Search engine conferences spring 2002

(Feb 4 2002, updated Feb 7) You can learn a lot by surfing the Net, reading the news and taking part in online discussions.

Still, on a search engine conference you may discuss the nitty gritty of searching and marketing with people who are just as enthusiastic about search engines as you are; you will get valuable contacts, the latest buzz, and the search engine representatives will tell you all the amazing secrets they never print in their news releases.

Here are some of the search engine conferences you may visit this spring:

The Internet Marketing Bar Conference, Irvine, California

The 1st Internet Marketing Bar Conference will take place at the Crazy Horse in Irvine, California, on Saturday, the 23rd of February 2002. Unlike most conferences, this one skips all the seminars and goes right to most important part of any convention: the socializing in the bar.

Pandia took part in the first Marketing Pub conference in London last year, and had a great time. We certainly look forward to this one! The main focus is search engine optimization and marketing, and a lot of search engine experts and representatives have announced their participation.

In order to keep track of the number of participants the arrangement committee will ask for a small registration fee (US$ 40). The entire fee will go to underwrite the event costs including the facilities, and the 'beverage' tab. In order to sign up, you must be a member of the Webmaster World forum, which is free.

Among the sponsors are FAST/alltheweb, TopDog, Overture, Adwords and Inktomi. At the moment there are participants from eight nations and 21 States in the US.

For more information, go to the Irvine Internet Marketing Bar Conference home page. You may also read Pandia's report from the July London Pub Conference.
See also Andrew Gerhart's SEO today article on the conference.

Search Engine Strategies 2002, Boston and London

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch regularly arranges conferences on search engines and search engine marketing on both sides of the Atlantic. Search Engine Strategies 2002 features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related promotion. You'll learn how search engines interact with your Web site and ways to improve your listings.

The first one this year will take place in Boston on March 4 to 5 2002. Among the topics covered are paid inclusion, success measurement, search engine friendly design and link building. There are speakers from About, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves/Teoma, FindWhat, FAST/AllTheWeb.com, Google, Inktomi and Netscape/The Open Directory.

On April 23 and 24 there will be a new conference in the Covent Garden Exhibition Centre in London, covering many of the same topics.

Websearch University, San Francisco

While the conferences above focus on search engine optimization and marketing, the next is devoted to searching.

The WebSearch University on March 25-26 in San Francisco gathers many of the World's top searchers for courses in online information retrieval.

The curriculum includes these courses and faculty:

• Mary Ellen Bates: Making Searching Choices: Fee or Free
• Greg Notess: Power Web Searching & Getting Under the Hood
• Ran Hock: Alternative Web Finding Tools
• Chris Sherman: Strategies for Searching the Invisible Web
• Gary Price: Price's Pearls (The Secrets of Successful Web Searching)
• Amelia Kassel: Business Research Tactics & Sources
• Mark Goldstein: Market Research Toolset
• Pandia award winner Alan Schlein: News Resources & Strategies

The Websearch University home page has more on this and other conferences.

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