| 7:30am-6:30pm |
Registration |
| 8:00am-9:00am |
Morning Coffee
|
| 9:00am-10:00am |
Conference Welcome & Opening Keynote
Twitter As A Tool For Social Media
- Keynote Speaker:
Guy Kawasaki, Author of Reality Check, Founding Partner, Garage Technology Ventures
|
| 10:00am-10:30am |
Expo Hall Grand Opening |
| 10:30am-11:30am |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Search & the Fundamentals Track
First Timer's Guide to SES and SEM
If this is your first Search Engine Strategies conference, you won't want to miss this illuminating introductory session. Two long time SES faculty members will walk you through the week and help you to understand the various offerings and events. They will present a short overview of the Introduction to SEM session that will be held immediately following and they will explain the differences in the various session levels. They will also cover the logistics, networking opportunities and special event details, thoroughly preparing you for your whirlwind week. Also discussed will be the glossary of the terms and phrases that are frequently used at SES events that will be included in the SES magazine. Don't miss it!
- Introduction by:
Pauline Ores, Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, IBM Corporation
Search and the Fear Economy Track
Searching for a Solution: The Impact of Today's Economy on the Search Landscape
The U.S. economy is in the midst of a recession, consumer spending is declining, and not even the brightest economic minds can pinpoint when things will begin to get better. Like most other industries, online search marketing has undoubtedly been impacted by the current economic environment.
Join comScore for a presentation of the current state of the U.S. online economy, with a particular focus on the search landscape. How is today's economy impacting consumers' online behavior? How is consumers' use of search and comparison shopping sites changing in today's economic climate? The presentation will include an in-depth analysis of consumers' online behavior as well as insights from recent comScore research, helping search marketers gain a better understanding of what they can do to maximize their business during these challenging times.
- Introduction by:
Andrew Goodman, SES Advisory Board; President, Page Zero Media
- Solo Presentation by:
Jack Flanagan, Executive Vice President, comScore Inc.
Search & the C-Level Executive Track
Entrepreneurs and C-Suite Executives: A Fast-Track to Search Marketing Fluency
With search marketing gobbling almost half of all online marketing dollars, it is imperative for all entrepreneurs and or C-Suite management to be fluent in search. This fast-paced session is designed to give you a jump start. It will rip through the alphabet soup of search -- the PPC, SEO, SEM, CMS acronyms -- to delve into why and how you can manage search strategically, how to align search to meet strategic organizational/marketing goals, budget for this effort, find the KPIs that fit your organization and break down the barriers to success in the organization. Whether you choose to attend the other strategic sessions in this track or this week's optimization and best practices sessions, this is a must-attend session that will provide a framework for getting the most out of this conference.
- Introduction by:
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board; NYTimes Bestselling Author, bryaneisenberg.com
Search and Measurement Track
Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers
As knowledge of SEO practices moves from the offices of the optimizers to the board room, the standard metrics used by the practitioners of this former dark art are straining under the weight of the all powerful bottom line. The days when upper management was impressed by subtle changes in Page Rank have been replaced by questions of LTV and ROI. As more resources are being dedicated to creating the perfectly optimized and keyword rich landing page, C-level executives are demanding proof of the return they are receiving from these resources.
This panel will discuss a myriad of ways to move beyond Page Rank, indexed pages or linked sites and into metrics that can make you a hero and, better still, get your budget increased to a respectable level.
- Speakers:
Cindy Krum, Chief Executive Officer, Rank-Mobile, LLC
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board; International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Seth Besmertnik, CEO, Conductor, Inc.
Ray "Catfish" Comstock, Director of SEO, BusinessOnLine
Search and the Future Track
SEO: Where to Next?
Certain industry pundits have been heard to say that SEO is dead. And others say it's alive, well and kicking. Forums, blogs and newsletters on the subject abound. And there's no doubt that you can get some really up to date and on-the nail information. But there's also the BS element. So how do you tell what the good stuff is and what the guff stuff is?
Join our panel of search community leaders. They were some of the first authoritative voices out there and continue to be so. They have been monitoring the flow of conversation in the SEO world for up to ten years now. They have heard opinions on everything from Black hat/White hat SEO, dynamic delivery, Flash, Google index updates, universal search... And everything else that goes with it.
- Moderator:
Mike Grehan, Global VP Content, SES, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ
- Speakers:
Marcus Tandler, CEO/Partner, Tandler.Doerje
Bill Hunt, SES Advisory Board; President, Back Azimuth Consulting
Chris Boggs, Director, SEO, Rosetta
Jill Whalen, CEO, High Rankings
Duane Forrester, Senior Program Manager, Bing
|
| 11:30am-11:45am |
Session Interval |
| 11:45am-12:45pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Search & the Fundamentals Track
Introduction to Search Engine Marketing
This session will provide a clear and concise overview of the key concepts involved in search engine marketing. Who are the major search engines, and how can you best optimize them to gain "natural" or "organic" traffic without cost? Learn how to achieve top ranking or placement by utilizing search engine advertising opportunities. This is a must-attend basic session for anyone new to Search Engine Strategies events.
- Moderator:
Mike Grehan, Global VP Content, SES, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ
Search and the Fear Economy Track
Survival of the Fittest 2.0
Hard times are here but you can flourish. You may not have been in the trenches the first time around when the likes of Boo.com, eyeballs, and the Pets.com sock puppet ruled the mind space of online marketers. In this session veterans of that first downturn in online marketing will talk about the strategies that helped them survive those difficult times and show how they intend to survive again. Don't miss this session; you'll take away key strategies to ensure you are one of the lucky ones who flourish in this current round of turbulent times.
- Moderator:
Sara Holoubek, Consultant, Columnist and SEMPO President,
Search & the C-Level Executive Track
Thinking Outside Your Website: Branding Without Borders
With the popularity of sites like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook, brands increasingly need to engage with their customers outside their website. The portability of content and viral connectivity that occurs online requires a new approach to branding. Participants will learn strategies for increasing brand awareness and protecting brand equity in today's socially connected web as well as tactics that can be implemented in today's resource and budget constrained environment.
- Speakers:
Kevin Cobb, Interactive Brand Manager, EMBARQ
Tim Kendall, Director of Monetization, Facebook
Ron Diorio, VP, Product and Community Development, Economist.com
Search and Measurement Track
Landing Page Testing and Tuning
Getting someone to click on your search ad is only half the battle. Once visitors arrive, the landing pages you display to them are a crucial component in converting them into buyers. This session looks at ways to test and tweak your landing pages to get that conversion. Note: The session is designed for those who are already familiar with how paid placement works.
- Solo Presentation by:
Tim Ash, CEO, SiteTuners.com
Search and the Future Track
Key Points in Launching a Global Website
As the world becomes smaller and search marketing becomes more complex, the era of "ranking well in Google" is over. This is especially true for companies who are targeting multiple markets or countries. This new opportunity also brings many new complexities to be considered other than standard SEO. This session tackles these key issues critical to successfully developing, optimizing, and launching the Global Websites that would meet those next generation marketing goals, without losing control or your mind.
The session will cover the following topics and will include some case studies:
- Keyword research
- Language & cultural issues
- Geographical issues
- Issues involving different engines and platforms
- Leveraging standardized templates to develop global websites
- Cross-border management issues
- Copy writing for multiple audiences
- Adapting unique market trends and techniques
- Speakers:
Motoko Hunt, Founder & Japanese Search Marketing Strategist, AJPR LLC
Maura Ginty, Senior Manager, Global Web Content, Autodesk
Marjorie Madfis, Interactive Marketing Manager, Web Editor, IBM
Erik Qualman, Author of Amazon #1 Best Seller , Socialnomics
|
| 12:45pm-1:45pm |
Networking Lunch |
1:45pm-2:45pm
 |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Search & the Fundamentals Track
Chitika Workshop: SearchAppalooza - Kick-Ass Apps Contest & Talking Search Beyond Google
This is your exclusive opportunity to attend, and join-in on this heated face-off of the biggest movers and shakers in search--come talk tech with the innovators and industry execs who are leading search marketing into new terrains beyond THE search engine. Five of today's most outside-the-box-thinking/market-defining innovators (reviewed and pre-selected by our experts) will present their respective "kick-ass search apps" to the SearchAppalooza expert panel—including thought-leaders from Yahoo! and Microsoft, MediaContacts, Jennifer Slegg ("JenSense"), and the workshop audience (you), for critical review and feedback. Think of it this way- American Idol for developers.
It's survival of the slickest-apps—we invite you all to join Chitika and our panel experts to delve out ruthless, zany, stomp-on-the-box critique, all in the name of search beyond Google. All SearchAppalooza workshop attendees will be entered to win an Amazon Kindle2.
In the spirit of search re-targeting, this session will also host Chitika's near-legendary, Third-Annual "Cookie Eating Contest". All attendees are invited to participate and cookie themselves to new extremes; the winner will receive HP Mini Netbook and publicity. Check SearchAppalooza updates at chitika.com/searchappalooza, or follow on twitter: sesnycchitika. Don't forget to stop by Chitika's SES booth #230 and meet "Hooty" the six foot owl.
- Chitika | SearchAppalooza '09 Expert Panel:
Jennifer Slegg, CEO, JenSense.com
Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search
Rob Griffin, SVP, Group Director of Search & Analytics, Media Contacts Boston
Stacey Helman, Agency Development Executive, Microsoft
Venkat Kolluri, CEO, Chitika
Search and the Fear Economy Track
Every Day in Every Way: Search Marketing as a Business Activity
Search marketing can help the company in more ways than the SERPs. In this session, you will learn how to take your in-house search marketing program to the rest of the company to add value in areas such as marketing research, marketing copy, prioritizing product releases, customer service and more to provide a consistent customer experience, boosted revenue and an organization that works smarter, on a daily basis, with the search marketing data available today.
- Moderator:
Bill Hunt, SES Advisory Board; President, Back Azimuth Consulting
Search & the C-Level Executive Track
Budget Migration: Going Digital Without Impacting Your Brand
The move to a predominantly digital marketing strategy can be overwhelming. Migrating from staid traditional channels to the open waters of the web can be daunting - especially for companies that are unsure of how to properly measure search, display, email and social media. This session will arm you with the information you need to know about migrating budget to digital without impacting your brand awareness or the equity you have built up in your brand. Participants will learn from companies that have started moving significant resources away from TV, radio and print and into search, social, display and email. Lessons learned will be discussed as well as the metrics and tools need to gauge the success of a balanced digital marketing program.
- Moderator:
Jason Ferrara, SVP, Sales & Marketing, Elixir Interactive
Search and Measurement Track
Pay Per Conversation
For marketers to become successful in their SEM efforts, PPC can no longer stand for "Pay Per Click" - it must stand for "Pay Per Conversation." Many marketers agree that the current state of the economy is having an impact on their marketing plans. That's why every dollar and click matters. Every click is a potential customer trying to engage you; will you continue the dialogue or have them bounce off your landing page just moments after they arrive? What you want to do is engage and persuade your visitors to keep taking the next click, all the way through the purchase funnel. To achieve that, you must demonstrate the value of your products and services in all your marketing, especially when sales are decreasing. You do that by planning content to improve relevance and test continuously until you have the best conversation. This session will show you how to identify missed conversations and what you can do to improve them and your PPC ROI.
Search & the Future Track
Beyond Googling: Where Will Your Customers Be Searching in Five Years?
Nothing in search marketing is as certain as change. Ten years ago Google did not exist — now it's a verb that means searching on the Web. Growing use of media such as video, social and personal appear to provide new avenues for searchers. What are the early adopters embracing now? How will your customers find you? What media should you keep in your sites and what should you discard? This session is a long-view look at weak signals and trends that appear to point in new directions.
- Moderator:
John Marshall, SES Advisory Board & CTO, Market Motive
- Speakers:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board; International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Pauline Ores, Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, IBM Corporation
Frank Watson, CEO, Kangamurra Media
|
| 2:45pm-3:00pm |
Session Interval |
| 3:00pm-4:00pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Search & the Fundamentals Track
The Imperative: Successful Site Architecture
A fresh look at how to successfully architect your site for search engines and how specific page elements and design technologies may impact your ability to gain good organic listings. Covers topics such as directory and file structure, server-side includes (SSIs), 404 error trapping, JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, secure area usage, and much more. Toward the end of the session, volunteers from the audience will have their sites examined to see how changes could be made to their site architecture and design to increase search engine traffic, as time allows.
- Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board; International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
- Speakers:
Shari Thurow, Founder & SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive
Alan Perkins, Head of Search Marketing, SilverDisc Limited
Search and the Fear Economy Track
Publishers & Agencies: New Business Models for Changing Times
This panel will explore and define new revenue opportunities for publishers. What are the new business models that are gaining traction and how are old tried and true business models evolving in the marketplace due to the needs of clients and the economy? Specifically, lead generation. What are publishers looking for? What are their clients looking for? How has the landscape changed for such traditional models as lead generation? Join this lively panel and hear the answers to these questions and more.
- Speakers:
Erik Matlick, CEO, Madison Logic
Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director, AdMedia Partners
Gill Torren, Associate Publisher, SC Magazine, Haymarket Media, Inc.
Murray Gaylord, Vice President, Marketing and Customer Insights, NYTimes.com
Search & the C-Level Executive Track
Implementing a Digital Corporate Governance Program
As companies migrate their marketing efforts online, the costs of implementing an effective program can quickly skyrocket if a proper governance program is not in place. Cannibalization of budget and dilution of brand are common pitfalls faced by companies that have multiple business units or franchisees. Participants will learn best practices for implementing a governance program that coordinates marketing efforts and optimizes budget across lines of business, geographic regions and organizational "fiefdoms".
- Moderator:
Jason Ferrara, SVP, Sales & Marketing, Elixir Interactive
- Speakers:
Piera Palazzolo, Senior Vice President, Dale Carnegie Training
Bill Hunt, SES Advisory Board; President, Back Azimuth Consulting
JoAnne Kim, Independent Marketing Consultant and former Director, Delia's, Scholastic Inc.
Search and Measurement Track
Advanced SEO Strategies: Integrating Analytics, Usability, Persuasion and Journalism
Beyond the simple SEO tactics that many people already know, there is another level to optimizing your website for rankings, conversions, visibility and more. This level requires a deeper understanding of searchers, their behavior and how search engines use those human factors in developing their algorithms. Many would have you believe that advanced SEO is more technical tricks and "black hat" techniques. But in reality, advanced SEO is more about a deeper understanding of the searcher and using elements, both on and off the page, that will persuade them to view your website favorably and increase the chances of conversion.
By utilizing established methods of persuasion, defined thousands of years ago, and refined over decades in print journalism, newspapers can give us insight into readers' tendencies. Combining the disciplines of persuasive writing design, usability, and behavioral analytics will catapult your website from common to extraordinary.
- Introduction by:
Stewart Quealy, SES Advisory Board & VP, Content Development, SES Conference & Expo
- Solo Presentation by:
Matthew Bailey, SES Advisory Board; President, Site Logic Marketing
Search and the Future Track
Universal and Blended Search: An Update
Search result multiplicity is not a new phenomenon, but recent advancements guarantee that the world of search and marketing will be changing forever. Before you attend this week's optimization and best practices sessions, learn from industry gurus how the steps that follow the search are developing. Our ongoing series on universal search will include research data available only at SES.
- Speakers:
Olivier Lemaignen, Group Manager, Global Search Marketing, Intuit
Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search
Todd Schwartz, Group Product Manager, Bing
Vic Drabicky, Director of International & Market Development, Range Online Media
Keith Hogan, Vice President, Search Technology, Ask.com
|
| 4:00pm-4:30pm |
Afternoon Break in the Expo Hall |
| 4:30pm-5:30pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Search & the Fundamentals Track
Getting Mobilized! Mobile Marketing Strategies
Learn basic mobile marketing strategies that are attracting mobile traffic today. This session will focus on mobile SEO, but will also touch on driving traffic and conversions with mobile applications, text messaging and mobile email. You will learn what you need to know to develop, launch and track an integrated mobile marketing strategy.
This session will help attendees understand how mobile marketing fits into the traditional and online marketing mix and determine what mobile marketing strategy is most appropriate for their business. It will provide tips for updating existing sites to work on a variety of mobile devices and will expose the major SEO mistakes that are being made by some of the top mobile marketing agencies.
Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of basic mobile SEO best practices including mobile site architecture, local and universal SEO tactics that work in a mobile application and how to author meta data that is compelling in mobile search results.
- Solo Presentation by:
Cindy Krum, Chief Executive Officer, Rank-Mobile, LLC
Search and the Fear Economy Track
Pay-for-Performance: Winning Strategies for Advertisers and Agencies
Paid and organic search strategies have varied significantly for as long as they have existed. The starting point - keyword research, and the end goals - conversions or sales, are the same, but how you get from here to there has varied tremendously. Unfortunately, the compensation models for organic and PPC have not followed similar tracks. Agencies running PPC campaigns have traditionally been compensated based on a percentage of spend. The higher the ROI, the higher the spend, the more the agency earns. By contrast organic practitioners generally are compensated on a flat fee model, regardless of value delivered.
This panel will discuss winning compensation models for advertisers and agencies. Advertisers want to pay for success. They want sales, and nothing else matters. Regardless of SEO or PPC focus, agencies want to be compensated fairly for the quality of their work. They're success oriented, and wish to be compensated based on the value they deliver. In these economically uncertain times, the bottom line is more in review than ever. Both advertisers and agencies need to examine new ways to earn revenue and be compensated. Industry experts will present winning business models which can benefit everyone.
- Speakers:
Richard Zwicky, Independent Consultant,
Ron Belanger, Vice President of Worldwide Agency Sales, Omniture
Brian Klais, Executive Vice President, Netconcepts
Tom Cuthbert, President & Founder, Click Forensics
Jonathan Scott, COO, Direct Traffic Media
Search and the Fear Economy Track
The Dozen Most Common Search Marketing Mistakes That CMOs Make
Whether you're a CMO - or someone who needs to educate, advise or influence one - the information shared in this session could be vital to your search marketing success. You'll learn about the 12 most common strategic mistakes that companies make in their SEO and paid search initiatives and gain insight into these critically important concepts surrounding search marketing and its role within the entire marketing mix. A panel made up of senior level search marketers across a variety of industries, business models and company sizes will share their experiences, advice and perspective on these dozen critical mistakes, how to avoid them, and how understanding them can dramatically increase your search marketing results.
- Moderator:
Bill Muller, Chief Marketing Officer, iProspect
- Speakers:
Keith Dieruf, Online Marketing Manager, Ameriprise Financial
Nancie Freitas, CMO, Constant Contact
Willie Fernandez, Director of Marketing, World Travel Holdings/National Leisure Group
Tom Tweedie, Vice President of Marketing, Baudville, Inc.
Bob Myhal, President, MuscleMaster
Search and Measurement Track
Extreme Makeover: Conversion Edition
This session will analyze the metrics, usability and persuasion ability of three companies pre-selected for the session. The speakers will work with these companies to redesign a key page and then set up that redesign in an A/B test. This session will instruct you on how to identify the critical barriers to success on the sites selected and how this team of experts would go about fixing them in less that 48 hours. You'll learn key things to look for, obstacles to avoid and the key considerations when optimizing your website for conversion.
Search and the Future Track
Video Search Engine Optimization: 2009 and Beyond
According to comScore, nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March 2008, viewing a total of 11.5 billion online videos during the month. However, the average YouTube video receives only 100 views a year. This makes optimizing video for YouTube one of the biggest opportunities in the fast-changing and complex world of search. This session will look at how video search engine optimization (VSEO) has become the most important new use of search engine optimization today.
- Speakers:
Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR
Liana Evans, Author and Co-Founder & CEO, LiBeck Integrated Marketing
Gregory Markel, Founder/President, Infuse Creative, LLC
Henry Hall, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Live Search
Matthew Liu, Product Manager, YouTube Sponsored Videos
|
| 5:30pm-6:30pm |
Networking Cocktail Reception |
| 6:15pm |
SEMPO Networking Event |
