I guess it’s about time for me to write my own account of the recent Search Engine Marketing Conference (SEMCon) 2007 held at Hotel Intercon here in Makati, Philippines. Before anything else, would like to thank Mr. Tracy Childers whom I also call Master Jedi for sponsoring me. Master Jedi, I owe you!
So what happened?
Well oh well, I came on time with Benj Arriola who is also one of the speakers (and his part was really great) though a lot more came way earlier. However, I was still able to hear Mr. Aaron Wall make his keynote speech only to be quite disappointed at how short and general his talk was. I was honestly expecting him to share some new knowledge on how to do things right when it comes to search engine marketing but all he basically did was tell us stuff that can already be read either in his book or on his blog. Anyway, life goes on…
On the other hand, I did learn quite a bit from a few of the many speakers namely:
- Benj Arriola – SEO for Megasites
- Jayvee Fernandez – Effective Web Copywriting
- Elymar Apao – Link Building Tactics, Tools & Techniques
- Rhiz Sanchez – Advanced Link Building Strategies
- Hans Koch – Pitfalls of Pay-per-Click
- Marc Macalua – Innovative Landing Page Optimization
- Abe Olandres – How to Manage your Online Reputation
The other speakers also did pretty well too. The ones listed above are those with whom I really learned at least one thing that I didn’t know yet. Too bad I wasn’t able to hear much on Michael Turner and Todd Malicoat’s topics as I was invited by Aileen Apolo to join a meeting (among others) with Derek Callow, Google’s Regional Marketing Director for South East Asia. We discussed mainly how to push Google’s services in the country and all I can say is that it went great. Perhaps, it would be safe to say that SEO and SEM will soon be a common service for local establishments to acquire.
What about the food? It was great but even greater were the chit-chat I had with whoever’s on the table with me.
What did I learn? A lot but here’s a tip for you guys. The best lessons are taught not when the speakers speak on stage but when they speak to you personally. In my case, I found possibly better ways to get backlinks from authority sites, get a position in digg, effective PPC and more.
Who did I meet? Aside from the usual, I was able to meet gUrLaLiEn, fire_lady and pektho – people I know from the SEO Philippines Forum.
At the end of the conference, I went out to dinner with old friends Jason, Abel, Zaldy, and Jenny. After dinner, Benj and Hans joined us over coffee and had a nice night discussing stuff like “how to get banned from adsense” and other hilarious experiences. Geez, I thought I had the worst adsense experience until Hans gave his account of his own adsense tragedy.
All in all, I would say that the conference was worth the Php8,500 though I think it would be better if they made it cheaper. Looking forward to a second conference soon – perhaps this time with Greg Boser.
Did I hear you say photos??? Well I didn’t take any but others did – namely Rhiz, Jenny, Benj and Jason so might as well check out their blogs. Cheers!
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