Just got back from the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and had a fantastic time. It was my first one and I am definitely going back next year. Tons of great info and lots of great people. But there are a few things I wish I had known before I went, so I thought I would share for anyone else who may be thinking of going next year.
- The Dress Code.
I over packed - big time. The only tradeshows I had been to before, were our own industry events (salon and spa) as a booth monkey where I wore a suit (no tie luckily) and the HOW Design Conference. While graphic designers could be considered somewhat close to search engine optimizers in some sense, I just wasn’t sure. So I packed casual and business because I didn’t want to stick out. Big Mistake. Unless you are planning on doing some hardcore power-broker Fortune 500 wheeling and dealing, leave the suit at home. Not to say a nice jacket won’t go great with some jeans, but had I showed up in suit I would have been both physically and socially uncomfortable. If you are a speaker, though, it can help with credibility. But it won’t necessarily take away from credibility either. Bill Macaitis from Fox Interactive (you know, they run a little website called MySpace among others) was pretty dressed down while still being a great speaker (great positive vibe). - Not much free time.
I thought I would have more free time. I was wrong. The decision to go to the conference was really a last-minute one. My boss decided to send me the Thursday before the show. I already had work on my schedule with due dates. Not that much, but some jobs that needed wrapping up, that given a few hours here and there wouldn’t have been an issue. But alas, that was not the case, so here I am this weekend playing catch up. No big deal, but had I known, I would have rather re-assigned the jobs before the new work list was created. Lesson for next time. - The airport is close and small.
This has it’s pros and cons. In my case it was a con. I left the conference on Monday morning after only one session to make sure I had enough time to check out of the hotel, get to the airport, check in, get screened and get on the flight. I left my hotel at 11:50 and was checked in and wandering the terminal at 12:20; my flight was leaving at 2:30. Since it is a smaller airport (not like Dallas or Houston that I connected in on the way in and out), there wasn’t a whole lot to do. On that part of the terminal there was a Starbucks, a Burger King, a generic Burrito joint and a nondescript Chinese place so not much to do. I would have much rather gone to another session than eating an airport cheeseburger just for something to do. - The People.
All the “major players” are walking around the conference with the rest of the “unwashed masses” because they are just like the rest of us. Plus there are some really great people from all around who have either already mastered what you might be struggling with that could give you some pointers and there are others who you could probably offer some help to. I was speaking with Andreas Ramos, an SEO consultant and book author who knows a lot more about PPC advertising than I probably ever will and he gave me some great pointers, yet I was able to help him by telling him about search-engine friendly URL rewriting using “mod_rewrite” and “.htaccess” files. I wish I had been more active in SEO-related blogs and discussion forums before hand as I didn’t really know until I went and have followed up on the post-conference coverage just how much of a community it actually is.
