SES Conference - Chicago, Illinois

[ihelpyou]

Where to start? The SES Conference in Chicago was this week. I got home last night. Fantastic conference!

I met many good people that I've known online for years. Here's a shout out to some of them. I'll start with the group mostly responsible for the conference. Stewart Quealy , Matt McGowan, Kevin Ryan, and Marilyn Crafts. All very nice and friendly and made me feel welcome. Thank you.

I was on the whitehat/blackhat panel that was assumed ahead of time to be a boxing match. It wasn't at all. These people made up that panel:

Richard Zwicky; Great guy and moderator of the panel discussion. He's a whitehat.
Eric Enge; Super friendly guy. He's a whitehat.
Todd Friesen; This dude rocks. He tries his best to maintain the blackhat image, but trust me; after having quite a few talks with him, he's nothing but pure BS and totally whitehat. That's right; whitehat. You've been outed Todd. I think he understands my definition of cloaking now as well.
David Naylor; Very sharp, smart, and stick in other words in here as well. I wish he would shut the hell up and breathe occasionally though. It was very hard to get in a word edge-wise on the same panel as this chatterbox. Dave is really nothing but a teddybear. He's a blackhat, but I think I can sway him to the other side eventually. Oh, and it didn't help that I had to share a mic. If there's a next time; I want my own mic like Naylor had. lol

Here are others I met;

Chris Boggs; A super guy and very friendly. I hope to discuss a standards organization in more detail with Chris. He and SEMPO are finally starting to discuss this huge problem.

Daron Babin and Jim Hedger; They held the webmaster radio party and were on the air for 3 1/2 hours one night. A very good time. Both are great guys and I hope to discuss things further with them. Matt Bailey; A powerful speaker who commands attention. Thanks for introducing yourself Matt. I hope to spend more time with you.

All the rest, and all I hope to talk with more in the future; Cindy Krum, Shari Thurow, Elisabeth Osmelosk, Brian Ussery, Jeff Quipp, Mark Jackson, Greg Jarboe, Tim Ash, Jeff Pruitt, Bill Hunt, Chris Keating, Jennifer Lay****, Rebecca Lieb, Liana Evans, PJ Fusco, Bruce Clay; thanks for the few minutes Bruce. Kate Morris; a great gal. David Snyder; a very nice guy. Kimberly Krause Berg; very sweet. Not enough time with Kim. Also; guys from the Aim Clear blog, and two very sharp gals from Austria.

I know I missed some people. Please post if I did. Post anyway. Any of the people mentioned above can call me anytime they wish; 740 244 9313. I would be happy to hear from you.

I have to say the conference was a success. At least that's my take on things. I hope members in here will at least think about attending the SES New York conference coming up in March. You will be happy you attended. There is also SES London coming up in February. I hope I contributed and added to the Chicago conference in a small way, but a positive way. I totally enjoyed it and met many people I hope to meet up with again.

Very sincerely,
Doug Heil

[Connie]

Glad to hear things went so good.

[Blue]

Oh! You were gone? Sheesh, for how long?

JK Doug. I'm glad you were able to interface with so many good folks.

Now, give us the dirt ...

[ihelpyou]

Gone all of last week.

Actually blue; no dirt to speak of. Todd (oilman) is just as whitehat as I am. It's the use of terms the industry adopts that keep people thinking he is blackhat. He's not. Period. he certainly wants to keep the BH image, but he won't if I can help it. Dave Naylor is not much of a blackhat either. He's about one year away from being a whitehat. My only gripe with him is the hogging of the panel. Give me my own mic like he had, and I'd give him a run.

The group I mentioned from Incisive were impressive. Period.

I do have suggestions that I'll share with them though.

[IncrediBILL]

Reading this post reminds me of the final scenes in "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"

"Every SEO down in SES-ville, the tall and the small,
Was whitehatting! Without any blackhat at all!
He HADN'T stopped SEO from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same! "

[ihelpyou]

LOL I have a good experience at SES, and this is what you come up with?

I can't even get the tune of that from the Grinch story, so it really makes no sense to me.

And to think one suggestion is to have a panel on BAD BOTS and good bots at every damn conference. It's that important.

[SEFL]

Here's a suggestion if you're going to pass them on, Doug...and to be fair, it's not a suggestion that's exclusive to the conference, but to educational opportunities in general (and yes, I'm aware that a conference is not strictly informative and that there's a networking component...but in this case, I'm going to focus on the former.)

If I were to go to an SES Toronto (and I'm not travelling to go to any conference), for example, the registration rate would likely be around $995, give or take $100. For that $995, there should be an obvious educational benefit that one would value at greater than $995. Right now, I just don't see that?

Hearing you talk? It'd be nice, but you post on here too. You obviously will say things at a conference that you won't say here, but will the things that you say that I haven't already thought of add up to greater than a G-note? No offense, dude, but I just don't see that by itself.

The other sessions? I don't see any of them that would be of value, and a number of them (anything in the "Link Building Track" for example) that are just plain wrong.

To be totally blunt, I don't see any real value in these conferences.

[ihelpyou]

Oh, I think so. I do think you and I both would learn from incrediBILL about bad and good bots, etc. I also think we would learn about different perspectives on things like rep management and site architecture, etc, and maybe even new stuff on internal and external linking, etc.

I didn't go to the link panel thing with Michael Gray on it as I avoided it this time around. I understand he gave a strong disclaimer right at the start of it which is something I had ranted about in past conferences. VERY good.

I also think it's very good to finally meet people you thought you knew online, but really don't know at all until you meet them.

I just think the whole experience was a good one, albeit I got a pass for being on a panel..... "you" should try to be on one in Toronto? I really think the person to person aspect of things puts the ROI over the top of any fee involved. I also truly believe the people behind the conference makes all the difference in the world. That's my take.

Also; I believe many out there think that someone like Kevin Ryan and Matt McGowan of Incisive are like non-approachable. That's kind of the impressive you get online. That could not be more wrong. Both went out of there way to speak whenever they saw me and were as friendly as can be... Stewart Quealy as well. All work for Incisive in the US. My impression of them would not have changed if I had not attended. Things are very different in person. Online personas are often mistaken. I think many who attended now have a different impression of me as well. Is it a good one or a bad one? Who knows; but hope it's a good one.

[IncrediBILL]

I've learned some good stuff at the conferences but the real learning comes in the networking sitting around the table of industry insiders until 5am in the morning... get someone, um, lubricated sufficiently and good information just falls out like an avalanche.

However, I doubt I'd ever pay for the conference if I wasn't speaking, just stay at the conference hotel, get a networking or exhibit hall pass and rub elbows.

[SEFL]

I think Bill hit the nail on the head for me without fully intending to.

If you speak at a conference, you get all of the "networking" and "educational" opportunities for free. Since you're already there, you've got nothing to lose except maybe the cost of a bar tab (assuming you can't get some drunk who's already spouted off more knowledge than he intended to in turn to pay). The fact that you wouldn't pay conference price for this knowledge carries the implication of my original point i.e. that the cost of the conference itself (sessions, etc.) would not translate into an equal or greater value returned in pragmatic knowledge.

If I were to speak, there would be very little for me to gain as well. I have nothing to market to anyone at such a conference, whereas Bill could potentially offer his bot blocker among other things (by the way, dude, is that thing ever going to make it out of beta?) and Doug theoretically could offer SEO type services as well, since many of the people there would be not only knowledge seekers but potential customers.

I also have absolutely no desire to talk to most people in the SEO community. I never bought the argument that "they're different" offline than they are online, either. As far as I'm concerned, if you're a prick online and you're different online, that just makes you a chickenshit (and I've met quite a few people that I first ran into online). I could accept the odd difference here and there, maybe...but not a whole personality change. Maybe it's because I'm the same way offline as I am online (I don't sugarcoat, play politics, or kiss anyone's ass, and only the people incapable of independent thought don't respect me for that), but I expect that people on some level are the same way offline as they are online.

So the only reason I would have to go is simply to acquire knowledge...knowledge that Bill just confirmed doesn't exist in sufficient quantity or more importantly quality to justify the expense. Hence the comment.