Okay - the title is a bit misleading. My overview can be summarized in a half of a sentence; a high calibre event with incredible opportunities to learn from the community on both sides of the pond. I spoke on a panel and a clinic, and a big thank you to Ian Harris, Frank Watson and Ben Jesson for their great insights; it was a pleasure meeting all of you and a privilege to share a panel with some very talented people in the industry.
One thing I very much wanted to address is the perceived lack of British speakers on panels and Clinics. Forgive me for inviting a bit of controversy here, but it simply wasn't the case. Yes, there were several members of the industry invited to speak from North America, but on the whole I found it to be balanced and representative of the expertise we're all seeking. To complain that Search Engine Strategies was full of American- and Canadian-based rockstars is similar to getting uppity about Aerosmith performing in your high school gym; what a great coup for the conference that these leaders in our industry thought the quality of SES London was good enough to fly over and participate. Also, a bunch of American accents (including my own Canadian-affected one) that attendees heard were actually based in the UK; we made very conscious decisions to have our presentations or clinics UK-centric. I'm surprised that grumblings were heard as much as they were, and it is perhaps (rightly or wrongly) borne of the assumption which sees UK-based practicioners feeling slighted at international conferences.
Rather than launch into a gushy Oscar-type speech (I'll save that for Kate Winslet tonight, perhaps?), I'd like to thank those people who shared their time, insider knowledge and company throughout the conference. I'll leave the session by session recaps to the very capable people on the Search Engine Watch blog, and just reiterate how grateful I am for the openess and spirit of sharing that existed at the conference. Li Evans from Search Marketing Gurus and KeyRelevance has posted her photos from the event, and you can see how the conference evolved (140 characters at a time) on the Twitter feed.
Thanks again for a stellar conference - looking forward to SES London 2010!
