So, for those of you who couldn’t leave your desks, or did attend but haven’t succeeded at being in two places at once, here are links to videos, blog posts and audo files (for audiophiles) for SES San Jose 2009.

SES Jan Jose 2009 YouTube Video Channel - Put together by SES Conference Expo. Watch a number of one-on-one interviews and more.

SES Blog Coverage Wrap up - at Search Engine Strategies blog

TopRank SES San Jose 2009 Wrap Up – Puzzle Solved - Summary and links to articles covering a number of different conference sessions from TopRank Blog.

Session Coverage

Day 1: Tuesday August 11, 2009

Opening Keynote by Clay Shirky, recording by WebmasterRadio.fm

Overheard on Twitter – SES San Jose Day 1 – Interesting observations about Twitter feeds from SES on SEOMoz

(I have not included to Search Fundamentals Track).

Session Track: Search and Community

• How to Optimize for Search and Engage the Community, live blogging by Patty Adams of Vertical Measures and Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Round Table
• SEO for the Greater Good: Using Search to Find Missing Persons. Not able to find someone who live-blogged this. If you did, please send me a note and I will update and link to your article.
• Turning the Social Web into Real ROI - covered by Chris Crum for SmallBusinessNews.com. Focuses primarily on Facebook discussion.
• Turning the Social Web into Real ROI - as covered by Patty Adams of Vertical Measures, for Search Engine Roundtable
• Stop the Presses!: How SEO Can Help Save the Publishing Industry – I couldn’t find an English blog post about this one, but if you speak Korean (I think), check out this blog post at Hezilnuk.tistory.com
• Keeping it Local: The Convergence of Smart Phones & Local Search  - Coverage provided by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Round Table

Session Track: Search for the C-Suite

• The adaptive CMO, live blogging by Kyle Bumgardner of MarketerInsight
• The View from the CMO’s Office - Live Blogging from Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable
• Integration: The New CMO Imperative – Again, I don’t have an article to link to here. If you blogged this session, let me know and I will link to your coverage.
• Budget Migration: Going Digital Without Impacting Your Brand - Ok, I’m cheating here. This is live coverage from SES New York, by Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media. I really wish they had covered San Jose, because I really enjoy their style.
• Performance Pricing Models: What Every CMO Should Know! – Coverage by Virginia Nussey for the Bruce Clay blog

Session Track: Search & Measurement

• Always Be Testing: Marketing Optimization in Challenging Times - Search Engine Round Table, Patty Adams through “Cover It Live”
• Creating a Web Analytics Culture - Live blogging by Jolina Pettice of TopRank Marketing
• How to Turn Your Web Analytics into a Money Making Machine - Coverage by Jolina Pettice of TopRank Marketing
• Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers - Coverage by Eric Dudley at MarketerInsight
• Extreme Makeover Conversion Edition – Couldn’t find a blog of this, but would love to be able to read through coverage of this session!

Session Track: Search & the Future

• Search: Where to Next? – Microsoft Advertising Community by Lori Ho
• The Next Wave of Online Video - Appropriately, a video provided by Steve Wiideman of SEOExpert.tv
• The Next Wave of Online Video - Coverage by Mike Sachoff for WebProNews
• Don’t Call it a Comeback: Semantic Technology and Search - Coverage by Mark Johnson, who was on the panel
• Beyond Googling: Where Will Your Customers Be Searching in 5 Years? - On initial glance through, very nice coverage by Derek Edmond of AimClear 
• Launching A Global Website - Coverage by Gaurav Sharma of Think Mantra, published on Search Engine Roundtable
• Landing Page Testing and Tuning, live blogging by Tom Dressler of MarketerInsight

Day 2: Wednesday August 12, 2009

Afternoon Keynote: Nicholas Fox.  Audio file at WebmasterRadio.fm

Overheard on Twitter – SES San Jose Day 2 – Interesting observations about Twitter feeds from SES on SEOMoz

(I have not included to Fundamentals Track).

Session Track: Search for the Small Business

• Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy – Covered by David Carberry for Search Engine Guide
• Search On a Dime - Covered by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, Secrets Revealed! – Coverage by Guarav Sharma of Think Mantra for Search Engine Roundtable
• Turning Simple Change into Big Profit - Coverage by Gaurav Sharma at Jatin Mahindra.com

Session Track: Vertical & B2B

• Credit Crunch: The Death of Last Click Attribution and its Impact on Paid Search Advertising - Coverage by Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay Blog
• Bing Toolbox: Your One-Stop Shop for Better ROI - (Sponsored Session) Keri Morgret of Strike Models for Search Engine Roundtable
• Four Paths to Success in a Tough Travel Economy - Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay’s blog
• The BuyerSphere Project: Understanding B2B Buyer Patterns – I couldn’t find any information about this session, and am really interested in reading about it.

Session Track: Geek Speak

• Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues - Jolina Pettice for TopRank Marketing Blog
• Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues - Serena Hillman for International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA Online)
• Landing Page Testing & Tuning - MarketerInsight, written by Tom Dressler
• You are Multi-Channel, but Your SEM Vendor Isn’t! – I couldn’t find any blog posts about this sessions.
• Real World Multivariate Testing – Again, no blog coverage that I could find

Session Track: ClickZ/OMS

• Igniting Viral Campaigns: Leveraging Consumer-Generated Content - Coverage by Adam Singer of Top Rank Marketing
• Facebook Ads: Reaching Prospects Earlier In The Decision Cycle - (Sponsored Session) Kyle Bumgardner for MarketerInsight
• Social Media: Managing Conversations and Reputations When the User Is In Control - IIMA Online
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - David Snyder for Search Engine Journal
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - Covered by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - Rebecca Kelley coverage for 10e20
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - TopRank Marketing’s Lee Odden (one of the presenters) discusses the session and SES

There were a number of good posts about the Social Media White Hat vs. Black Hat session. My favorite is the one by Lee Odden, and his choice of images made me remember my childhood addiction to Mad Magazine.

Day 3: Thursday August 13, 2009

Morning Keynote: Charlene Li.  Audio file at WebmasterRadio.fm

Session Track: Organic

• SEO Through Blogs & Feeds - Coverage by Patty Adams and Barry Schwartz for Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO Through Blogs & Feeds - Adam Singer coverage for TopRank Marketing
• SEO Through Blogs & Feeds - Article covering session, plus more information by Doug Caverly for WebProNews
• News Search SEO - Coverage by Adam Singer for TopRank Marketing
• Advanced SEO Roundtable:  What is it Really? And Where is it Going? - Coverage by Virginia Nussey at Bruce Clay
• Advanced SEO Roundtable:  What is it Really? And Where is it Going? - Kyle Bumgardner for MarketerInsight
• Advanced SEO Roundtable:  What is it Really? And Where is it Going? - IIMA – Serena Hillman
• Storyteller Marketing: The Art of Storytelling Matches Up with the Business of Marketing - Couldn’t find any 2009 coverage of this, but here is a link for 2008 coverage from Bruce Clay’s blog:  Storyteller Marketing: The Art of Storytelling Matches Up with the Business of Marketing 

Session Track: Advanced PPC

• Advanced Paid Search Techniques - by “Socks” from Affiliates Insider
• The New Search ROI: Measuring More than Conversion - Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay’s blog
• Advanced Keyword Research – Again, the only live coverage I could find is in Korean
• Brainstorming the Paid Search Super Tool – This sounds like it was an interesting session, but I couldn’t find any original posts about it.

Session Track: Organizational

• Electronic Contacts and The Long Arm of the Law - Coverage posted by Virginia Nussey at Bruce Clay’s blog
• Brand, Trademark & Reputation Management - Coverage by Manoj Jasra for Web Analytics World
• Independent SEMs/SEOs – Issues & Answers - Keri Morgret of Strike Models and Gaurav Sharma of Think Mantra coverage for Search Engine Roundtable
• In-House SEO: Structuring the Organization for Success – couldn’t find any blog posts about this

Session Track: Geek Speak

• Ads in a Quality Score World - Article with coverage at WebProNews by Mike Sachoff
• Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile Apps – no specific blog coverage or articles associated with this session that I could find
• Images & Search Engines: Getting the Full Picture - Article and coverage from Chris Crum for WebProNews
• Search Becomes the Display OS – Couldn’t find coverage of this session

(I have not included the clinic track coverage since those tend to be very interactive and difficult to follow when not present).

If there are any other resources or blog posts that are informational that I have missed, please let me know. I have tried to include posts from a variety of authors – and have tried not to be preferential to any particular blog, however there are several that were great at covering the conference, and I suggest looking at their full coverage, too.

The first thing I noticed was that the exhibit hall seemed pretty empty. There were several booth spaces that were uninhabited, with one or two having signs that were removed just before the show started. For those of you who have lived the exhibitor life, you’re familiar with the long white paper signs that signify your 10 x 10 part of the show floor. That’s a pretty expensive sign, actually – and depending on the show, can run upwards of $10k or more. If you make that kind of investment to exhibit, there must be a real reason why you wouldn’t show up, right?

The next thing I noticed was that there were a lot more industry niche specialists attending SES. It’s really interesting since SEO was a niche specialty less than a decade ago. Maybe I wasn’t aware of the trend to specialize by industry, but it became really clear as I talked to people at the PRWeb booth.

Speaking of talking with people at the booth – the traffic was steady and contacts were very engaged. It has been my experience at previous SES SJ shows that many people in the exhibit hall were tchotchke-seakers: those collecting pens, pads, rubber frogs and tee shirts from every booth while laughing off the booth staff. Not this year. Few of the attendees were just seeking freebies – although many were asking about special offers for show attendees.

And I couldn’t say anything about Search Engine Strategies San Jose without bringing up Search Bash. Brandy and team at Webmasterradio.fm out did themselves again this year! The Alice in Wonderland theme, characters, music and basic party chi were all superb.  Li Evans AKA StorySpinn has a great collection of photographs of Search Bash 2009 on Flickr.

Another observation is that the advanced classes are standing room only – in fact, some of the good ones have people standing in the hallways. The beginners and 101 classes, though, are virtually empty. Last observation – there is a lot of activity at the booth.

Why might this conference be skewing to the older, more experienced crowd? Could the economy be limiting attendance by the younger crowd?

Online distribution is customized for in-country and internatioanl news releases. Check it out at PRWeb UK.

Separated into several different tracks, you can learn about:

• Building Web Presence
• The Social Opportunity
• Start with Listening
• Strategy Drives Outreach
• You Need Social Networks
• To Blog or Not to Blog
• Visibility Through Search
• Rising Above the Noise
• Time Demands

So, set aside 1:00 to 3:30 on 10/29, and listen to Lee Odden, Brett Tabke, Guy Kawasaki, Rohit Bhargava, and others. I’ve got my calendar set to learn as much as I can from these guys on Wednesday!

Oh, and it is my very favorite price: Free!