The SES Chicago went off without a hitch. Despite its unfortunate (and hopefully unintentional) head-to-head scheduling against Webmaster World/PubCon in Las Vegas, the show had about the same attendance as last year. I like Chicago for its more intimate atmosphere anyway, so this was just fine with me.
Kevin Ryan did an excellent job for his first solo outing as conference organizer and chair. He has changed up the format of the panels somewhat and brought in a diverse set of keynote speakers.
Seth Godin’s keynote about key concepts from his new Meatball Sundae book was exceptional. I finally got to meet one of my business heroes face-to-face (Seth had previously been kind enough to write a blurb for the back cover of my new Landing Page Optimization Book).
I was lucky enough to run a solo session entitled Landing Page Testing Overview, and got a really enthusiastic response. The standing-room-only crowd rated my presentation at 4.37 out of 5.
The Google Website Optimizer crew was out in force. This A-B split testing and multivariate testing tool is available for free in your Google AdWords account. As a charter Google Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant we are always pushing to make it even better. Google’s Jon Stona and I took a few moments to catch up at their booth.
Chicago’s Hilton is a very classy venue – which is a good thing because setting foot outside of the hotel is a very cold business. But its hard to beat the beautiful winter snowstorm that came through that week. I got outside to snap some nice pictures.
I did venture forth with Stewart Quealy, Matt McGowan and some of the other SES staff to grab some sushi nearby.
Widemile President Bob Bergquist also introduced me to some of the best ribs in town – they were so tasty that I downed a double portion.
I also led a half-day workshop during Friday’s training day entitled Landing Page Testing Hands On: Developing Your Action Plan and then headed back to sunny San Diego.
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