Li Evans and myself, Kim Krause Berg, are here in San Francisco for a week of intensive conferencing, networking and training in the search marketing industries. There are some interesting new things to note.
Firstly, not only is the Moscone Convention Center and the San Francisco Marriott hosting Search Engine Strategies this week, but other companies are offering training as well. Running alongside SES are the OMS Social Medea Marketing Summit, MMA, the EEC, the IAB and more, such as Bruce Clay’s Training workshop on Friday.
A group of SES Francisco 2011 attendees shares a Mexican meal Monday evening.
This Clickz Connected Marketing Week allows attendees of all the various training and conferences to mingle with each other. So for example, last night’s meet and greet at the Thirsty Bear drew a packed crowd of attendees with a wide variety of interests, careers and skills. This unique blending allowed for a nice depth of networking opportunities and permitted marketers to meet people in related fields.
Instead of conference handouts, booklets, printed schedules, and the usual, everything is put into a small 3 x 5 pamphlet that is attached to where the conference passes are typically worn. On the back of each one are QR Codes. The lanyards are sponsored by SEOMoz. While I need my reading glasses to read the tiny print, that’s worth the effort to save trees. The pamphlet is light, always handy (around our neck) and includes exhibitors, maps, speaking schedules, rooms, and in the back are the free lunch tickets.
For those who want a more robust amount of information, SES offers a free app to download in the iTunes app store, as well as Android and Blackberry. I downloaded it to my Android. It loaded quickly. The app gives you a “My schedule”, photos gallery, events, exhibitors, news, speakers, Twitter access and more. All from your Smartphone. Very fitting for a digital oriented crowd.
This year’s Connected Marketing Week gathers folks from the digital marketing industries and related fields (like mine, usability.) They expect 8000 attendees. The weather is in the low 70′s. And it’s San Francisco, with its trolleys and famous places to see. Flying in from the East coast I got to see the mountains along the way with especially gorgeous views over Colorado.
Will be working and blogging this week for Libeck Integrated Marketing, Cre8pc.com and Cre8asiteforums.
