Search Engine Strategies is a 5 day show. I decided to go to one of the days which was yesterday. It’s not my first time to Search Engine Strategies. I was there last year as well. This years show was pathetic.
First, the expo hall had very few vendors. Compared to Ad Tech hosted at the same venue (The Hilton on Avenue Of The Americas) it almost seems like Search Engine Strategies didn’t even try to get vendors. If there were 500 booths at Ad Tech, there were 50 at SES. A good deal of the booths were SEM agencies which is very little help to people that do their own or have their own in house SEM’s. There were a couple of email vendors, a couple of software vendors and a couple of ad networks. Nothing too prolific or that I hadn’t seen before.
There were also very few people that I knew there compared to an Ad Tech or Affiliate Summit. I went with Ian Fernando & Waynedog, we saw Shawn Collins from Affiliate Summit and one of our friends; Cousin Vinne and that’s about it. There were very few people even attending the event, it almost seemed ‘dead’ at times. As I said, i was at this show last year and it was no where near as bad. I’m wondering if the down economy kept a lot of businesses from coming out because they are spending less money on search engine marketing or if this show is just dying.
I would not recommend Search Engine Strategies at all. There are much better conferences you can go to.
yea man – definitely not worth going, it was my first time and last. I bet those booths were mad they paid mad money for nothing.
If companies are cutting back on SEM due to the economy, they’re just crazy – web is one of the most trackable channels in the universe. Oh well, good for us.
@Matt – As silly as it is, I can tell you first hand, I know companies are cutting back. Why you would do so, I have no idea. SEM is one of the most effective (and COST effective) means of advertising there is.
Show was horrible. Much worse than the year before and even that was bad. If not for hitting the bar for some food and drinks with you guys the whole thing would have been a total waste of time.
Glad to hear that. I was planning on going and ditched at the last second, cause of a client. Thanks for letting me know it was going to be a complete waste of time.
hmmm.. Remarkable stuff.. Not really certain I agree though