With approximately 5000 attendees, this conference has the tenor of technical user conferences, ala MacWorld, except these users are advertising and web business developers. The celebrity CEO speaker was Eric Schmidt from Google with a predictable script about current developments, including the latest AOL user data brouhaha. Google, of course, has "programs" in place to safeguard privacy, combat click fraud, and provide more relevant results. A show of hands from the audience indicated the strength of this faithful group--most were Adsense and/or Adwords buyers.

Typical of these conferences, the real value is found in the individual sessions, and talking with exhibitors. Some of the additional nuggets:

• Linkbuilding is a perennial topic for the SES agenda, from basics to advanced linking. The corporate blog and linking from respected non-profit organizations, i.e. by being sponsors, are new favorite strategies.
• Directory search is still a viable business model, with YellowPages.com and Local.com showing increasingly sophisticated local search capabilities. Geographic mashups are a particularly useful feature in this space.
• Video and video advertising are effective in engaging the user, and will be growing, both from the search engine standpoint and the advertiser standpoint.
• And yet another media standby, radio, is becoming part of the mix. RadioMaster.FM was quite visible, not only in their own booth, but in covering the events.

Over, I found this a very valuable conference for anyone doing serious business on the Web, with a very good blend of both technology and business aspects, with both training sessions and the latest developments. Old-timers in this area are those with more than five years experience, so expect lots more change ahead!