Search Engine Strategies NYC ’08 has come and gone this past week here in the Big Apple. And as usual SES has lived up to its reputation. A strong cross-section of industry leaders were present and participated fully in the discussions.
On Monday I was able to sneak out of the office early and catch the Web Analytics presentation. Besides the standard fare of the does and don’ts of how to analyze metrics effectively, I got the chance to hear Avinash Kaushik speak.
I was recently given his book to read by a colleague, and I always enjoy placing a physical voice to a literary one (though I’m not sure Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, counts as literary).

For me the Keynotes at these events tend to be the most entertaining and informative. This year was no exception, with an explosive panel tackling “Universal Search” and the outcome that may result from the eventual transition. I think that there is some further ground to be covered on this topic but I will save it for a future post.

Day 2 also gave us a presentation by author Nick Carr covering the topic of his latest book “The Big Switch, Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google”. Besides being an engaging speaker, Nick posed some interesting ideas to the crowd that day. Mr. Carr elaborated on the evolution of the computer from mainframe to PC and beyond. Mr. Carr did a great job of providing scale to the future of computing and the effects that cloud computing will have on individuals. Pretty cool stuff and again I think more great ideas for a later post by me.

Day 3 was highlighted with a Q&A of Jason Calacanis the CEO of Mahalo.com. Mr. Calacanis has a rather well known reputation for being (um, well, for being Jason Calacanis). With that being said I am know a big fan of the man. Although he may be a tough boss to work for, I liked his approach and demeanor. Maybe its because I will always be a just a guy from Jersey, but I was picking up what he was putting down. He also spoke of how he had learned of an individual stalking him, yet still provided the audience his email address. Whether he really reads that or not is irrelevant, I get the idea.

So all in all I benefited from the event. Besides reinforcing a lot of ideas I already had, it was an opportunity to enjoy the search community and reconnect with some old colleagues.