The weather's getting nicer, the days are getting longer and Rand's barely in the office. You know what that means: it's conference season! Since there are so many conferences right around the corner, I thought I'd list some upcoming events in case you're thinking of attending a show but aren't sure which one to book.

SMX London in London, UK: May 18-19, 2009

SMX London is next week in jolly ol'. I won't go into too many details since Rand covered 10 reasons you must attend SMX London, but I will say that PRO members receive a 10% discount on event registration. Also, you should go because in London you can eat pasties and drink bitters, and that alone should be worth the traveling costs.

IMC Stockholm in Stockholm, Sweden: May 26-28, 2009

I'm speaking at IMC Stockholm at the end of the month. Day 1 of the conference is dedicated to affiliate marketing, while Day 2 is the main conference day and Day 3 is full of various workshops (Google Adwords, social media, conversion optimization, customer experience management, and more). I'll be speaking on a panel about Cost Effective Online Marketing, and there are a lot of other interesting session topics, such as the Top 12 SEO Tips for 2009, How to Use the Six Conversion Rate Factors to Lift Your ROI, Making Social Media Profitable, and Recession-Proof Online Strategies. I'm really looking forward to attending and speaking at IMC Stockholm--the agenda seems very practical, there will be a lot of  new people to meet, and, of course, I get to explore Stockholm for a week. If you're interested in attending, you can receive a 20% discount off the registration cost by using the code imc-speaker. Hopefully I'll see you there!

SMX Advanced in Seattle, Washington: June 2-3, 2009

SMX is hosting their third advanced conference in Seattle, and it's right in SEOmoz's backyard. Having attended both previous Advanced conferences, I can say that the event gets better each year, and I'm sure that this year there will be a lot of great, valuable information for intermediate to advanced SEOs. The Give It Up session alone should be worth the cost of admission. Also, if you attend you'll get to meet several members of the SEOmoz team as we'll be showcasing our suite of PRO tools at our Expo Hall booth. And you may run into us at various networking functions in the evening. ;) PRO members receive 10% off registration costs, so register today and we'll see you in a few weeks!

SMX Madrid in Spain: June 3-4, 2009

¿Hablas español? ¡No problema! SMX Madrid is happening right after Advanced in lovely Madrid, Spain. The conference is in Spanish and offers both basic and advanced tracks. Yo estoy triste que no puedo asistir la conferencia, pero ojalá que algún día pueda visitar a España y conocer algunos vendedores españoles.

SES Toronto in Toronto, Ontario: June 8-10, 2009

For our neighbors to the north, SES Toronto is next month. Organized by smartypants SEM expert Andrew Goodman, the conference is broken into 3 fun tracks: Nuts & Bolts, Corporateville and the Geek Track. I spoke at SES Toronto two years ago about link bait and viral marketing, and I really enjoyed the sessions and ran into a lot of great marketers. Looking at the agenda, it seems that this year there are a lot of new approaches to traditional topics (which is nice--I hate it when a conference series rehashes the exact same agenda in every city).

Affiliate Convention in Denver, Colorado: June 17-20, 2009

Both Gillian and our very own Jenny from the block will be speaking at the Denver Affiliate Convention next month. Designed "specifically to meet the needs of affiliate marketers," this conference is free for all working affiliates (how nice!). It focuses on how to run and improve affiliate marketing campaigns. Jen will be covering Alternative Search Engines and Marketing Venues for Affiliates, while Gillian is talking about Industry Trends for Travel in the Current Economic Market. If you're affiliate and plan on attending, be sure to stop and say hello to the SEOmoz crew!


I'll post a separate entry soon about upcoming summer conferences. In the meantime, feel free to share any other spring events that are coming up, and let me know if you're planning on attending any of the aforementioned conferences--we'd love to hear your input on the shows!