SMX London – A Belated Homage

If SMX London was a residential property, a British Estate Agent would have described it thus:

“SMX London is a bijoux, four-roomed apartment, laid out over 3 floors. Packed with all the mod-cons a professional would desire, the kitchen needs a special mention for its capacity to create fine cuisine, rarely seen in properties of this ilk. Close to all the local amenities, direct access is provided to handymen from all disciplines from whom advice flows like fine wine.

The rooms have been decorated in various themes to suit your mood and professional persuasion, and the clear access between them is punctuated only by its own elevator, built in the style of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

The dynamic designer duo responsible for bringing this property to market, have assured us it is the perfect place to entertain friends both old and new so early viewings are recommended! Price on application…”

Given the success of the inaugural SMX in London, I’m sure the next one will be even better attended. Although much of the coverage has been about SEO, there was a whole track on Paid Search.

I counted 30 delegates in the What’s New With Search Advertising session in which I was speaking with Richard Firminger from Yahoo! Richard Gregory from Latitude and Alexis Sitaropoulos from Miva. Maybe it was because more people were interested in the organic tracks, maybe it was because Google didn’t trot along. If it was the latter I’ll have a chat with Mark Howe tomorrow, as I’m on another panel with him and Firminger at Mindshare.

The highlight for me, other than me having two other colleagues, Colm Bracken and Max Whiteford, speaking about ad copy and paid search tactics, was the What’s New With The Algorithm sesh.

Now ok…..so I knew all four guys up there pretty well – Kristjan, Dixon and Mikkel were on the now infamous Icelandic Jaunt last November, and I met DaveN at SEODays and nearly had him blown up by al Qaeda – but they didn’t have to mention Live Search and what Microsoft are doing in this space quite so much unless they thought we’d crossed over to the useful/viable side of Search Street.

Nathan Buggia leant across during the course of the talk and asked had we ever had quite so much airtime and I had to say no. I think we were taken a little by surprise, but maybe because we come so far and still feel we have a lot to do – but at least the seeds are germinating. The adCenter Community Team have done sterling work with the blog and being active on the forums and now with Paul Stoddart in the UK and Nathan in the US we’re trying to get in amongst the SEO community and show we’re innovating, listening and acting on their feedback.

I thought the whole event was a great success, the sessions our guys spoke at became nice little debates and discussions rather than: Present, Question, Answer – and it was great getting Gord Hotchkiss over – I could listen to him for hours!

We didn’t get over to the Case Study track and was wondering how that was attended and received? Some folks in the UK have recently said of SES and SMX that they’re “old boys clubs” and of little value any more. That’s a sentiment I feel is totally unfair, as they have introduced case studies and real world examples that are approachable and accessible for newcomers and green search marketers. It’s the key to keeping the balance between the more advanced types and helping people new to the channel have as much success as we have utilising it.

Looking forward to next year although I can’t see a date on the site!!!