Search Engine Strategies, in all of its success and growth, is an amazing conference circuit attracting many from the worlds of SEO, search marketing, media buying, public relations and all types of businesses to its seminars.
But at times, the amount of people, information and networking can be overwhleming and if you’ve attended enough SES’s and keep up on industry news, the information in some of the sessions can be a bit lacking and redundant.
SES also comes around once a year to the major US business centers of New York, Chicago, San Jose and Miami; and if you or your colleagues are the types who crave real person interaction with others in the search marketing community, a year may be a bit too long to wait.
Enter a new conference business model which is taking off and adding an alternative to Search Engine Strategies, the smaller SEO or SEM conference.
Serveral groups have recently launched smaller workshops, seminars and conferences which fill the intimacy void that is not part of the SES lineup. These conferences, which cost a bit more to attend than SES, lead to more of a one on one experience with search industry experts that is well worth the price of participation.
* Elite Retreat : With limited availability, the Elite Retreat lives up to its name giving attendees the opportunity to discuss their business model and current or planned marketing structure with SEM and online marketing industry experts Jeremy Schoemaker, Lee Dodd, Aaron Wall, Darren Rowse, Kris Jones and Neil Patel.
* SEO Days : SEO focused conference is having its first 2 day event in London, hosted by David Naylor, Greg Boser and Jennifer Slegg .
* SEO Class : SEO and SEM conference will begin on March 23rd in NewYork with a free session for Non-Profit Organizations. SEO Class is hosted by industry experts Jeremy Schoemaker, Rae Hoffman, Todd Malicoat, Greg Niland and Michael Gray.
* High Rankings : Another limited edition 2 day conference on SEO, High Rankings Seminars have been teaching SEO on a personal leel for years. Speakers and diners (yes, you actually dine with the speakers) include Jill Whalen, Christine Churchhill, Karon Thackston, Scottie Claiborne, Matt Bailey and Lee Odden. The next High Rankings SEM Seminar will be help in Minneapolis, MN on March 15th & 16th.
For more information on these and other search engine conferences, I highly recommend Aaron Wall’s SEO Conference Calendar and reading Lee Odden’s post; SEO Training: Small is the New Big.
What are you waiting for? Attend the next search conference near you!
