This post continues yesterday’s post, 44 Must-See Internet Marketing Conference Speakers, Part 1. The Q1 conference schedule gets underway in earnest shortly. Soon many of us will converge on SMX West San Jose, SEMpdx SearchFest Portland, OR and Search Engine Strategies New York other niche’ conferences which include Social Insider Summit, Key Biscayne, OMMA San Francisco and PubCon South.
The speakers we recommended yesterday and those today are among my personal favorites and should not be missed. We hope the aggregate list of 44 thought-leaders will be a useful guide when trying to decide what conferences to attend and which sessions should take priority. So, without further delay, here’s part two!
Heather Lloyd-Martin: Described as a fast-talking fiery redhead, Heather Lloyd-Martin is a 20-year marketing veteran, an author and considered one of the pioneers of SEO copywriting. She’s got a really cool way of reducing complex concepts to common denominators that marketers of all levels understand. I always try to catch her sessions when possible.
Jill Whalen: Jill Whalen is a pioneer in search engine optimization, beginning in the field in the early 1990s and founding High Rankings in 1995. I love her true-to-craft values and feisty disdain for SEO smoke and mirrors.
Joanna Lord: Now Director of Customer Acquisition & Engagement at SEOmoz, I’ve been enjoying Joanna’s speaking gigs for years. She’s a classic PPC marketer, with street sense that translates to social. Sit still and focus when she’s speaking, or you’ll miss some nugget… Joanna’s always current and super-edgy in in her energetic thinking.
Jordan Kasteler: Jordan’s SVP of Content Development / Managing Partner at BlueGlass Interactive. He looks like a kid but he’ll kick your ass in anything search or social. Jordan’s presentations are always crisp and speak to cutting-edge current thinking. His social media analytics KPI presentation at SES SFO last year rocked the house and I’ve quoted him several times in the book I’m writing. Jordan’s one of my top 5 favorite speakers in the world. Check him out if you get the chance.
John Andrews: John considers himself a “Competitive Webmaster and Search Engine Optimization Consultant.”  Hailing from Seattle, Washington, he’s one of the smartest guys in the industry. I’ve known him since SEMpdx 2008, when we met at a pre-conference speaker’s mixer. John calls ‘en like he sees em’, which is sometimes not pretty for ersatz thought-leaders he’s reviewing. If you want to hang intellectually with the very best SEO has to offer, here’s your dude. See him speak anytime the opportunity presents itself.
Kim Krause Berg: Kim is Search Engine Marketing and Usability Manager at LiBeck Integrated Marketing, Founder/Administrator at Cre8asiteforums, Owner/Usability Consultant at Cre8pc. Wow that’s a lot of titles… and Kim is all of them. She’s old school in beautiful ways that speak to timeless values of keeping the user experience in mind when building and optimizing sites. I love her approach and highly recommend her speaking gigs. If you see her name on an agenda, choose that session.
Lee Odden: A fellow Minnesotan, Lee Odden was rocking content marketing way before content marketing was cool. TopRank was a very important blog to me in forming AIMCLEAR, and I love the way he uses feeds to market his agency. Super nice, approachable, and authentic, you can just tell there’s a highly competitive spirit not far below the surface. Check out his sessions for big time insight into WordPress SEO, online blog powered media rooms, digital assets, B2B social media and moving SEO battleships in bathtubs. Personally, I’ve learned to teach SEOs to fish, without giving away the fish bucket, from Lee Odden.
Lianna Evans: Li’s become one of my favorite social media practitioners on the international conference circuit. Â Author of a social media marketing book entitled Social Media Marketing: Engaging Strategies for Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media, her presentations are like sweet social media candy. Watch her speak and pay attention to her concepts of authenticity in social media.
Lisa Buyer: Lisa’s a PR-social media expert-industry speaker with 15+ years experience in good ink, positive search results and online branding. Her approach to community management and PR is as refreshing as her engaging speaking style. Lisa is the “new social PR,” an early adopter who’s grown to be a true thought-leader. If you’re attending a conference with her name on the agenda, don’t miss her speak.
Matt McGee: Matt is Search Engine Land’s Assignment Editor and his passion for journalism runs deep. Proprietor of the SEMMY Awards, Matt’s very knowledgeable about image optimization and the small business online marketing space. In the early days of AIMCLEAR, he and I butted heads about what he perceived to be my hyperbolic approach to social news. In retrospect, he turned out to be right. Matt’s an accomplished and enjoyable speaker you should not miss.
Matt Van Wagner: An award-winning PPC speaker whose presentations are usually as entertaining as they are informative, Matt is the president and founder of Find Me Faster, a paid search engine marketing agency in Nashua, NH. You can’t fool this guy because he knows what’s real. Sessions he speaks on and/or moderates are sure to be worth the price of admission.
Michael Dorausch: Michael is President and Founder of Planet Chiropractic and a guy who walks the walk. He regularly speaks about topics ranging from Yelp to domaining. His Chiropractic practice has been mentioned in USA Today as an example of the correct way for professional service providers to incent clients to use online reviews. Michael is a laid back Venice Beach rock star. His speaking gigs are always hot.
Michael Gray: Michael is almost as fun to watch sitting in the front row of the audience as it is to see him speak. Either way, he may well be yelling at some unfortunate search engine representative, making it clear that he speaks for all of us in wanting more information and transparency from the engines. AKA GrayWolf is a marketer’s search marketer. You’ll enjoy the end-to-end nature of his presentation, from idea through optimization and on to monetization. Graywolf is a speaker you shouldn’t miss.
Michael Streko: What can I say? @streko is one of my heroes. He doesn’t speak much but every time is freakin’ classic. When I met him his blog was called, “I hate Your F_cking SEO.” Now he’s built one of the coolest reputation protection services in the world, KnowEm, and can’t swear in public anymore. To underestimate this guy would be a mistake, because boy-wonder is a freaky genius. He’s the second of my two muses and should not be missed at a conference under any circumstances. As a side note, we go fishing in the Boundary Waters every year, and he always kicks my ass.
Mike Blumenthal: When Mike writes about Google’s Local SEO screw-ups, Google tends to fix the problem ASAP. If Google listens to him then obviously you should too. Mike speaks at lots of regional conferences, in addition to mainstream offerings. He’s one of my favorites and an AIMCLEAR local SEO go-to guy.
Mike Grehan: Mike is VP, global content director, with Incisive Media, publisher of Search Engine Watch and ClickZ and producer of the SES international conference series. He’s earned stripes working with global clients like SAP and Motorola, and a fabulously colorful speaker who knows the inside dirt. If he’s presenting, you should check out the session.
Rand Fishkin: Rand owns arguably the most prominent brand in all of SEO. Though his company SEOmoz is out of the consulting business, they’ve built an impressive suite of SEO tools. Rand invented the systematic analysis of the Internet’s link graph, a crucial Google and Bing ranking factor. When I was forming AIMCLEAR, his writing about SEO business models was inspiring to me. He’s one of the most famous speakers in the world now. Run, don’t walk to see him present.
Sara Holoubek: Sara has been widely quoted in publications such as The Washington Post, WSJ.com, Adweek, DMNews, ClickZ, Internet Retailer, Strategies (France) and PropMark (Brazil). She’s a foundational SEMPO officer and a big time entrepreneurial wheel. One thing I love about the online marketing industry is the abundance of powerful woman. Sara represents that to me and I catch her speak whenever I can. I highly recommend her presentations.
Simon Heseltine: Simon is Principal SEO Manager, News & Information at AOL. His presentations about SEO come from a place of accomplishment out there in the big world. He’s got a way of reframing complex concepts in approachable language and, for that reason, has become a staple on the mainstream conference circuit. Check him out if he’s on the agenda.
Stephan Spencer: Founder of Netconcepts Ltd is another freaky genius and one of my favorite speakers of all time. His areas of expertise range from extremely technical SEO mechanics to crafty gray hat social media tactics. Now that he’s sold his company, Stephan is off living in New Zealand. However he returns sometimes to speak at online marketing conferences. You should not miss him if you get a rare opportunity to do so.
Tamar Weinberg: Tamar Weinberg is a freelance writer and author of The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web (O’Reilly, July 2009). Her social media ethics are among the most evolved and respected in the industry. Over the years she’s challenged me personally, inspiring me to rise to a level of respect for the communities in which we market. Links from her blog (techipedia) are amongst the most coveted in the industry. Attend her speaking appearances and listen carefully.
Tim Ash: President and CEO of SiteTuners, Tim is author of Amazon.com e-Commerce bestseller Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide To Testing and Tuning for Conversion (John Wiley Press 2008). He’s risen to become a keynote speaker with good reason. Tim’s a wonderful guy and an super speaker. Choose to attend his session if you see one on the docket.
And last but certainly not least… what’s the point in missing meals & losing sleep as a conference journalist if you don’t get to toss some speaker recommendations out there? Thusly:Â Bonus Picks from the AIMCLEAR crew…
Alex Cohen: Senior Marketing Manager at ClickEquations, Alex is as genuine a gent as they come. I first met him at a 2009 Schmoozefest and immediately knew I was in the company of one whip-smart dude. His presentations on paid search are always super organized, air-tight, and completely blow-away. Do yourself a favor, check out sessions when his name’s on the agenda. -Lauren (@beebow)
Bill Leake: Bill, founder & CEO of Apogee, is a familiar face on the conference circuit. He speaks to something a lot of search marketers don’t… and shares some really insidious, cool tactics… like that one about not deleting negative comments on whatever property you control, leaving in grammatical and spelling errors, but fixing spelling errors and grammar errors on positive comments. -Matt (@matt_peterson)
Hollis Thomases: Founder of WebAdvantage.net, Hollis is known for practicing the same down-to-earth Twitter tactics she preaches at mainstream conferences. Every presentation of hers I’ve seen since has been consistently packed with top notch tweet tips for both organic and holistically automated engagement. Author of Twitter Markeitng: An Hour A Day, she’s a social-savvy powerhouse I’m proud to call a friend. Don’t miss the chance to see her speak, & for sure say hi afterwards. -Lauren (yes, again)
Samuel Crocker: Formerly with UK-based web agency Distilled, Sam is now SEO Associate Director at OMD UK. I saw this keyword research ninja present in London last year, and he was easily one of my favorites. He’s always got his finger on the pulse of the best tools and isn’t shy about sharing. –Merry (yes, again)
This concludes our two-part series, 44 Must-See Internet Marketing Conference Speakers. As for me I’ll be speaking Q1 at several mainstream conferences, along with other AIMCLEAR team members. Stay tuned to AIMCLEAR Blog for details.
