The Great #SMX East Recap: 2017 Edition

And another SMX East is in the books! Last week’s show was a success, and we want to thank everyone who helped make it happen — speakers, sponsors, vendors, staff, organizers, and of course, our invaluable attendees. Right off the bat, we want to invite everyone — whether you were or were not at the conference — to check out our full archive of SMX East 2017 speaker presentations on SlideShare.

Now, on to some of our favorite SMX East moments.

Top 10 SMX East 2017 highlights

1. The Meet & Greet is always a fabulous way to kick off the conference. Attendees and speakers mingled at Stitch Bar & Lounge to ring in another SMX East over cocktails and snacks. Big thanks to Bruce Clay Inc. for sponsoring the official launch of the show!
2. Bright and early Tuesday morning, Google’s Kishore Kanakamedala took the stage to unveil a series of online-to-offline solutions and products just ahead of the holiday season. We livestreamed the entire event, which you can watch here. A full recap of the session can be found here.
3. Excel With Bing set up shop in the Classroom on Tuesday, hosting an array of sessions aimed at amping up paid search strategies. Attendees got to meet the team and get one-on-one support for different Bing Ads issues. Catch up with some tweet coverage here.
4. Janes of Digital returned to New York City with its usual stylish flare and spirited conversation. This year’s topic of discussion: the Power of Vulnerability. The dynamic panel featured Alice Han, performance marketing analyst at EveryMundo, Amelie Glon Werner, senior business manager at Microsoft, Cameron Klitz, senior strategist at Reprise Media and moderator Frances Donegan-Ryan, senior marketing manager at Bing. The four online marketers were joined by FDNY firefighter Jackie-Michelle Martinez, who lent a unique and passionate perspective beyond our professional community. Bing Ads, the event host, livestreamed the panel discussion, which you can watch here.
5. Scott Brinker’s keynote Wednesday morning charged the audience for a fresh day of learning. Scott has evangelized the emergence and growth of martech (marketing technology) for over a decade, and his keynote was a summons for the search marketing community to lead in the new “martech era.” Catch up with our full keynote coverage here.
6. Learn With Google brought attendees to the Classroom all day Wednesday for best practices and advice straight from the mouths of Googlers. As the Big G puts it, the “one constant in AdWords is change,” so sessions and speakers aimed to educate attendees on the ever-changing platform. Catch up with some tweet coverage here.
7. The third annual Search Engine Land Awards were hosted at the scenic 230 Fifth venue on Wednesday evening. Together, we celebrated individuals, agencies and internal marketing teams who have demonstrated excellence in executing organic and paid search marketing initiatives. The rooftop bar, complete with a stunning view of the illuminated Empire State Building, was straight-up glamorous. See the winners here: Search Engine Land Awards Gala spotlights top performers in the SEO & SEM industry.
8. For the first time ever at SMX, Amazon Marketing Services set up shop in our Expo Hall and led a well-attended session on Customer-First Advertising. Amazon team members demonstrated how Amazon Marketing Services helps connect brands with a wide and engaged audience through timely, targeted, high-impact ads. Attendees walked away with fresh insights, as well as a pretty sweet tote bag.
9. A beloved SMX staple, the Google AMA took place Thursday morning. Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes sat down with our own Barry Schwartz and Michelle Robbins to answer any and all questions moderators and audience members had for the search giant. Catch up with full coverage from the AMA here.
10. The Clinic track ran all day Thursday, offering attendees a unique opportunity to ask experts case-by-case questions for the entire duration of each session. There were 75 minutes (per clinic!) of 100 percent Q&A. Each clinic had a specific focus; between links, SEM, SEO, social and analytics, there was something for everyone.
    

    Photo credit: @qcait on Twitter

Coverage from around the web

Next up, we wanted to share a roundup of some coverage from around the web, including recaps contributed by some of our own speakers. We’ll update this list as more coverage rolls out!

• SEO Ranking Factors 2017: What Matters & What Doesn’t
• Global Marketing & E-commerce: Top Things to Consider
• SMX Day 2: Google’s New UI, Machine Learning & MarTech
• SMX East 2017: Best Tweets From Day 1
• SMX East 2017: Best Tweets From Day 2
• SMX East 2017 Day 1 – Online-to-Offline, Shopping, Display
• SMX East 2017 Day 2 – Paid search trends, Amazon and Automation
• SMX East 2017 Day 3 – Attribution, Video and Analytics
• PPC Advertising Strategies: The Paid Search Advertising Strategies of the Future at SMX East 2017
• Quotes from speakers of #SMX East
• Mobile-first updates from SMX East
• All Google Manual Penalties Explained from SMX East
• SEO Ranking Factors in 2017: What’s Important and What’s Not
• Google announces new online-to-offline features on the cusp of the holiday shopping season

Looking ahead: SMX East 2019

The next time SMX East is coming to town will be 2019. Moving forward, we will alternate shows between coasts each year; in 2018, we will host SMX West in San Jose, Calif., and in 2019, we will host SMX East in New York City. SMX Advanced will continue to be held every year in Seattle.

Thanks to all once more for a fantastic SMX East. See you guys in San Jose and Seattle in 2018!

About The Author

Lauren Donovan

Lauren Donovan has worked in online marketing since 2006, specializing in organic social media, cradle-to-grave community management, search and social creative, real-time journalism, holistic social befriending, as well as content aggregation, creation, and strategic syndication. She currently serves as Community Editor for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. You can find her on Twitter @beebow.