Today marks Day One of the newly merged ClickZ Live conference series in – you guessed it – New York City! When Incisive Media announced Search Engine Strategies (SES) and ClickZ would be merging to “create a new brand of conference for rapidly evolving digital marketers,” we were psyched to see what was in store for us.
We’ve been attending SES conferences since 2006 and we’ve watched as the conference series rose to meet marketers’ demands for information about Google algorithm updates, search and social PPC tips, deep SEO tactics, and so much more.
Mike Grehan, Group Publishing Director of the Interactive Marketing division at Incisive Media, sums it up best: “Search Engine Strategies was launched in 1999. It was the first time that search engine optimizers attended an event at the same time as representatives from the search engines.” In a now iconic  “Meet the Search Engines” session, representatives from Alta Vista, Excite, Infoseek, Inktomi, Yahoo!, and a little startup we know today as Google sent a few representatives by the name of Larry Page and Sergey Brin to SES. 🙂
Obviously, only two of the six search engines remain. Grehan points out there was also a session on “Doorway Pages & Cloaking” which received absolutely no negative feedback from the search engine reps. Back then, Google didn’t have guidelines (and didn’t believe they could be spammed in the first place!).
If that’s not enough to show you how much the industry, and for that matter, SES conferences, has changed over the years, would you believe us if we told you the number one topic of conversation that year was meta tags?
Over the years, SES conferences have boasted some really huge names like Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt of Google, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, and more. By 2007, the conference had affectionately become known by its abbreviated name “SES” throughout the industry, and was attracting anywhere from five to six thousand attendees at the New York and San Jose shows. Then in 2010, the conference was officially rebranded to “SES Conference & Expo.” “Search Engine Strategies” was no more. As the industry metamorphoses and the time once again presents itself for the conference to meet the newest industry demand, “SES Conference & Expo” has officially been renamed “ClickZ Live” to reflect the content published at it’s sister brand, ClickZ. ClickZ Live aims to be “an in-person gathering of digital marketing experts sharing their knowledge and experience,” says Grehan.
And that’s how ClickZ Live came to be what it is today. We’re honored to play a role in the first official ClickZ Live conference as Marty Weintraub, AIMCLEAR Founder & Evangelist, is set to take the stage on:
Wednesday, April 2 at 10:30 – 11:30 AM EST
Attend this session, Paid/Organic Social Psychographic Content Distribution! Conversion, Social Signals & Community Building and learn why just as SEO practitioners MUST buy search PPC ads in order to be successful, social marketers MUST purchase paid-organic content amplification ads. Â This is truly the next frontier. A year from now, marketers far and wide will be using these techniques if they don’t want to get left in the dust. Facebook’s audacious announcement that organic distribution has diminished means marketers have to buy social ads if they want their content to actually be seen. Twitter and LinkedIn? Yeah, they’re already following suit. Walk away from this session knowing how to:
- Gain optimal marketing benefits through organic, semi-organic and paid-organic social amplification in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+
- Conquer editorial calendars for systematic content amplification to boost traffic, sales, content and SEO KPIs
- See Facebook as an analogy for marketing success in other social channels
- Create totally revolutionary new targeting hacks
After you dive into Marty’s session, find Mike Marshall, AIMCLEAR Account Manager, as he strolls the conference halls interviewing speakers about the most radical new changes in online marketing, their areas of expertise, what tools they can’t live without, and so much more.
Catch up with AIMCLEAR friends Michelle Stinson-Ross, Community Manager at Offers.com and Cindy Krum, Founder & CEO at MobileMoxie by checking out their sessions. Both ladies will be visiting lovely Duluth, MN on May 22 for the third annual Zenith Social Media Marketing Conference. We’ll be sharing interviews straight from the show floor this week with a range of speakers, so check back here for updated coverage.
On Day 1 of ClickZ Live New York, Michelle will share how to define and explore search and social metrics and strategies to meet business objectives and provide accurate attribution during her session, Game, Set, ROI: Developing a Winning Search and Social Strategy at 3:30 PM EST.
Cindy Krum’s can’t-miss session on Day 3, Responsive Design, Dynamic Serving, m-dot: Which Mobile Approach is Right for You? is essential for marketers wondering if they should really follow Google’s mobile guidelines and checklists. Attend Cindy’s session and learn about the caveats Google doesn’t mention and walk away with actionable alternatives to make the best business decisions for your brand.
If you see Mike or Marty at ClickZ Live this week, go ahead and say hello! We’re pumped for a week of talking industry news with our friends, colleagues, and new faces. Stay tuned as we share video interviews right here on AIMCLEAR blog.
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