Matt McGowan interview part 2: SES will be growing

Wed 4 February 2009 17:20, Bas van den Beld

Yesterday we posted the first part of our big interview with Matt McGowan. Matt talked to us about the upcoming Search Engine Strategies in London and about the search industry in general. And he offered us all a discount on SES London!

Today Matt talks more about the SES. Not only the one in London, but also the newest addition which will take place in Amsterdam in March. Also Matt gives us his view on what will happen to Yahoo. And finally he tells us why we should attend SES London and makes visitors from both Searchcowboys and yet another offer!

The Search Industry: Yahoo - Microsoft

Do you think Yahoo can still be rescued?
I do. Kevin Ryan, contributing editor over at Search Engine Watch wrote an interesting article on Carol Bartz just a couple weeks ago… in short, we should give her a chance as she is a strong leader who seems to have what it takes to get the job done. I tend to agree with Kevin.

Do you think there still will be a deal Microsoft Yahoo?
Interestingly enough Carol has some strong connections over at Microsoft from her Autodesk days, it would not surprise me if a deal was struck that said a deal with MSFT is just one of many possible outcomes here.

Will there ever be a 'new Google' who can compete with Google?
Google has a ton of competitors and in some markets as your readers most definitely know already it is not even the market leader. That said I think Google’s biggest challenger will be innovation. Remember, interactive and search are young industries… as an industry the only constant I can think of is that all the players must expect change. Social Media is a relatively new concept, consumers are spending more and more time on their Facebook, Bebo and MySpace pages (to name a few). What happens if these players get into the search game? If there was a search box on your Facebook page would you go to Google to make your queries? Another thought, one that Mike Grehan, host of SES London, has spoken about frequently is the rise of applications – what happens when you don’t need the browser anymore and you use apps to access the world’s information?

Some more on Search Engine Strategies:

Who are you most proud of that is speaking at SES London?
This is not a cop-out but I am really most proud of all our expert speakers who come out and support us year after year.

What can or does SES London mean for the European Search Market?
SES London is the one time a year that the UK and larger European Search Market get together – pretty much everyone shows up. It’s a fantastic time to meet your colleagues and competitors face-to-face, something that is getting harder and harder to do these days. Those who are new to search and those that have been around the block a few times tend to find SES London is a fantastic opportunity to brush up on their skills and share success and failure stories with the industry (and most importantly what they learned from these engagements!).

In March you are launching SES Amsterdam, why Amsterdam?
Holland is a major market, full stop. Our partner, BBP, has had been throwing a successful Search event there for years with many hundred SEMs in attendance. If was a no brainer.

What do you expect from that SES?
More of the same – expert speakers, timely and extremely useful content and networking opportunities… however with a Dutch slant. I expect the content/case-studies to be Dutch focused.

What are your plans with the SES. Will you be launching more events?
We will for sure. SES events are very local – even our largest events in the United States (6,000+ attendees) pull over 80% of their delegates from a 200 mile radius… there are SEMs out there that we currently do not service, I hope to one day say we reach them all!

Why should we not miss out on SES London?
Because I said so ;-) (and because I will buy a beer for all those who mention this interview!)

Want to go to SES London? Get a discount!
Yesterday we posted the first part of this interview with Matt. There he offered al Searchcowboys readers a 20% discount on a SES London conference pass. Go get it here!

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