I'm speaking at Search Engine Strategies in my home city of Toronto next month. It's my first SES speaking gig, and I'm doubly excited because it's in the T-dot. I'll apparently be the "leading expert with feet on the street" in the UK, and am sharing the panel with some pretty distinguished folks from the SEM world including Motoko Hunt, Anne Kennedy, David Degrelle, Andy Atkins-Krüger and Alicia Morga.
The great thing about speaking at SES Toronto is that I'll be able to really convey what is relevant to Canadian and American SEMs who are researching expansion into the UK. Trends, pain points and global issues affecting us locally are going to be a big part of the presentation, as well as similarities (and differences!) within the British market when compared with North America. The UK is the largest English-speaking market outside of the United States, and penetration is huge here. In terms of Internet users, 66.4% of the population is online. It's technically lower penetration than other English-speaking countries like New Zealand and Australia, but consider the population online in numbers: the UK has 40 million internet users, while New Zealand has 3.2 million and Australia only 15.5 million. Consider broadband penetration there as well, and you have a very robust internet market with early adopters and social media uptake in the millions. It's an exciting time to be an SEM in the UK.
I don't want to give away my entire presentation (!), so I'm looking forward to seeing you all in Toronto in June, eh!
...yes, I had to prove some street cred with Canadian colloquialisms...
