My first time going to a SES show in San Jose. I kind of wanted to go just to see the Googleplex. I knew that every year Google threw a big party and it sounded like alot of fun.
Arrived in San Jose Sunday. Went to a party hosted by BoDog.com. Great party. Good snacks and an open bar. Two must haves at these search parties. They had the party at the Hotel Valencia. It had a nice patio as well so if you needed air, you could chill outside. Not too many people out of control at this party. I think, just one drunk guy that threw up outside. Not too bad, I mean it was the first night. Anyway, they had a Texas Hold Em table set up and since it was free, I spent most of the night there. Made some new search friends, wish I could recall their names right now. At any rate, made it back to the room safe. Conference starts Monday.
Monday, didn’t make it to any sessions. Went downstairs to get our badges and network a bit. SES San Jose has about 6000 attendies if you can beleive that, so there are alot of search people to talk to. Not to mention, some great vendor booths.
Monday night we started the evening at the Yahoo party. The cool thing about Yahoo parties is they always give you some cool shwag. This year we got these cool pens that lit up. Only problem was you had to take them apart to add the batteries. There was like 8 batteries. It was comical and took a while, but we figured it out. Too bad I don’t know what happened to the pen. The party was held in this small courtyard at this really cool hotel. For the life of me, I can’t remember the name. Anyway, when we walked in we saw all the purple table clothes with waiters walking around with Yahootinis. They were sugar rimmed with vodka and some other sweet stuff. Yum! Hung out with Shoemoney a bit that night. Heard about his new baby.
After leaving the Yahoo party, we stopped for dinner, then on to the Ask.com party. Ask.com throws great parties. I’ve been to SES NY where Ask(formerly Ask Geeves) had William Hung (you know the American Idol reject). It sounds corny, but it was really alot of fun prior to Mr. Hung’s arrival. At any rate…the Ask party was also an open bar. They had these cool bartenders that did some tricks with fire and these women that stood on the bar and gave shots to some of the guys. If you search hard enough on Flickr, I’m sure you’ll find photos. Try searching for SES San Jose 2006 or some form of those words. Speaking of photos, there was also a photo booth in the back. I’m sure some hysterical pixs came out of that machine that night. With the Yahoo party and the Ask party on the same night, we had way too much too drink. Don’t really remember getting back to the room.
Tuesday, we were off to the Googleplex. Let me remind you that was the whole reason I wanted to go. Well, it’s big. Really big. When we arrived we were greated by Googlers clapping for us as we walked up the stairs. Okay, that was kind of weird, but it kind of made you feel good. They gave us free t-shirts, beer and wine. I guess my biggest dissappointment was that there was too many people there. Apparently, they invited all the Google employees as well. All 5000 of them. It was way too crowded and didn’t really have a personal, easy going feel. The worst part is they closed the bathrooms and made everyone use those nasty porta potty things. Needless to say, we were outa there. Ended up back at the hotel bar for a bit, then an early night. Which was good because we needed to conserve our energy for the Webmaster Radio party on Wednesday.
WMR throws great parties as well. But to know Darin and Brandi, that’s no surprise. What was a surprise is that they had Sumo wrestling. That was hysterical. It was funny to see people wrestling each other and rolling around on the floor with those big suits. Meanwhile, there was great music and dancing and of course an open bar as well. We spent the evening with some of our friends Todd Friesen, Jen Slegg and the TickCo gang dancing, socializing and of course watching some of the drunk seo girls make fools of themselves. That’s always fun. Overall a great night.
Thursday night-last night. Took it easy went to dinner turned in seeing as how we had to be at the airport 3 hours early because of the no liquid thing.
As far as the conference itself. I went to three sessions. Every time I go, I learn something. At the last conference in New York, I decided I wanted to start blogging. Blogging seems to be the "in" thing right now. Everyone has a blog. I talked about it for months, himmed and hawed. After San Jose, I did it. I’m a blogger. Now when I go to the conferences, I won’t just be a SEO wife. I’m a blogger.
I’m definitely bringing my camera to the next one. Way too many good photo opportunities missed without one.
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