues. We’ve got around 150 speakers ranging from experts in search marketing to speakers from the major search engines of AOL, Ask Jeeves,Google, MSN and Yahoo.

On Tuesday, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang and I will be having a “keynote conversation” on the second day of the show, just in time for the
company’s 10th anniversary. Come hear us discuss where Yahoo’s been and what Jerry sees the future holding for Yahoo and search in general.

On Wednesday morning, I’m excited about the Search Convergence panel, where the major search engines will help the audience understand how search is no longer just for the web but instead about consumer search — and for marketers, the new opportunities that will mean.

We’ve also got the Indexing Summit happening, as well as a
Branding Summit and a Click
Fraud: A Legal Look session that our steadfast “recovering attorney” moderator Jeffrey Rohrs has pulled
in the midst of becoming a father again. There are also 57 other sessions that are like children to me, ready for their big day out.

Thinking of coming? The show can be overwhelming. To help, view the entire program
at-a-glance or use the session
planner to get itineraries designed for those new to search marketing, interested in ad issues, interested in organic/free listings or even what’s new in the Been
Before category. Doing the expo floor? Here’s a guide to our sponsors and exhibitors to check
out.

The entire Search Engine Watch editing staff is heading out to this one. Chris Sherman and I both will be moderating sessions every day of the conference. SEW
Forums editor Elisabeth Osmeloski will be heading up our Site Clinic sessions at the show.
We’ve even forced SEW news editor Gary Price to come away from his blogging keyboard for a day or two — though Gary’s going to run back every so often to do a few posts.

Can’t make the show? Barry Schwartz (aka RustyBrick) will be repeating the diligent live coverage he’s
done of past shows via the SEW Forums. Watch this our SES NYC 2005 – Live Coverage thread for links to coverage as it is posted or or the blog here for a summary each day.