| 8:00-6:30pm |
Registration - Colonnade Foyer |
| 8:30-9:30am |
Morning Coffee |
| 9:00-10:00am |
Conference Welcome & Opening Keynote
Business Optimization in a Digital Age
 We were promised that marketing would one day become rocket science. Well, we are almost there! Search continues to become more complicated, and more exciting. Then there's social and email and display and video and ... so many more things. It is hard to understand how to do one thing right, much less try to do all of them right. In his exciting keynote, Avinash will share his unique perspective on balancing multiple media channels, leveraging super awesome metrics, grounding your digital existence in driving economic value, and leveraging the Clear Line of Sight model to ensure that you are optimizing across all four of the most important business drivers (come to the keynote to learn which four!).
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| 10:00-10:30am |
Grand Opening of Sponsor Showcase |
| 10:00-6:30pm |
Sponsor Showcase |
| 10:30-11:30am |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the three sessions offered during this time.
Track 1 
Introduction to Search Engine Marketing
This introductory session will provide a clear and concise overview of the key concepts involved in search engine marketing. This is a must-attend basic session for anyone new to SES events. Questions to be answered include:
- What are the major search engines?
- How can you best optimize them to gain "natural" or "organic" traffic without cost?
- How can you achieve top ranking or placement by utilizing search engine advertising opportunities?
- Solo presentation by:
Matthew Bailey, SES Advisory Board; President, Site Logic Marketing
Track 2
Driving Mobile Traffic: PPC & SEO
In 2012, about 85% of mobile devices will be web-enabled. Google mobile query volume is up 400%, and 9 in 10 mobile searchers take action as a result of a smartphone search. Are you prepared? Jumpstart your mobile presence with these fundamentals for presenting content that's both SEO- and mobile-friendly. Not fully ready for a mobile site? Learn inexpensive and easy options to get started the right way. From desktop and mobile to tablets, smartphones and feature phones, we'll dive into key mobile differences for SEO and PPC and the strategies to drive and convert more mobile traffic.
Topics covered will include:
- Mobile SEO differences by device (tablet, smartphone, feature phone).
- Mobile web design for SEO (subdomains, different domains, CSS).
- Foursquare Explore—Geosocial SEO.
- Mobile search ads for smartphones and tablets.
- Mobile site abandonment / conversion saves.
- Local Paid Inclusion (LPI)—Google Places.
- Mobile landing page optimization.
- Speakers:
Jeff Allen, Account Manager, Hanapin Marketing
Jeremy Evans, Director of Strategic Accounts, Marin Software
Track 3
Enterprise-Level SEO
This session is designed to meet the specific challenges of large-enterprise organizations. Topics for discussion will include SEO tactics specific to large sites (sites with thousands, if not millions, of pages); the challenges of educating key stakeholders, including budgeting issues; and implementation hurdles common to large organizations, such as CMS issues and IT team challenges. This session will also include a proven model of organization for your enterprise-level SEO campaign as well as a summary of key metrics that you should be measuring to drive ongoing SEO strategy. If you are the SEO point person for an enterprise-level organization with a lot of moving parts, this is just the session for you!
- Moderator:
Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board; CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
Google Engage
Details to follow.
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| 11:30-11:45am |
Session Interval |
| 11:45-12:45pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the three sessions offered during this time.
Track 1
Social Media 101
Social media has become a major piece of the search marketing puzzle and is changing the way we work, communicate, and live. Companies are amazed by the influence of social media and want to understand how to use it effectively. This session is designed to guide you through the complex landscape of social media and how it relates to your brand or web property. You'll learn about the leading sites, the functionality they provide, and best practices for interacting in these virtual places. You'll also come away with valuable tips on how to effectively leverage your brand, services, and products in different social media environments including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, Review Sites, Digg, and more. The session will also include suggestions on how to effectively integrate social media with other channels of online marketing.
Track 2
Developing a Video Optimization & Marketing Campaign
YouTube is now the second-largest search engine, yet many companies fail to adequately leverage this phenomenal medium to engage new and existing customers and key marketing partners. This session will use real-world examples to help you understand and master the entire video process, including what to create, how to optimize your video, how to market it with search and social media, and how to measure its real business impact.
Google Engage
Details to follow.
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Sponsored Session
Microsoft Advertising adCenter - New Features Lab
This year the adCenter team will be showcasing some of their latest technologies and features at SES Toronto. This is a great opportunity to hear directly from the adCenter team about their latest platform improvements and how to best utilize them as part of your search strategy in 2012. The session will cover new areas of innovation, best practices, and hidden features (plus you may also get a preview of their next release). Join us to hear directly from these technology experts that are building the next generation tools to help you simplify your search marketing efforts and drive better results. Don't forget to bring your notepad!
Google Engage
Details to follow.
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| 12:45-2:00pm |
Networking Lunch / Sponsor Showcase |
2:00-3:00pm
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Attendees may choose to attend one of the three sessions offered during this time.
Sponsored Session
Why Google Might Punish You For Being An SEO-Conscious Business
If your business has worked with SEO agencies in the past or does SEO in-house, then the roll-out of Google's latest algorithm update 'Penguin' might come as an unwelcome surprise. Penguin targets unnatural links and penalizes sites/pages that might have unnatural links pointing to them. Some businesses that were early adopters of SEO are being faced with a loss of ranking and even de-indexation.
Simon Rouillier will help you understand what to do if you've been hit by the Penguin and also help you be pre-emptive and avoid potential loss of visibility and sales.
Conference includes:
- A brief history of Google Algorithm updates
- Description of Penguin and what it targets
- How Penguin can negatively affect your business
- Case studies of affected businesses
- Methods for bouncing back (backlink audits, tools & re-inclusion requests)
- Reasons why you should change your approach to linkbuilding
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Track 2
Made in Canada: Marketing Online Worldwide
This session will focus on specific challenges facing Canadian Internet marketers. It will cover:
- How to balance Canadian and American content challenges in a consistent, meaningful way (domains, architecture, content, keyphrases, etc.). Examples and case studies will be discussed.
- How to compete in the US market as a Canadian business and not lose your Canadian online presence. An outline of various strategies will be presented.
- The different results on Google.com and Google.ca from a search engine perspective, and which consumers prefer; the search engines' growing preferences for local. Statistics will be provided.
- The importance of domain extensions, hosting locations, and IP detection options.
- Moderator:
Andrew Goodman, SES Advisory Board; President, Page Zero Media
Track 3
Spy vs. Spy: Competitive Analysis
An essential component of any search marketing plan is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. This knowledge helps you comprehend what links to gain, ad prices to pay, content to offer, and customers to seek. This session will take a close look at the search engine tricks you can use to analyze your competitors' game and also the free and premium tools that are available to deep dive into their strategy. Gain tips and secrets to monitoring your competitors; discover the keywords they are targeting, the amounts they are spending on ads, and the opportunities they are missing. This session will focus on both paid search and SEO competitive analysis.
- Moderator:
Mike Grehan, Global VP Content, SES, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ
Google Engage
Details to follow.
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| 3:00-3:30pm |
Afternoon Break / Sponsor Showcase |
| 3:30-4:30pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the three sessions offered during this time.
Track 1
Executing a Successful Link Building Strategy
Link building is a core component of SEO. Today, the complexities are even more profound due to social signals. You still need links in order to rank well and drive targeted traffic. This session will cover how links currently influence the algorithms and will show you how to build links through social media and content generation. From link baiting to testimonials, content distribution to widget distribution, this session will analyze what works and what doesn't to develop the most effective link-building strategy.
- Moderator:
Chris Boggs, SES Advisory Board; Director, SEO, Rosetta
Track 2
Key Metrics for SEO
As knowledge of SEO practices moves from the offices of the optimizers to the board room, the standard metrics used by the practitioners of this former dark art are straining under the weight of the all-powerful bottom line. The days when upper management was impressed by subtle changes in Page Rank have been replaced by questions of LTV and ROI. As more resources are being dedicated to creating the perfectly optimized and keyword-rich landing page, C-level executives are demanding proof of the return they are receiving from these resources. This panel will discuss a myriad of ways to move beyond Page Rank and will cover topics including:
- Google's new "Search Plus Your World."
- Geotargeting.
- Personalized results.
- Which keywords bring traffic.
- Newsletter sign-ups, social media follows, and white paper downloads.
- Moderator:
Matthew Bailey, SES Advisory Board; President, Site Logic Marketing
- Speakers:
Brent Chaters, Senior Manager Marketing Strategy & Analysis, SapientNitro
Thom Craver, Web and Database Specialist, Saunders College (RIT)
Track 3
Content Marketing Optimization
The core of any search or social media marketing program is content. Digital assets, rich media, web pages, MS Office and PDF docs, and content created and shared by consumers all offer opportunities for optimization. If it can be searched, it can be optimized!
Online marketing is increasingly competitive, and brand marketers worldwide are seeking real advantages that will improve the efficiency and impact of their social media and SEO efforts. This session will provide unique insight into content-based optimization strategies and processes as well as tactics for sourcing, creating, and promoting optimized content on the social web.
- Moderator:
Matt McGowan, Managing Director, Americas, Incisive Media
Google Engage
Details to follow.
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| 4:30-5:30pm |
Meet the Experts: Roundtable Forum
Join us at our ALL NEW "Meet the Experts Roundtable Forum," where you'll have a unique opportunity to learn, network, and share information with your peers and leading industry specialists. With a choice of several roundtable discussions, each focusing on a different topic and featuring two experts, this session is not to be missed. Simply choose the roundtable most pertinent to you and join the discussion! You can also move freely among roundtables to make sure that you get the most out of this session. After the forum, take your conversation and new contacts with you straight to the Sponsor Showcase for our networking cocktail reception, where you can continue the discussion over a few drinks.
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| 5:30-6:30pm |
Networking Cocktail Reception / Sponsor Showcase |
