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Search Engine Strategies Chicago - Wrap-up

Written by Allen Stern - December 10, 2006

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Alright, Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2006 has come to a close and it was damn good. Danny Sullivan and his team setup a flawless conference. Now that he is stepping down, I hope next year's will be as good.

First a question... why not switch SES San Jose and SES Chicago? I like it cold, but it has been freezing here this week and I assume the weather must be much nicer this past week in San Jose. So why not switch the two weeks and give everyone an easier transport.

Overall, I thought the sessions were good. While most of this knowledge I already have, watching others learn, and ask questions means it was a good session. And in general discussions, most felt like they received a fair value for their dollar.

I tested JenSense's tip of making an ad block with only Google image ads, and let me just tell you, this was worthless. At least on my sites it was. The image ads were ugly, crappy, and paid nothing. So they are gone. Maybe you will have a different experience.

Danny did a good job with his keynote presentation on the year in search. Covered all the main topics, threw in some humor and didn't read his slides verbatim. Well done!

Jason Calacanis on the other hand got a lot of flack for saying "SEO is Shit" - he tried to back out of it on his blog, but I heard a collective "WTF" when he said that in the ballroom. I mean, you are paid to come speak to 2,000 or so industry professionals, and you tell them that their industry is shit? While he started saying that he was from Brooklyn, I think he thinks that is a good excuse. Well, I am from Brooklyn as well, and would never say something like that. He also really had no answer for my question about Alexa and his gaming the system (btw, there is no post on his site with his results).

The expo was neat and orderly and seemed calm. A nice change from the ad:tech expo last month. Disappointed that the Payperpost founder never called me for an interview.

The food (lunch) was quite good, and the pretzels were tasty as well. I appreciated the fact that bottled water was one of the drink options.

Last but not least, it was great meeting everyone. When you see me at a conference, come up and talk to me! At a minimum you will get some CN swag :)

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