Speakers included Matt Cutts (Google Engineer), Rich LeFurgy (Partner, Archer Advisors), Kirsten Mangers (Co-Founder & CEO, WebVisible), Robert Scoble (Managing Director, FastCompany.TV), Danny Sullivan (Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land), and Tim Westergren (Founder, Pandora).

Conference Chair and moderator, Kevin Ryan, framed up the introduction to the panel by using numerous pop culture video snippets to emphasize the impact of Google, social media, and the overall internet on everyday lives. Some of the funnier snippets included quotes from South Park and Californication.

Moderators Kevin Ryan and Mike Grehan engaged the panel speakers on topics as diverse as whether it was reasonable to consider the possibilities of a “Google Killer” in the near-term, and what were the trends to watch for in search and internet/mobile app development.

One particular topic of interest to me that panelists highlighted was local search and how mobile still hasn’t “arrived”. Danny Sullivan noted that each year for a few in a row now, Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, has stated that “THIS will be the year mobile arrives…” (my emphasis), but mobile still hasn’t really arrived.

Also, Robert Scoble joked about how he loved his iPhone, but “it doesn’t do everything well”, so he carries two other phones — and will likely start carrying a fourth when Google’s Android phone comes out. A number of panelists commented about how entertainingly compelling the iPhone Urbanspoon application is — it certainly has some coolness, but I wonder how widely it’s adopted? Kirsten Mangers commented about how it ranks restaurants and whether it gives users what they’re really wanting.

The commentary on the Urbanspoon has been recurring from a number of top internet commentators, so it’s definitely one hot app to watch.

Matt Cutts and Robert Scoble show each other their iPhones

Search Engine Strategies Conference

This promises to be a great session, and I have some cool tips to impart on how to effectively communicate with one’s technology department staff in order to break down barriers, cut through red tape, and get changes deployed to bang up site traffic.

I happen to know what I’m talking about! Not only was I formerly an in-house SEO, but I was also the head of the technology department at my former company. You might think that heading up tech dev might’ve made it easy for me to get what I needed done, but I still had to employee multiple interpersonal skills in dealing with other parallel technical departments, and in communicating effectively with developers within my own team.

Now that I’m an external consultant, I’ve had to work with IT staff within dozens of other companies as well, so I have a very broad experience in dealing with many styles of technical teams.

I guarantee that this session will be well worth attending, because I’ve got a number of tips that will empower search marketers to get all they need out of their technical teams!

SES San Jose is well worthwhile, if you’ve never attended one. All search marketers should attend one! Typically, the SES conferences held in New York and San Jose are the two best-attended of the conference series, with many thousands in attendance. San Jose is particularly great because it’s smack in Silicon Valley, so it often has many more representatives from each of the various search engines in attendance.

And, who can miss the famous Googledance?!?

Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing and multiple other books will be one of the keynote speakers at the conference, which is way cool — probably well worth hearing.

I’m travelling back and forth in the next few weeks, so I may only be present at the conference the same day as when I’m speaking. If you’re interested in speaking with me that day, hang around after the panel session or drop me a note in advance.