The Value of Attending Conferences

The Value of Attending Conferences – Moz

Moz logo

Menu open

Menu close

Products

Moz Pro

Moz Pro Home

Moz Local

Moz Local Home

STAT

Mozscape API

Free SEO Tools

Competitive Research

Link Explorer

Keyword Explorer

Domain Analysis

MozBar

More Free SEO Tools

Learn SEO

Beginner’s Guide to SEO

SEO Learning Center

Moz Academy

SEO Q&A

Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides

Blog

Why Moz

Agency Solutions

Enterprise Solutions

Small Business Solutions

Case Studies

The Moz Story

New Releases

Log out

Products

Moz Pro

Your All-In-One Suite of SEO Tools

The essential SEO toolset: keyword research, link building, site audits, page optimization, rank tracking, reporting, and more.

Learn more

Try Moz Pro free

Moz Local

Complete Local SEO Management

Raise your local SEO visibility with easy directory distribution, review management, listing updates, and more.

Learn more

Check my presence

STAT

Enterprise Rank Tracking

SERP tracking and analytics for SEO experts, STAT helps you stay competitive and agile with fresh insights.

Learn more

Book a demo

Mozscape API

The Power of Moz Data via API

Power your SEO with the proven, most accurate link metrics in the industry, powered by our index of trillions of links.

Learn more

Get connected

Compare SEO Products

Free SEO Tools

Competitive Research

Competitive Intelligence to Fuel Your SEO Strategy

Gain intel on your top SERP competitors, keyword gaps, and content opportunities.

Find competitors

Link Explorer

Powerful Backlink Data for SEO

Explore our index of over 40 trillion links to find backlinks, anchor text, Domain Authority, spam score, and more.

Get link data

Keyword Explorer

The One Keyword Research Tool for SEO Success

Discover the best traffic-driving keywords for your site from our index of over 500 million real keywords.

Search keywords

Domain Analysis

Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool

Get top competitive SEO metrics like Domain Authority, top pages, ranking keywords, and more.

Analyze domain

MozBar

Free, Instant SEO Metrics As You Surf

Using Google Chrome, see top SEO metrics instantly for any website or search result as you browse the web.

Try MozBar

More Free SEO Tools

Learn SEO

Beginner’s Guide to SEO
The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.
Read the Beginner’s Guide

How-To Guides
Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.
See All SEO Guides

SEO Learning Center
Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.
Visit the Learning Center

Moz Academy
Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.
Explore the Catalog

On-Demand Webinars
Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.
View All Webinars

SEO Q&A
Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.
Find SEO Answers

August 7-9, 2023
Lock in Super Early Bird savings for MozCon

Snag tickets

Blog

Why Moz

Small Business Solutions
Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.
Grow Your Business

The Moz Story
Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.
Read Our Story

Agency Solutions
Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.
Drive Client Success

Case Studies
Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.
See What’s Possible

Enterprise Solutions
Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.
Scale Your SEO

New Releases
Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.
See What’s New

New Feature: Moz Pro
Surface actionable competitive intel

Learn More

Moz Pro

Moz Local

Moz Local Dashboard

Mozscape API

Mozscape API Dashboard

Moz Academy

Avatar

Moz Home

Notifications

Account & Billing

Manage Users

Community Profile

My Q&A

My Videos

Log Out

By: Rand Fishkin
April 15, 2007

The Value of Attending Conferences

SEO Events

The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

Last week, Jane, Scott, Rebecca and myself (plus Mystery Guest) spent the week in New York attending the Search Engine Strategies conference. This is my 13th SES show, and at this point, I’ve seen virtually all of the sessions and 90% of the speakers twice. However, like many others, I continue to participate beyond simply speaking – walking the show floors, attending sessions (though I missed most in NYC due to my tourism commitments with Mystery Guest) and hanging out in the speaker and press rooms. Going to SES isn’t cheap – particularly in New York where hotel costs alone for the 3 SEOmoz rooms set us back more than $3,500. What value do I see in expending time and money to visit these cities and attend the shows?

Community Building
The late night parties, the quick chat in the hallway and the whispered commentary during a session all help to build shared experiences that are incredibly powerful. Once I’ve shared a few meals or a few jokes in several different cities with someone, we’re fast friends. If they need me to answer some questions over email or I ask them for input with a post topic or article, we’re quick to come to one another’s aid. The search community thrives on these kinds of connections – they build business (through referrals and direct requests) and extend your reach.
Meeting People
There’s no opportunity like a conference for interfacing with real people (and building real connections). Meeting face-to-face is far different than chatting over IM, through email, or even on the phone. Once you’ve met someone in person, it’s much harder to ignore their emails, refuse their requests or decline a LinkedIn invitiation… which is why I’m hoping to meet Michael Arrington sometime in the near future.
Securing Relationships
As I commented above, if you meet a person several times in several different cities, you may as well have worked together. The bond that multiple conferences form is undeniable. The evidence is all around me – from folks who’ve seen me speak a few times, to those who’ve become fast friends and members/contributors to the blog.
Speaking
Probably the most directly monetizable business activityat a conference is speaking – provided you do a good job. My session on social media marketing was OK, but I felt really good about my linkbait presentation this time. I think it was one of my best, and certainly the dozens of email messages and more than 50 business cards I took home with me would indicate similar.
New Experiences
Even without the financial side, I think that conferences are a chance to have experiences you could never have at home – riding in a limo for no particular reason, spending an evening at a Manhattan penthouse, seeing great bands in small venues, getting beer frozen to your ear, making friends with people you could only dream of and eating and drinking the kinds of food and wine that would make royalty jealous. Sometimes the experiences are glamorous, other times you’re freezing in the back of a dirty subway, but in every instance, you’re exposed to new things and I think that life’s grandest lesson may very well be that in the end, it’s all about the stories you make and the memories you keep.
Session Q+A
Even if you’ve seen a session a dozen times, the Q+A section is unique each time. In New York, I found the crowd considerably more advanced than ever before, and the questions impressively deserving of attention. Hearing Dave Naylor or Andrew Goodman or Priyank Garg answer a great question is practically worth the admission price on its own, particularly for someone like me who can leverage this information directly in my job and my writing.
The Secret Sauce
The back alleys, bars, speaker rooms and restaurants at conferences are filled with talented people talking about their best techniques and darkest secrets (all professional, of course). While I’m not allowed to blog 99% of this stuff, it’s extraordinarily valuable for re-application, testing and use in client and internal work.

At SEOmoz, we’ve decided to carefully review the value of conference attendance. There’s little doubt that it costs a lot of money (especially New York, which is the priciest of the bunch) to go, but this week all of us will be weighing the positive outcomes of our networking, attendance & social connections to determine what level of involvement we’ll have for upcoming shows like Toronto, Miami, San Jose, Vegas & Chicago.
What about you? How do you weigh cost vs. benefit for conferences? How many do you attend or do you plan to attend over the next 18-24 months?

Snag your MozCon 2022 video bundle for more great SEO insights.

Buy the video bundle!

8 Signs of Facebook Ads Issues and How To Fix Them

Pre-Weekend Roundup for the Week of 10/12/08

School of Rush: Latest Guides and Tutorials

Whiteboard Friday – Analytics for SEO

Can 301ing a Banned Domain Hurt a Site?

Eric Ward’s Content Publicity Service

类似文章