Love learning at conferences but hate how behind you get at work while you are gone? There is a better way: SEJ Summit. Get your SEO knowledge on with our one-day conference featuring short, 20-minute jam sessions. You will get to learn from 12 SEO and marketing experts plus connect with them over scrumptious treats at lunch.
Best of all, the SEJ Summit adds a fun twist to every conference (you’ll have to attend to find out more!).
Continue reading below to see why I’m obsessing over the SEJ Summit.
1. Just One Day
Only a few conference destinations have it all: a relaxed vibe, up-to-date news and knowledge, an awesome speaker list, and great food. SEJ Summit is one of them. With targeted, actionable marketing expertise at every turn and a warm atmosphere, it’s a place where you can feel completely at ease.
And, my favorite part? It only takes one day — and your full attention, of course. Cut back on the all the planning it takes to coordinate travel for a multi-day conference (no hotel, no plane, no rental car required). Plus, you’ll get to meet more local like-minded marketing folks. Since it’s a one-dayer, it will most likely be local marketers that you can schmooze with over culture and cocktails.
2. 20-Minute Sessions
The idea of sitting through another 3 or 4-day conference can be pretty painful. This is where SEJ Summit shines with eight intensive presentations distilled down into quick 20 minute bursts of actionable information.
Whether you’re on the hunt for insider tip on Google’s AMP pages or you need a super-secret tip for your new website launching, SEJ Summit has done the dirty work for and packed it into these short, 20-minute jam sessions of magical marketing mastery.
3. Q&A Discussions
Chicago has been the talk of the SEJ Summit team for quite a while now. Santa Monica is still having a moment, New York just keeps getting cooler and cooler. But, no matter which SEJ Summit venue you’ll be heading to, there’s one thing that’s included in all (and something that everyone’s currently obsessing over): Q&A discussions.
There’s more than one reason this under-the-radar bonus feature has become one of the highlights of the SEJ Summits — in fact, I can think of at least 20. From the quirky mic tosses to creating an open forum that can only be described as magical, the Q&A discussions at the SEJ Summit really creates a collaborative environment between the expert and the audience that you don’t see at bigger conferences.
4. 8 Intensives + Panel
Let’s face it: Staying up-to-date on the latest marketing trends is no picnic. The days are short, the email newsletters are long, and there is little time. Even Hermione might be pulling out her Time-Turner necklace to play catch-up on the recent happenings. Needless to say, if you’re feeling a little behind or looking to try new tactics, the SEJ Summit 8 intensives (plus a panel) unearth some pretty innovative, leading edge strategies that are helping to shape the way the SEO landscape is changing.
5. Get Answers to AMP
Google AMP is almost a mythological place — especially to those marketing newbies who get started with dreams making it big to page 1. It’s an SEO strategy that still keeps me up at night. Those green lighting bolts I once loved for their Google page placement are now just reminders of how tough it can be to actually make it there.
At times like these, we need to renew our allegiance to the Big G (also known as Google). The Chicago SEJ Summit is doing just that by having Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst for Google, explain what’s next for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). This is BIG.
6. Manage Your Site Better
There are infinite ways to make your site more efficient and easier: CDNs, compressed CSS, page caching, and all those other details that work together to make a website so fast. But after a while, even the someone like myself, the all-SEO-everything kind of strategist, will find themselves daydreaming of one (or two) more fixes, but we’re not quite sure if it’s needed.
So, why not take a break and get inspired by SEJ Summit speakers like Carolyn Shelby, Ryan Jones, or Jordan Koene who manage Fortune 400 sites? These keynoters know everything from removing extra script to increase performance to a completely well-organized mobile site that will transport you from page to page without a blink.
7. Improve Conversions
If I had it my way, I would hit Add To Cart every time consumers landed on my client’s website. And, sure I could go HAM fueling this need, but to keep my client’s conversions coming in at steady pace, streamlining the conversion process is crucial. This is where speaker session with keynotes like The Home Depot’s Erin Everhart are 100% warranted. And, the potential for personalized one-on-one time at the lunch table is the greatest afternoon pick-me-up.
With advice from industry-renowned experts, I won’t be stuck asking myself, “Do I really need to split test this now?” again.
8. Increase Audience Engagement
When you start scrolling through Instagram or a website, you can spot the audience engagement trend over and over, it might be hard to admit it’s gone mainstream. Audience engagement has been lurking on the edges of marketing, but, like all good trends, audience engagement is getting it’s time in the spotlight.
To quell any naysayers, audience engagement is here. It’s a collection of user experience, building trust off-site with social media and email, velvet ribbon, reputation management, and video marketing. SEJ Summit speaker Amy Vernon from the Daily Dot shares her iterations on audience engagement in 2016 ranging from the bold and the cool to the bad and worse.
9. You (Really, Really) Learn from Your Peers
Don’t get me wrong — I love learning from industry thought leaders at all conferences – both big and small. But, the beauty of the SEJ Summits is you get to make real connections with your peers. Local, smart, digital marketers that are also dealing with the same challenges I am? Count me in! You may not learn exactly what their tactics look like IRL, but it’s definitely a jumping-off point for some major inspiration.
10. Accelerate Site Speed
With Google AMP pages, everyone knows site speed is where the SEO power is now, right? Site speed makes everything else possible, as long as you know how to remove a few white spaces in your CSS and Javascript files, populate your sitemaps correctly, and get your content discovered by the bots.
In case you haven’t heard, the SEJ Summit boasts 8 intensives plus a panel to discuss new ideas for your site faster. To wit: Carolyn Shelby of Tribune Publishing is fronting the coveted site acceleration session where she walks you through her best practices for large sites like The Chicago Tribune and the LA Times. It’s going to be quite fabulous.
If you’re interested in staying up-to-date on SEJ Summit, sign-up here.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Search Engine Journal. Used with permission.
In-post Photo:
