I’m a big fan of Search Engine Strategies Conferences on Search Engine Marketing and try to attend and cover all of them that I can.
Besides the seminars and forums on search marketing, and the late night parties, I always find it quite rewarding to walk around the exhibition halls and speak to some of the business & sales representatives who are giving out freebies, looking for new clients, or who just look bored and want to talk for a while.
I’ve found however that some of these exhibitors, after trading business cards, take advantage of the contact information that they have received and place the email addresses of unwilling attendees on their mass email lists.
I now receive around 4 or 5 spam mails every week from some of the companies and speakers which frequent these events, and will, in the future, think twice before letting booth exhibitors scan my badge or before handing over my business card.
And I am not alone in my opinion.
SES does a very fine and open job of letting their speakers market their businesses to very large rooms of attendees and I’m sure some search marketing experts who are speakers at these conferences come home with some hefty leads, proposals and signed contracts.
I really see no reason for these speakers and exhibitors to take advantage of such openess, camaraderie and generosity of the Search Engine Strategies conferences by spamming the attendees.
Sure, only a small percentage of the speakers and exhibitors are doing so, but I really believe that SES & Incisive should address this issue before it becomes more of a stain on the industry.
Comments
12 responses so far ↓
Ken Savage on Jan 29, 2007 at 2:08 pm
as someone who has not attended an SES events yet (but I’m planning to goto SES NYC) I would welcome the spam as long as it was pertaining to somehting that happened there or from someone speaking.
Is it in the fine print when someone signs up to attend?
Loren Baker, Editor on Jan 29, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Ken, I disagree. In my opinion there is a rather large difference in trading business cards then following up with a personalized email as opposed to handing a handful or fishbowl of business cards to an intern and having them add everyone’s email addresses to their mass mailing lists or email newsletters.
Loren Baker, Editor on Jan 29, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Oh, and see you at SES NYC! :)
Cameron Olthuis on Jan 29, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I learned from my first SES show, or any conference for that matter, not to give my business card to any of the people working the exhibit hall. They will spam you. The worst was Moniker, I was getting several emails a week from them, but to their credit they removed me from their list the first time I asked.
I am now a lot more selective on giving the b-cards away.
Loren Baker, Editor on Jan 29, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Yeah, I should add that the whole email spamming thing is a given at most conferences and trade shows.
However, since SES is such a foundation of the Internet marketing industry, spamming other SEM’s and marketers is a bit cannibalistic.
Good tip Cameron, I’ll be more careful when handing out my biz card in the future in the exhibit hall.
Everett on Jan 29, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I will just block the ones that take advantage of it. If I get a contact once in awhile that’s fine. But if someone adds me to what should have been an opt-in list or keeps bugging me after I say no, then I’ll block their email address. Other than that, I don’t think there i smuch you can do. Except forget about the Swag and only give your card to people who are seriously interested in talking to. ;-)
Ken Savage on Jan 29, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Right Everett. The swag is where it’s at. Not that any of us can’t buy the stuff ourselves but it’s so fun to get stuff free and bring it back to the office to show off.
btw, anyone know of a noobie’s guide to SES shows? I’ve been to other cons for mountain biking and wed design but I have a feeling that SES is where the big players play. Intimidating for us smaller guys.
Merrick Lozano on Jan 29, 2007 at 3:32 pm
No one appreciates spam, but as Loren says personal email proposals or follow ups are good networking and appreciated.
The Moniker guys have changed - I gave my card to at least 3 people from Moniker and have not received any spam at all.
Loren Baker, Editor on Jan 29, 2007 at 3:46 pm
“Anyone know of a noobie’s guide to SES shows?”
No Ken, but that’s a good idea for an article!
On a similar note Todd put together a list of SES Conversation Starters, which is priceless.
I misread Todd’s post and went around SES asking people “Who’s that guy with the yellow shoes think he is?”
Li Evans on Jan 29, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Loren,
I couldn’t agree more. The very first conference I went to employed by my former employer, I got “waylayed” by Vivisimo/Clusty - all because they saw my employers name. I just wanted to say “Hey, I really like Vivisimo”.
This guy was so rude, grabbed my badge and scanned it all before I even realized what was going on.
I then started to get phone calls and email out the wazoo … I was so annoyed. After requesting several time for them to remove me, I finally spoke to a person and said “look, i’m not the decision maker to take me off your darn list, before I tell the decision maker to never speak to your company.”
That was the end of that. I now turn my badge around when walking the expo floor!
Than
Rebecca Lieb on Jan 29, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Weighing in here from The ClickZ Network and Search Engine Strategies — our parent company, Incisive Media, produces SES.
First, let me make it clear we don’t share e-mail addresses with anyone, ever, under any circumstances. There was a screw-up a couple years ago as Danny indicated . When we learned of it, we contacted the vendors and asked them not to mail to the addresses on the list.
That said, obviously the vendors exhibiting at SES, as with any other trade show, are collecting leads. We can’t control what those vendors do with e-mail addresses attendees might share with them. Certainly, there’s legislation such as CAN-SPAM governing that.
Common sense dictates that if you’re attending SES (or any other show) and you don’t want to get e-mail from someone, don’t give them your card.
We also request all speakers make their PowerPoint presentations available to attendees on our Web site, rather than to announce they’ll send the slides only to members of the audience who leave a business card with them.
Cameron Olthuis on Jan 29, 2007 at 9:18 pm
You don’t have to give you card away to get the swag, trust me, I come home with a suitcase full for the kids.
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