I just came back from Search Engine Strategies Paris 2006 and my general appreciation comes down to one word: deceiving. The total number of registrations was close to two hundreds including the speakers and exhibitors. So there were not even a hundred people that were attending to actually learn something from the presentations. And I heard the first venue last year was not different.
These exceptionally low figures will definitely have a negative impact for the future of the only French version of SES. Less and less professionals will want to share their knowledge (mainly because there is not enough business opportunity and a very limited exposure) and exhibitors may find the ROI not sufficient enough. These facts will contribute to lower the general quality of the event and ultimately challenge it’s reason for being.
I still didn’t find any reasonable explanation on why Paris event is so unpopular. Some argued that French are not use to pay that much for that kind of event. Others said that French medium to large organizations are not aware of the impact SEM can have for their development… I personally find those arguments irrelevant. Last year Canada’s SES (Toronto) was a success. Now how can a country with a small population of 33 millions people can make a success out of the SES while a country of 60 millions people can’t? Of course, the proximity with the United States and the prominence of the English language may partially explain it. But still, there is no reason why the capitol of the francophonie (a population of nearly 175 millions of people) fails so bad to contribute to the French search marketing community…
So here is, from the top of my head, three tips on how to increase the popularity of this event.
1- Search marketers should contribute more in the diffusion of the benefits of this industry among French organizations.
2- SEM stars should try to attend less popular SES. In fact I think they could easily benefit from it, since the Search market in those countries is likely to be booming, and therefore present easy business opportunities.
3- Incisive media should take good care of publicizing the conference more efficiently, and not only among search marketers.
We have a whole year to help increase the success of the next SES Paris, so I’d like to hear your two cents on it…
