The Search Engine Strategies conference first took place on November 18, 1999 in San Francisco, California. Danny Sullivan told me “To my knowledge, it was the first search engine conference of this type.” The first show attracted about 250 attendees and 9 exhibitors. The whole seminar took place over one day between 8am and 6pm. Some of the past speakers are still present today, including Danny Sullivan, Shari Thurow, and Dana Todd. Mr Sullivan said that this event was “great because I [Danny Sullivan] felt both ‘sides’ saw each other much less as enemies but instead as real people.” Danny went on to explain that at this time, except for Overture, there was no one really in the paid listings market. Now, both the organic and paid people were in one room together and communicated face to face. (Check out the first SES agenda at http://www.jupiterevents.com/sew/sf99/sew-agenda.html.) The following year JupiterMedia hosted 4 SES events, in New York, London, San Francisco and Dallas. The shows drew between 300 and 600 attendees each. New York and San Francisco were the larger events. (You can see the SES 2000 archives at http://www.jupiterevents.com/seminar-archive2000.html.)
The 2001 season for the SES conferences was a little different. They moved the New York show to Boston and added Denmark to the list of locations. The shows attracted between 300 and 700 attendees, and exhibitors ranged from 5 to 25, depending on the location. (For the 2001 archives visit http://www.jupiterevents.com/seminar-archive2001.html.) In 2002 SES added more shows, making the total number of shows 7 for that year. They added Australia and Singapore to the current list of places to hold the event. Denmark moved to Germany and San Francisco moved to San Jose, California. They had over 30 exhibitors at Boston and San Jose and close to 900 attendees. (Check the 2002 season out at http://www.jupiterevents.com/seminar-archive.html.)
In 2003, the group ran 6 shows and moved Dallas to Chicago – the conference this article will cover. The Boston show was the first to ever break 1,000 attendees, and in San Jose, they have over 1,500 attendees with over 45 exhibitors. In 2004 they will be moving the Boston show back to New York, and they are expecting to break the 2,000-attendee barrier. Danny Sullivan told me “In the US, we're also now at a four day, three or four-track format.” He continued by saying that “there's that much content to cover.” As you can imagine, this short but exciting history has been filled with success and opportunity for all involved.
The Chicago 2003 conference was held at the McCormick Place Convention Center. It is a very nice hotel and conference center. The Hyatt McCormick Place Hotel was very well equipped for technical people, with high-speed Internet connection in each room and wireless access in the restaurant. The wireless did not work on my Apple Powerbook, but I think it was due to the Web site where you pay for access, not the actual network itself. Many people complained about the “hike” from the hotel to the convention center, but I did not find it to be bad at all. The walk was about five minutes and was all indoors, with a nice indoor bridge. The first day I had to walk back and forth several times to see if my room was available. Needless to say, the Hyatt was sold out the first night. Why Chicago was selected as the location for a December conference, I do not know. It was cold, rainy, and windy during my stay, but I rarely left the hotel. Overall, I was satisfied with both the hotel and the convention center.
Frank Fazio from JupiterMedia reported to me at the conference that 1,200 people have signed up for the conference. 900 of those were conference attendees, meaning JupiterMedia received payment to go to the conference sessions, and 300 were exhibitor only attendees. The numbers exceeded the projections; and all those from JupiterMedia were extremely delighted.
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