Search Marketing Expo hits london! I was fortunate enough to get to attend the second SMX in London this week, along with the usual quality sessions and speakers. A cold and miserable London backdrop was insufficient to hamper the enthusiasm or buzz of the delegates who had come from right across Europe - from the Baltics to the Black Sea, Paris to Penzance - to attend a variety of well thought-out informational and interactive sessions carefully designed for the whole spectrum of the search marketing industry… and with something for everyone: industry professional or company owner, corporate site or SME.

With an excellent level of support from Microsoft Paid and Editorial departments - including Nathan Buggia and Tor Crockatt, plus European and U.S. Search Professionals, the conference was highly anticipated by all. With three tracks running simultaneously this year for all slots, it indicated just how much demand there is by information-hungry companies and search professionals. Chris Sherman, beautifully assisted by the lovely Vanessa Fox, guided the event smoothly from the kick-off session with Microsoft discussing its new offerings through to Web Site panel conclusion.

Much of SMX London 2008 is covered on numerous blogs, including the ProperoOnline Marketing Blog. For me, I particularly enjoyed the link building sessions with the eloquent Brian Turner, the dynamic Dixon Jones and the very smart & amusing Matt Paines and the various International / European SEO sessions with Andy Atkins-Kruger, the lovely Lisa D, Duncan Morris et al.

With many opportunities to meet people and network, great organisation, truly superb sessions and a sound central London location, the SMX really hit it on the nail with this one. Looking forward to the next SMX in Europe, in Munich, April 2009.

A new study by Burst Media has shown that the female population of the UK are particularly active on the Internet to the extent that 66% would be lost without access to the technology for a whole week. For Women in Britain, the internet has become an integral part of daily life and the thought of not having online access would be as devastating as any of us would feel about going out without a mobile phone.

The Burst Media study of 25+ year olds finds that over a half of women say that the World Wide Web is their main source of information when conducting research into items that they might purchase. This, naturally, has a massive impact for anyone who has females as their target customers: from car manufacturers to clothing, from technology to toys, lingere to leather sofas.

Internet useage, identified by the study, indicates that the about 70% of women are online for personal use from 7pm to midnight and about 50% online from 4-7pm shopping, browsing, researching with over 55% of females not online before 7am. During most parts of the day, over 80% people are online at any one time. These are great statistics for anyone targetting lady customers using PPC as it informs the ad scheduling that they might like to engage in.

I was delighted to attend the pricegrabber birthday party at the penthouse at One Leicester Square. A fabulous venue (and scene of the MTV Show, One Leicester square, we were delighted to go up to the top floor at this very cool location to join the guys of Pricegrabber.

Upon arriving on the top of the world, we were warmly greated by Pricegrabber PR Guru, Michele, and PRBite who had helped put the bash together before a great waiter with something that included blueberry and vodka came directly over to help us to unwind after a long day in the smoke!
It was fantastic to see our host, the gorgeous Ben Hadley, and catch up with him this side of the Atlantic and to meet Paul, Jeff, Warren and Sean from DMG Media, amongst others.

Guests included the lovely Annabel Carmel, recently returned from high profile interviews in the states, product owners, online stores and various publications.

Pricegrabber really looked after us with great cocktails and excellent canapes before the CEO thanked clients for their support over the previous year and looked towards the future synergism of Pricegrabber with its customers and to a future laden with mutual benefits and profit! The DJ then let the music hit the decks and the party rocked on…

The UK is rife with SEO, blogging events and social media conferences at the moment - must be the season for it! From the LondonSEO… um… ‘get together’, which I missed due to client engagements to more formal evenings with Google and Saatchi & Saatchi to the official business events. I am very much looking forward to the Blogging and Social Media Forum on 5th June in London at the Grosvenor Square Hotel - and a big thank you goes to the gorgeous Matt and the team from Incisive & Reality PRwho have been promoting it!

I am covering Impact of Social Media and Enterprise 2.0 conference and am very much looking forward to attending the day and, of course, meeting up with the esteemed UK SEO and Blogging community. Highlights of the event include how to manage your corporate brand through blogging, developing a social media strategy and a speed networking session where you get to chat for 3 minutes!
Watch this space….