Less than a week to go until Search Marketing Expo - SMX West in Santa Clara. Not registered? There’s still time.  Register today.

If you are registered as an All Access or Networking Pass attendee (see what these are here), we’ve just spun up some tools to help you organize your time and meet people interested in the same things as you are.

Session Scheduling Tool
 
The session scheduling tool is available through our SMX Connect system that we messaged you about earlier. To use it:
 
1) Be sure you’ve first accessed SMX Connect and created a profile.
2) Use the My Schedule tab at the top of the page, after you’ve logged into SMX Connect.
3) The tab will take you to a slightly different site. You’ll see a list of all sessions that are happening during the conference, including SMX Meet & Eat.
4) To build your own schedule, just click on the plus symbol next to a session, and that will add it to your My Schedule list. Change your mind? Click the red minus symbol when shown to remove a session. Want to learn more about a session? Click on the session name for a description.
 
SMX Meet & Eat
 
As part of our networking activities, we have a vareity of special tables that have been reserved so you can easily meet others interested in the same topics. We call these our SMX Meet & Eat tables.
 
There are no presentations and no moderators for SMX Meet & Eat. You simply turn up and connect naturally with others.
 
A list of the topics by day are below:
 
Tuesday, Feb. 26
SMX Meet & Eat: Finding An SEM Firm
SMX Meet & Eat: In House SEMers
SMX Meet & Eat: International SEM
SMX Meet & Eat: Mobile SEM
SMX Meet & Eat: Non-Profit SEMers
SMX Meet & Eat: PPC Tools I Use
SMX Meet & Eat: Small Business SEM
SMX Meet & Eat: Video SEM
SMX Meet & Eat: Lunch With A Google Search Engineer (1)
SMX Meet & Eat: Lunch With A Google Search Engineer (2)

Wednesday, Feb. 27
SMX Meet & Eat: Affiliate Marketing
SMX Meet & Eat: B2B SEMers
SMX Meet & Eat: Branding Issues
SMX Meet & Eat: Local SEM
SMX Meet & Eat: Offline Influence On Search
SMX Meet & Eat: Reputation Management
SMX Meet & Eat: SEO Tools I Use
SMX Meet & Eat: Social Media Marketing
SMX Meet & Eat: Lunch With A Google Search Engineer (1)
SMX Meet & Eat: Lunch With A Google Search Engineer (2)
 
Thursday, Feb. 27
SMX Meet & Eat: Behavioral Targeting
SMX Meet & Eat: Big, In-House SEO
SMX Meet & Eat: Flash, AJAX & Other SEO Challenges
SMX Meet & Eat: Growing Your Small SEM Firm
SMX Meet & Eat: Non-Paid Linking Strategies
SMX Meet & Eat: Retailers & SEM
SMX Meet & Eat: PPC, Paid Search & Search Advertising
SMX Meet & Eat: Web Analytics
SMX Meet & Eat: Lunch With A Google Search Engineer
SMX Meet & Eat: Lunch With A Google Search Engineer
 
There are seats for 10 people at each table, except for the special “Lunch With A Google Search Engineer” tables, where there are only 9 spaces (the 10th is for the actual Google engineer).
 
Seats are first come, first served — and you can reserve them ahead of time. You need to do that using the Session Scheduling tool. Simply pick the lunchtable you want, then choose “Add To My Schedule.”
 
Please be aware that it is possible for more than the maximum number of people to sign-up for a particular table. Seats will only be guaranteed for those who sign-up first. If there are seats free in case someone does not show up with the lunchtime gathering officially starts (15 minutes after lunch itself begins), then the seats will be given away first come, first serve to people actually waiting at the table. IE, there is no “stand by” list we’ll be working from. So please don’t be disappointed. Book your table.
 
The tables can be found by looking for the blue tablecloths, then look for the sign that matches the topic of your table. There will be a list of all those who have reserved a seat at the table. If possible, we’ll also have individual name cards.
 
We hope you like the tools. Looking forward to seeing you at SMX West!

Search Marketing Expo - SMX West, the conference only the editors of Search Engine Land could bring you, is just a week away. Don’t miss out. Register today.

Join the more than 1600 search marketers from more than 800 companies who will attend SMX West for cutting-edge SEO and PPC content, insightful keynotes and community-building networking events. Check out the agenda. Three days and more than 50 sessions of techniques and know-how you’ll put to use right away…and long after SMX West concludes. Join us in Santa Clara, CA, for SMX West February 26-28.

Need more details? Read on:

• Glimpse The Future Of Search At SMX West
• Download the SMX West brochure PDF
• “Google Groove” Added To SMX West Networking Events!
• SMX West 2008 Agenda Up: 3 Days, More Than 50 Sessions!
• First Networking/Extracurricular Activities Announced For SMX West
• What others say about SMX West.
• BONUS offers: Check out the goodies you get just for registering
• SMX Search Bowl: Nominate Search Marketers To Take On Search Engines In Quiz!

It’s not too late to save. Register today at SMXWest.com or by calling 1-877-242-5242 and save $200 off the all-access, on-site rate.

SMX West Links: Home | Agenda | Register | Who’s Coming | Exhibiting Companies | Guarantee | Bonus Offers | What to Expect

Bonus Offer: Register now and you get a special bonus offer– 3 free months of SEOmoz Premium Content with your paid annual subscription

Procrastinators. Most of us.

Good news is there’s still time to register for Search Marketing Expo - SMX West in Santa Clara, CA. But time is running out, so register today and join the search marketers from more than 500 companies who will attend SMX West.

SMX West will deliver cutting-edge SEO and PPC content, insightful keynotes, and community-building networking events for an experience like none other.

Content (See the full agenda and listen to the audio descriptions)

• Video, Images & Blended Results
• Decrypting Quality Scores
• Copywriting For Search Success
• Search Insights
• SEO and Linking
• Search Ads & Behavioral Targeting
• Unraveling URLs & Demystifying Domains
• Analytics and Usability Surveys
• SEO & Social Media Marketing
• and more

Keynotes (more info here)
Search 3.0, Search 4.0 & Beyond
Louis Monier: Past, Present & Future Of Search
Generation Next: Search In The Coming Decade

Community (more info here)
SMX does networking right. Make new connections and meet old friends at a variety of functions including networking lunches, our very own SMX Bash networking receptions, and new to West is the SMX Search Bowl complete with Tailgate Party. Also, don’t miss Google Groove @ SMX, which promises to take networking and fun to the next level.

Check out all the activities and the sponsoring and exhibiting companies.

Don’t wait any longer! Register today and you save $200 on an All Access Pass compared to the on site rate.

Want to Learn More? Read on:

• Glimpse The Future Of Search At SMX West
• Download the SMX West brochure PDF
• “Google Groove” Added To SMX West Networking Events!
• SMX West 2008 Agenda Up: 3 Days, More Than 50 Sessions!
• First Networking/Extracurricular Activities Announced For SMX West
• What others say about SMX West.
• BONUS offers: Check out the goodies you get just for registering
• SMX Search Bowl: Nominate Search Marketers To Take On Search Engines In Quiz!

SMX West Links:
Home | Agenda | Register | Who’s Coming | Exhibiting Companies
Guarantee | Bonus Offers

Bonus Offer: Register now and you get a special bonus offer– 3 free months of SEOmoz Premium Content with your paid annual subscription

We’re pleased to announce a significant addition to the line up of networking events at Search Marketing Expo - SMX West.

The good folks at Google will be hosting the all new Google Groove @ SMX on Wednesday, February 27. You’ll be able to celebrate all you’ve learned about search marketing and network with those you’ve met. Libations and good times will be served.

Check out all of the networking activities at SMX West including the SMX Bash (Feb. 25), SMX Search Bowl & Tailgate Party (Feb. 26), and the Expo Hall Networking Reception (Feb. 27) on our Events & Parties page.

All networking events — Google Groove, SMX Bash, SMX Search Bowl, and Expo Hall Reception — are open to all SMX All Access and Networking Pass attendees only. So register for SMX West today and come join the fun!

Want to Learn More? Read on:

SMX West Links:
Home | Agenda | Register | Who’s Coming | Exhibiting Companies
Guarantee | Bonus Offers

Bonus Offer: Register now and you get a special bonus offer– 3 free months of SEOmoz Premium Content with your paid annual subscription. Check out the details here.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, hearing Danny Sullivan describe what’s going to happen at Search Marketing Expo - SMX West later this month is worth at least twice that.

That’s why we’ve added audio clips describing sessions, tracks, networking events and parties to the SMX West agenda. Click here to go the the agenda and then click on the speaker icons to hear the cuts.

Like to listen to the the long-version podcast (37 minute MP3 file) all the way through? Click here. And don’t forget to register for SMX West today!

Enjoy!

Just 30 days until Search Marketing Expo - SMX West in Santa Clara, CA. Register today and join the search marketers from more than 450 companies who will attend SMX West.

SMX West will deliver cutting-edge SEO and PPC content, insightful keynotes and community-building networking events for an experience like none other.

Content (See the full agenda)

• Video, Images & Blended Results
• Decrypting Quality Scores
• Copywriting For Search Success
• Search Insights
• SEO and Linking
• Search Ads & Behavioral Targeting
• Unraveling URLs & Demystifying Domains
• Analytics and Usability Surveys
• SEO & Social Media Marketing
• and more

Keynotes (more info here)
Search 3.0, Search 4.0 & Beyond
Louis Monier: Past, Present & Future Of Search
Generation Next: Search In The Coming Decade

Community (more info here)
SMX does networking right. Make new connections and meet old friends at a variety of functions including networking lunches, our very own SMX Bash networking receptions, and new to West is the SMX Search Bowl complete with Tailgate Party. Check out all the activities and companies participating.

Don’t miss this must-attend interactive and search marketing event of the year. Register today and you save $200 off an All Access Pass.

Don’t delay. The SMX room block at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, which is conveniently connected to the Convention Center, is nearly sold out. Rooms are currently still available at the SMX rate of $239 per night.

Want to Learn More? Read on:

• Glimpse The Future Of Search At SMX West
• Download the SMX West brochure PDF
• SMX West 2008 Agenda Up: 3 Days, More Than 50 Sessions!
• First Networking/Extracurricular Activities Announced For SMX West
• What others say about SMX West.
• BONUS offers: Check out the goodies you get just for registering
• SMX Search Bowl: Nominate Search Marketers To Take On Search Engines In Quiz!

SMX West Links:
Home | Agenda | Register | Who’s Coming | Exhibiting Companies
Guarantee | Bonus Offers

Bonus Offer: Register now and you get a special bonus offer– 3 free months of SEOmoz Premium Content with your paid annual subscription. Check out the details here.

Registration Open, Save Now on SMX Social Media
Social media marketing your thing? Registration is now open for SMX Social Media, coming to Long Beach, CA, April 22-23. Register this week and get the best rate possible — only $995!

This West Coast version of SMX Social Media is an encore presentation of the standing-room only New York City edition presented last autumn. Attendees Dugg (sic) it. You will too!

And you’ll love the price - the lowest you’ll get for this two-day, one track show. Register before February 2.

We’ve just finalized the third keynote panel for SMX West, and it’s going to be a fascinating session. Gord Hotchkiss and I will be talking about the future of search with Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone, Brad Goldberg, Microsoft’s General Manager, Search Business Group and Google’s Director of Research Peter Norvig.

This ‘Generation Next’ keynote discussion will have us talking about recent and current initiatives that are changing the search marketing landscape, and you can be sure we’ll ask the visionaries from these major search engines to gaze into their crystal balls and offer predictions of upcoming search trends.

Each day of SMX West features a keynote looking at what’s coming in search. On Day 1, Danny Sullivan will be talking about Search 3.0, Search 4.0 & Beyond. On Day 2, Louis Monier, who is currently Vice President of Products for stealth startup Cuill, will talk about the Past, Present & Future Of Search (Monier is one of the true pioneers of web search, having done stints with Google, eBay and AltaVista).

Reserve your seat today for these keynote presentations as well as 50+ other cutting edge search marketing panels, and save up to $400 off admission if you register by this Friday, January 11.

There are less than eight weeks until Search Marketing Expo - SMX West hits the Santa Clara Convention Center February 26-28. Here are five compelling reasons to sign up for Search Marketing Expo - SMX West today:

Content: The SMX West agenda is jam-packed with sessions that will make you a better marketer: 3 days, 5 tracks, more than 50 sessions. The agenda was developed with you in mind. Whether you are new to search, have some experience or are expert, you can customize the SMX experience based on your skill level and areas of interest.

SMX Program by Search Engine Land: No one’s more plugged in than the search marketing experts at Search Engine Land. More than 350,000 Search Engine Land readers rely on them to put developments in search marketing in context.

Search Engine Land editors Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman created the original search marketing educational conference and have programmed more than 50 events since. Rely on the SMX program to deliver the traffic-driving advice, tactics and tips you can implement immediately. We’re so confident you’ll find the SMX program valuable, we guarantee it.

Keynotes: Know what’s next by attending SMX keynotes which focus on the future of search marketing and technologies:

>Search 3.0, Search 4.0 and Beyond with Danny Sullivan

>The Past, The Present and The Future with Louis Monier, VP of Products from Cuill.com, a stealth search start-up with former Googlers as founders

>Generation Next: Search In The Coming Decade includes insight from Google, Mircosoft and Ask.com luminaries who will be led by moderators Chris Sherman and SEMPO chairperson Gord Hotchkiss.

Community: SMX does networking right. Make new connections and meet old friends at a variety of functions including networking lunches, our very own SMX Bash networking receptions, and new to West is the SMX Search Bowl complete with Tailgate Party. Check out all the activities and companies participating here.

Register Now and Save $400: You get the entire SMX experience for only $1195 when you register before January 12. That’s a $400 savings off the on-site registration rate. Register today at SMXWest.com or by calling 1-877-242-5242.

Want to Learn More? Read on:

Download the SMX West brochure PDF
Meet the SMX West programming team
SMX West 2008 Agenda Up: 3 Days, More Than 50 Sessions!
First Networking/Extracurricular Activities Announced For SMX West
What others say about SMX West.
BONUS offers: Check out the goodies you get just for registering

SMX West Links:
Home | Agenda | Register | Network | Guarantee | Bonus Offers

As co-chairs of SMX West 2008, Chris Sherman and I oversee the agenda of over 50 editorial sessions. Pulling together the session ideas, formats and speakers is no easy challenge, especially when you have high quality standards that are backed by a guarantee. Fortunately, we have an excellent team of people working with us on the show that I’d like to introduce and pay credit to.

Each individual session has a “panel coordinator” who is in charge of selecting speakers and establishing the session format (who will talk for how long, on what topics and so on). The coordinators ensure that attendees get a session that is well orchestrated. Rather than speakers overlapping each other on topics (or being off-topic for the session), SMX panel coordinators ensure that everyone is set to deliver a complementary performance.

For SMX West 2008, our panel coordinators are:

• Jessica Bowman
• Chris Elwell
• Vanessa Fox
• Gord Hotchkiss
• Detlev Johnson
• Rob Kerry
• Misty Locke
• Chris Sherman
• Stephan Spencer
• Greg Sterling
• Danny Sullivan
• Jeffrey Rohrs
• Matt Van Wagner

In most cases, panel coordinators will also serve as moderator of the session that they put together. However, we have a few cases where a different person may serve as the session moderator, such as when a panel coordinator might assemble two sessions running at the same time.

Moderation is an important part of programming. Moderators are there to crack the whip if the speakers don’t stick to their times, plus they help elicit further responses to questions posed by the audience. Moderators themselves are also often great sources of knowledge and can help provide a further perspective on panels. Below are the SMX session moderators to date, in addition to the panel coordinators who are already also serving as moderators:

• Jessica Bowman
  
• Chris Elwell
• Vanessa Fox
• Gord Hotchkiss
  
• Detlev Johnson
• Rob Kerry
• Misty Locke
• Gillian Muessig
• Jeffrey Rohrs
  
• Chris Sherman
  
• Stephan Spencer
• Greg Sterling
  
• Danny Sullivan
  
• Dana Todd
• Matt Van Wagner

SMX also has a second type of moderator that we’re debuting at SMX West. This is the Q&A Moderator. SMX devotes a huge amount of time for Q&A and discussion, as we feel it’s an essential part of a successful and valuable session. However, just picking hands from the audience is a fairly random and unrepresentative way to decide on what to put to the panel.

Our solution is the Q&A Moderator. During most SMX sessions, attendees will be able to send questions to the Q&A Moderator. We’ll describe the exact process in the future — but it will be easy and accessible to everyone in the audience. The Q&A Moderator — who is an expert themselves on the session topic — will group similar questions together. Then they will assemble a top list that gets put to the audience to vote on. This way, the entire audience can influence which questions get asked. As the Q&A period progresses, new questions will be posted and voted on.
Here are our Q&A Moderators:

• Brent Csutoras
• Fionn Downhill
• Rob Kerry
• Anton Konikoff
• Cindy Krum
• John Marshall
• Mike McDonald
• Matt McGee
• Gillian Muessig
• Greg Sterling
  
• Danny Sullivan
  
• Dana Todd
• Matt Van Wagner

Wondering how you become a panel coordinator, session moderator or Q&A moderator? It’s pretty straight-forward. We work with our own staff from Search Engine Land along with others who have typically distinguished themselves by being outstanding speakers. To learn about speaking at SMX, see this page. Most sessions are now filled for SMX West, but other shows will have openings in the future. Remember, we always announce when new sessions openings are available here on the SMX Blog.

Finally, is there an SMX Advisory Board like some other conferences have? Absolutely — and it’s a pretty inclusive group of people. It’s you. It’s anyone that ever attends one of our shows. Whether you provide feedback to using our formal evaluation forms, send us email or just talk to us at the show, we take all that advice back to constantly reshape and improve our events going forward. So congrats! If you’ve been to one of our shows and provided some feedback, feel free to link to this post and name yourself as an advisory board member!

It’s probably no shock that the keynotes at Search Marketing Expo - SMX West in Santa Clara in February are going to be about the future of search marketing and technologies.

SearchEngineLand’s own Danny Sullivan will kick off SMX West with “Search 3.0, Search 4.0 and Beyond.” He’ll discuss the implications of blended search (Search 3.0), personalized and social search (Search 4.0), and what’s next for search and search marketing technologies.

SMX West attendees will also get some hints about new search technologies in the works at Cuill, a stealth search start-up with former Googlers as founders. Vice president of products Louis Monier will describe efforts at Cuill to set new standards in search, in addition to providing perspective on developments in the field. Monier is a search technology pioneer, having founded Alta Vista in 1995 and later leading teams at both eBay and Google.

“While there are many search start-ups, the veteran brainpower behind Cuill makes anyone take notice. Cuill’s been careful not to hype itself, to the degree few know much about it. SMX West attendees will be among the first to learn more about Cuill’s plans, plus hear Louis’s insights on search,” Sullivan said.

The day-three keynote will be “Generation Next: Search In The Coming Decade”, a panel discussion with luminaries from the major search engines predicting where they see search headed. This session will be moderated by SearchEngineLand’s Chris Sherman and SEMPO Chairperson Gord Hotchkiss.

Register Now, Save Some Money and Secure Your Place

SMX West takes place February 26-28, 2008 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in the heart of Silicon Valley, California. SMX West is programmed for search marketers of all skill levels; the event features more than 50 sessions conducted by search marketing community’s most well known experts and practitioners. Here’s a link to the full SMX West agenda.

Register for SMX West before prices increase and save $400 off the on-site rate.

Want to Learn More? Here are some earlier posts about SMX West:
- SMX West 2008 Agenda Up: 3 Days, More Than 50 Sessions!
- First Networking/Extracurricular Activities Announced For SMX West

SMX West links:
Home Agenda Register Network Guarantee Bonus Offers