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I was holding my opinion these last few days because I was hoping that Search Engine Strategies in San Jose would take a turn for the better.  With attendance up over previous years, and more tracks being added to the mix, organizers seem to have dropped the ball in terms of content and sophistication.  Many visitors I’ve talked to at the show have agreed with me, the sessions are becoming less and less relevant, less and less valuable to attendees, and seems to have lost the advanced tactical focus we’ve all come to enjoy in previous years.

What happened?

I’m not sure what happened to be honest, because in past shows there was a good mix of introductory and advanced tactics and presenters.  Visitors had a definite stream they knew they could trust.  Newbies stuck to the introductory streams, which still do a great job of explaning the basics, and experts were available in highly specialized tracks that delved deeply into some crazy topics.  San Jose 2008 seems to be a reversion into higher-level sessions across the board.

There are so many presenters per session, and so many sessions per timeslot that each topic seems to be watered down.

The Solution? (The Good)

I make it a point to talk to each and every presenter I think should reshape the show.  Who are the winners and show favorites that I often can’t miss?  Those guys that know their stuff, go into detail, and really make it a point to own their topics, add value, and drive participation.  All of the following presenters are solid gold:

• Tim Ash, SiteTuners.com, Author of Landing Page Optimization
• Sage Lewis, SageRock.com
• David Szetela, fellow blogger and SEM at Clix Marketing (see blogroll)
• Lee Odden, Top Rank (see blogroll)
• Daron Babin, Webmasterradio.fm
• John Marshall, Market Motive
• Jill Whalen, High Rankings

The aforementioned presenters are all fantastic, and their rank in my list by no means indicates the quality of their sessions.  (Otherwise I would’ve used an ordered list.)  Anyways, the point is, more presenters like these guys, or dedicated sessions featuring these speakers would be far more effective.

The Embarassing (The Bad)

I don’t want to name names, but those presenters that do the following really piss attendees off:

• Wing it.  You might be an expert, but if you don’t have a presentation that’s in logical order, or using relevant content, you’re likely to lose the audience.
• Spelling mistakes.  You gotta be kidding me, right?  Spelling mistakes, in my mind, tell me that you just don’t care about the presentation, and were too lazy to proofread.  See that outside?  It’s your credibility that flew out the window!
• Improper cliche.  Almost as bad as spelling mistakes, cliches are the easy way out, they are typically filler content used to summarize or generalize content.  Screwing up a cliche is just downright sad, that’s what wikipedia, urban dictionary, or even just Google searches in general are for.  If the cliche you use is relatively uncommon in Google, or if Google suggests something else, you probably screwed up.
• Bad advice.  Experts, by definition, should share expertise.

It’s not like a major conference like Search Engine Strategies is free, attendees have to pay to be here.  Presenters aren’t necessarily paid to appear at SES, but they certainly do get a rub from the show in terms of authority, notoriety, and even direct-response lead generation.  The sad part of it is, no matter how bad a presenter is, there are likely to be a majority of attendees that don’t know the difference.

The Consensus

I’ve talked to numerous attendees over the past few days.  Aside from newbies at the show, the majority of the second and third-time SES’ers have exclaimed their frustration in the sessions.  Despite how badly some of the sessions are, there are still quite a number of sessions that are virtually golden, as discussed.  But the greatest value for all attendees to the conference and expo seems to be the sheer amount of networking opportunities.  Social aspects at a show like this are certainly golden, so to make the most of out SES in future shows, talk to everyone you can and make sure to fill out presenter evaluation forms.

Danny Sullivan might be onto something…