I’m attending Search Engine Strategies today at the New York Hilton and if your also going to be there – drop me a line @webmetricsguru on twitter – let’s try to meet up.

Anyway, here’s the sessions I’m planning on attending:

9:00am-10:00am

Conference Welcome & Opening Keynote
Twitter As A Tool For Social Media

Keynote Speaker:
Guy Kawasaki, Author of Reality Check, Founding Partner, Garage Technology Ventures

Some people are complaining about Guy Kawasaki because he has others using his Twitter account – see Dave Fleet’s post on Guy Kawasaki Discloses Ghost Writers, Defuses Issue – and I am curious (yellow) to know if he’s going to talk about it at the keynote.  Personally, I don’t think it’s that much of a problem for me, but it depends on who it is – if my doctor used twitter and I got guidance about my health, but it turned out the doctor let someone else use his or her twitter handle, that would bother me.  But Guy Kawasaki lending out his handle?  I could not care one bit less than I do – since I never follow him, anyway.

Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.

Search & the Fundamentals Track
First Timer’s Guide to SES and SEM
If this is your first Search Engine Strategies conference, you won’t want to miss this illuminating introductory session. Two long time SES faculty members will walk you through the week and help you to understand the various offerings and events. They will present a short overview of the Introduction to SEM session that will be held immediately following and they will explain the differences in the various session levels. They will also cover the logistics, networking opportunities and special event details, thoroughly preparing you for your whirlwind week. Also discussed will be the glossary of the terms and phrases that are frequently used at SES events that will be included in the SES magazine. Don’t miss it!

• Introduction by:
  Pauline Ores, SES Advisory Board, Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, IBM Corporation
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

• Speakers:
  Greg Jarboe, President & Co-Founder, SEO-PR
  Matthew Bailey, SES Advisory Board, President, Site Logic Marketing
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

Search and the Fear Economy Track
Searching for a Solution: The Impact of Today’s Economy on the Search Landscape
The U.S. economy is in the midst of a recession, consumer spending is declining, and not even the brightest economic minds can pinpoint when things will begin to get better. Like most other industries, online search marketing has undoubtedly been impacted by the current economic environment.

Join comScore for a presentation of the current state of the U.S. online economy, with a particular focus on the search landscape. How is today’s economy impacting consumers’ online behavior? How is consumers’ use of search and comparison shopping sites changing in today’s economic climate? The presentation will include an in-depth analysis of consumers’ online behavior as well as insights from recent comScore research, helping search marketers gain a better understanding of what they can do to maximize their business during these challenging times.

• Introduction by:
  Andrew Goodman, SES Advisory Board, Principal, Page Zero Media
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

• Solo Presentation by:
  Jack Flanagan, Executive Vice President, comScore Inc.
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

Search & the C-Level Executive Track
Entrepreneurs and C-Suite Executives: A Fast-Track to Search Marketing Fluency
With search marketing gobbling almost half of all online marketing dollars, it is imperative for all entrepreneurs and or C-Suite management to be fluent in search. This fast-paced session is designed to give you a jump start. It will rip through the alphabet soup of search — the PPC, SEO, SEM, CMS acronyms — to delve into why and how you can manage search strategically, how to align search to meet strategic organizational/marketing goals, budget for this effort, find the KPIs that fit your organization and break down the barriers to success in the organization. Whether you choose to attend the other strategic sessions in this track or this week’s optimization and best practices sessions, this is a must-attend session that will provide a framework for getting the most out of this conference.

• Introduction by:
  Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board, Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc.
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

• Solo Presentation by:
  Amanda Watlington, Owner, Searching for Profit
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

Search and Measurement Track
Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers
As knowledge of SEO practices moves from the offices of the optimizers to the board room, the standard metrics used by the practitioners of this former dark art are straining under the weight of the all powerful bottom line. The days when upper management was impressed by subtle changes in Page Rank have been replaced by questions of LTV and ROI. As more resources are being dedicated to creating the perfectly optimized and keyword rich landing page, C-level executives are demanding proof of the return they are receiving from these resources.

This panel will discuss a myriad of ways to move beyond Page Rank, indexed pages or linked sites and into metrics that can make you a hero and, better still, get your budget increased to a respectable level.

• Moderator:
  Jeff Ferguson, SES Advisory Board, Director of Online Marketing, Napster
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

• Speakers:
  Cindy Krum, Founder and CEO, Rank-Mobile
  Anne Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Managing Partner and Founder, Beyond Ink
  Seth Besmertnik, CEO & Co-Founder, Conductor, Inc.
  Ray “Catfish” Comstock, Senior Search Strategist, BusinessOnLine
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

Search and the Future Track
SEO: Where to Next?
Certain industry pundits have been heard to say that SEO is dead. And others say it’s alive, well and kicking. Forums, blogs and newsletters on the subject abound. And there’s no doubt that you can get some really up to date and on-the nail information. But there’s also the BS element. So how do you tell what the good stuff is and what the guff stuff is?

Join our panel of search community leaders. They were some of the first authoritative voices out there and continue to be so. They have been monitoring the flow of conversation in the SEO world for up to ten years now. They have heard opinions on everything from Black hat/White hat SEO, dynamic delivery, Flash, Google index updates, universal search… And everything else that goes with it.

• Moderator:
  Mike Grehan, SES Advisory Board, Global KDM Officer, Acronym Media
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

Speakers:
Marcus Tandler, CEO, Creativity in Action
Bill Hunt, CEO, Global Strategies Intl, Director, Global Search Strategy, Neo@Ogilvy
Chris Boggs, Director, SEO, Rosetta
Jill Whalen, CEO, High Rankings
Duane Forrester, Senior Program Manager – SEO, Live Search, Microsoft

I just had dinner with Bill Hunt tonight at the Charity Event that took place Monday evening in lower Manhattan, also saw Chris Boggs there.   While I’ve heard a lot about where Search is going, on my own, I’m curious to to see what they’re going to come up with.   While the Search and Measurement track taking place at the same time is interesting – and I might end up going to it, I’m guessing that what I’ll hear won’t be new.

I’ll also be attending Sara Holoubek’s session

Search and the Fear Economy Track
Survival of the Fittest 2.0
Hard times are here but you can flourish. You may not have been in the trenches the first time around when the likes of Boo.com, eyeballs, and the Pets.com sock puppet ruled the mind space of online marketers. In this session veterans of that first downturn in online marketing will talk about the strategies that helped them survive those difficult times and show how they intend to survive again. Don’t miss this session; you’ll take away key strategies to ensure you are one of the lucky ones who flourish in this current round of turbulent times.

• Moderator:
  Sara Holoubek, Consultant, Columnist and SEMPO Board of Directors,
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

Speakers:
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board, Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc.
Jason Ciment, CoFounder, LaDezign.com
Bob Myhal, President, MuscleMaster

Maybe it’s the chance to win an Amazon Kindle2  that is getting me to want to attend … the Chitika Workshop on SearchAppalooza.

Search & the Fundamentals Track
Chitika Workshop: SearchAppalooza – Kick-Ass Apps Contest & Talking Search Beyond Google
This is your exclusive opportunity to attend, and join-in on this heated face-off of the biggest movers and shakers in search–come talk tech with the innovators and industry execs who are leading search marketing into new terrains beyond THE search engine. Five of today’s most outside-the-box-thinking/market-defining innovators (reviewed and pre-selected by our experts) will present their respective “kick-ass search apps” to the SearchAppalooza expert panel—including thought-leaders from Yahoo! and Microsoft, MediaContacts, Jennifer Slegg (“JenSense”), and the workshop audience (you), for critical review and feedback. Think of it this way- American Idol for developers.

It’s survival of the slickest-apps—we invite you all to join Chitika and our panel experts to delve out ruthless, zany, stomp-on-the-box critique, all in the name of search beyond Google. All SearchAppalooza workshop attendees will be entered to win an Amazon Kindle2.

In the spirit of search re-targeting, this session will also host Chitika’s near-legendary, Third-Annual “Cookie Eating Contest”. All attendees are invited to participate and cookie themselves to new extremes; the winner will receive HP Mini Netbook and publicity. Check SearchAppalooza updates at chitika.com/searchappalooza, or follow on twitter: sesnycchitika. Don’t forget to stop by Chitika’s SES booth #230 and meet “Hooty” the six foot owl.

Chitika | SearchAppalooza ’09 Expert Panel:
Jennifer Slegg, Owner, JenSense.com
Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search
Rob Griffin, SVP, Group Director of Search & Analytics, Media Contacts Boston
Stacey Helman, Agency Development Executive, Microsoft
Venkat Kolluri, CEO, Chitika

And the panel on Universal Search is the most interesting to me in the following session because so many things have been influenced by Universal Search

Search and the Future Track
Universal and Blended Search: An Update
Search result multiplicity is not a new phenomenon, but recent advancements guarantee that the world of search and marketing will be changing forever. Before you attend this week’s optimization and best practices sessions, learn from industry gurus how the steps that follow the search are developing. Our ongoing series on universal search will include research data available only at SES.

• Moderator:
  Kevin M. Ryan, SES Advisory Board Chair, CMO, WebVisible, Inc.
  

Speakers:
Olivier Lemaignen, Group Manager, Global Search Marketing, Intuit
Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search
Todd Schwartz, Group Product Manager, Live Search, Microsoft Corporation
Vic Drabicky, Director of International & Market Development, Range Online Media
Keith Hogan, Vice President, Search Technology, Ask.com

While I am interesting in Video Optimization for Search, I’m opting to focus on Mobile Marketing, instead, reasoning that most of what I heard in San Jose last summer in the Video Optimization session I attended will be identical to what I’d hear today:

Search & the Fundamentals Track
Getting Mobilized! Mobile Marketing Strategies
Learn basic mobile marketing strategies that are attracting mobile traffic today. This session will focus on mobile SEO, but will also touch on driving traffic and conversions with mobile applications, text messaging and mobile email. You will learn what you need to know to develop, launch and track an integrated mobile marketing strategy.

This session will help attendees understand how mobile marketing fits into the traditional and online marketing mix and determine what mobile marketing strategy is most appropriate for their business. It will provide tips for updating existing sites to work on a variety of mobile devices and will expose the major SEO mistakes that are being made by some of the top mobile marketing agencies.

Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of basic mobile SEO best practices including mobile site architecture, local and universal SEO tactics that work in a mobile application and how to author meta data that is compelling in mobile search results.

• Introduction by:
  Amanda Watlington, Owner, Searching for Profit
  

• Solo Presentation by:
  Cindy Krum, Founder and CEO, Rank-Mobile
  

That pretty much wraps up the session for today I’ll attend and post on, from my iPhone, so there will be some spelling errors, etc.

I’ll also be around for a few events here in the evening

Reception – 5:30pm-6:30pm
Networking Cocktail Reception sponsored by OnDialog
OnDialog has teamed with SiteTuners to introduce the ability to create and then instantly begin SiteTuners powered, multivariate testing on landing pages and microsites. Using OnDialog’s template-driven creation process, dynamic landing pages are automatically instrumented as they are being built. This breakthrough offering greatly simplifies the process of preparing for testing and makes it very easy for any marketer to immediately launch into testing once a page is constructed.
Location: Expo Hall

---

Networking Party – 6:15pm
SEMPO Event
Join SEMPO for post-session networking.
Location: Sutton South

I thought Tamar‘s post at Techipedia on The Great Social Media Traffic Debate: Niche or General Networks? was pretty good and Tamar Weinberg, when I meet her here in NYC, always strikes me as pretty smart and connected woman – she’s aware of pretty much everything that’s happening in the Tech World, in Social Media and in the Search World.  I don’t think of her so much as an Analyst, yet her Traffic Debate piece was good reading – even if it confirms what we already know.

In fact, if you read her post and then download the Military/Buzzlogic presentation we presented last week (see Social Media Analysis Presentations from Search Engine Strategies San Jose) (see below) ….

sessanjose08_social-media-analysis_tparsons When I brought Military.com and Buzzlogic together I wasn’t really sure what the outcome would be – wisely, Breanna Wigle, living in the Bay Area, was able to meet directly with Buzzlogic, and to her credit, come up with a 5K insertion order to test the concept of Social Media here.  I feel we broke new ground – really new ground – and I give Breanna Wigle a lot of credit for being able to even get Military.com to take a chance.

… you’ll see that Social Media traffic is not only a superior way to get new visitors to a site – but … Social Media traffic, I found, acts in a more directed way than Search Traffic – (darn! I just uttered blasphemy in the Search World).

Yes, depending on the context - Social Media Traffic from Niche Social Networks – traffic from Social Media will typically be more directed and focused than Search Traffic, and paradoxically, often have a lower pages per visit and higher bounce rate while having a higher “engagement” level and more of a “trust” factor.

You may ask me how that can be?

Easy – you know those TinyURLs in a Twitter feed?  How about a Facebook link or a FriendFeed link?  How long do you think a visit to your site from one of those sources is going to last? Not long, because they are looking directly at the content they want – they don’t have to search for it – they found it!

Just saw that my head shot is being included in next month's Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose – the email has been sent out, and I was grinning when I saw it – and wrote about at The Analytics Guru – Search Engine Strategies – I’m grinning – and there's also an interview I taped when I spoke at the first Semphonic XChange Conference in Napa Valley last year.

If anyone is going to either conference, and reads my blogs, please say hello – I'll even buy you a drink.

And if your not going to SES San Jose but want to – here's a post in Search Engine Watch Blog on how to build a case to get your boss/company to send you – Building the business case for going to SES San Jose:

"…A quick look at the conference at a glance will tell you why. There are a total of 77 conference sessions, strategic development workshops, Orion panels, and keynote presentations crammed into the four-day Search Engine Strategies conference. And on the fifth day, there are an additional six SEM training workshops.

Since there are five concurrent tracks during the SEM conference and three concurrent workshops during the SEM training, no one can attend everything – unless, of course, you bring a team of five or more people to SES San Jose.

And deciding which sessions to attend isn’t just daunting for the first-time attendee. It’s also a challenge to SES Alumni.

If you compare last year’s conference at a glance with this year’s conference at a glance, you see that only 12 of the sessions and two of the workshops are repeats. And four of the “repeat sessions” are Site Clinics or the Organic Listings Forum, which examine new web sites or issues every year. This means almost 88% of the content at Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2008 will be brand new!"

The new content (my sessions are "new content", btw) is making it much more worthwhile to attend now – and the stuff I'm talking about is targeted to be useful, to go beyond informational – hopefully it will take someone to the next level – that's what I'm aiming for.

And, if that doesn't convince your boss – read about 15 Things Not to Miss at SES San Jose 2008 on Online Marketing Blog

1. Your flight there. Ha!

2. Universal and Blended Search Session, Day 1 – Dana is anxious to hear what is new in universal and blended search since last years’ session.

3. Igniting Viral Campaigns session, Day 1 – This session promises to unveil the secrets of Web 2.0 techniques and technologies to help small and mid-size businesses stand out amongst the crowd.

4. Expo Hall Opening, Day 2 – Discover the latest products and technologies relevant to online marketing and see what the big names in search are up to by stopping at the many booths for your complimentary branded goods.

5. Landing Page Utopia, Day 2 - A good landing page is key to the success of any paid online advertising campaign. Ensure your pages convert clicks to conversions by attending this session led by a panel of top online marketing experts.

6. Ashley and Dana “getting their groove on” at Google Dance - Don’t miss the social event of the search marketing industry. Bring your dancing shoes and get ready to network!

7. Q & A with Google – See what happens behind the curtain at Google in this exclusive opportunity to ask the insiders how the search giant deals with a variety of issues, from spam to paid links and beyond.

8. Starbucks on the way to the Wednesday morning keynote - Trust us, you’ll need it. And you’ll definitely want to be awake for “Why does search get the credit for everything?”

9. Successful Tactics for Social Media Session, Day 3 - This session covers some popular social media services to leverage for marketing as well as best practices to penetrate them.

10. Black Hat, White Hat: Play Dirty with SEO – Where do you stand on the Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO ethics issue? Learn both sides of the argument by attending this session.

11. Ashley and Dana “getting their groove on” at Webmaster Radio Search Bash - Let loose after a long day of stimulating sessions at this fun bash put on by Webmaster Radio. There is usually plenty to see and do to keep you busy late into the night.

12. Thursday Keynote: Chip Heath, Author of “Made to Stick” - Learn how to produce marketing ideas that translate into results from idea guru Chip Heath.

13. The 3G iPhone Local Search Demos Session, Day 4 – See how companies are using mobile technology like the iPhone to revolutionize local search on the mobile device. What are the odds that Lee will have bought the team iPhones by this time?

14. Best Kept Secrets to Search Session, Day 4 - Top search engine marketers share their go-to tricks and shortcuts for online marketing success in this interactive session.

15. TopRank Blog’s Coverage of SES San Jose - Check out TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog throughout the conference for regularly-updated reports in the form of session summaries, photos and insights from the TopRank team in attendance. You’ll feel like you’re there!

 But they left out two more things – my two sessions at SES:

 Tuesday, August 19th, 11:00AM:

Track: Measuring Success
Measuring Success in a 2.0 World
How do you know if you've been successful with search engines and your website in general? You can check your "rank" at search engines for particular keywords, analyze log files to see the actual terms people used to reach your web site or make the ultimate jump and "close the loop" by measuring sales conversions and return-on-investment (ROI). This panel explores both classical and newer "cutting edge" techniques to measure success, what statistics you should really care about, ways to be more strategically focused, and how to drive increased revenue f

or your business.

UPCOMING SPEAKING