SES New York Party Schedule
I received an e-mail about a week ago informing me of an ‘official’ thread at Search Engine Watch with details regarding the SES-related parties. It was remarkably helpful and welcoming for the average attendee—the hospitality and warmth of the post is so overwhelming I decided I’d provide a summary here:
Monday:
- Private Party – Early bird VIP party.
Tuesday:
- Private Party – The name says it all.
- Private Party – Very Important People only. You can’t come.
- Private Party – Highly exclusive.
Wednesday:
- Private Party – Awesome.
- Private Party – Word has it this one is off the hook.
Thursday:
- Private Party – Don’t even try to get in.
- Private Party – Only the three (3) coolest people at SES granted entrance.
- Private Party – I’m having dinner with some friends and you can’t come
Seriously—what is the point of posting a public, not to mention “official,” list of private parties? I don’t want to pass judgment too early, but I’ve got to say this list of SEO after-parties is comically reminiscent of the PubCon scene.
If a party is private, why post it on a widely read and publicized list? The only motivation I can see for posting such a list is let others know there are parties they aren’t invited to. And that other, more ‘important’ people will be welcomed. Some people were cool enough to get an invite, and you weren’t—“you’re an SEO Loser! I’m a search engine optimization rock star…”
After all, if it’s a private party, I think it’s safe to assume the guys on the VIP list already know about it.
Because this list is so ridiculous, I’ll try to keep an up-to-date version here consisting only of parties that are actually open to all attendees.
So I’ll see you at the dive bar across the street (I hear they have karaoke!)
Yup, seeya there. Did you say karaoke?
spot on mate, well done and the truth too. don’t worry too much about it, the search scene is high school for many people just laugh em off.
Hey Kris,
Shoot me a note next time you’re heading to a conference and I’ll get you into the private party scene. Ask Hooley how I hooked him up.
The purpose of the list and mentioning the private parties is twofold, I put the times up there so that the party and event planners can use it as a reference so that several parties don’t go on simultaneously - which has happened, one year in San Jose we had six public parties all occuring simultaneously. This way we prevent ‘party collision’ as Danny calls it. The other is that those in the know are aware that I drop little clues to give an indication as to which party is going on i.e. “You can get in if you’re LUCKY” keyword being lucky = Google. The trick here is to work an angle with your rep to see if you can get an invite directly from the party hosts.
Many times the search engines or other sponsors get a little intimidated when the parties are public and the attendee count gets upwards of 6,000. Last year a search engine threw a really great party open to the public and was one of the best search parties EVER - but I also heard that the SEO crowd drank the bar dry and bartenders actually had to leave and go buy more alcohol. Total cost for the party? A quarter of a million dollars. Wow. They didn’t throw a party this year.
If you followed my party schedule from the beginning, I had a lot more information early on - however as venues began to fill up - event coordinators would email me and ask me to either remove the RSVP address or take the party completely private - there actually were several open parties but as we got closer to SES, I removed a lot of identifying information. It pays to check early and often in order ensure a great SES networking experience.
In fact, I would put just as much effort into planning your post conference networking schedule ahead of time by posting, email around and working every angle you have as you do planning your session coverage. Little fact: at SEW we get more views of the party schedule than we do for the actual conference coverage…what does that tell you?
Joe