Tech Mentat

12:10am Monday morning and I have now just arrived in Santa Clara, CA at the wonderful Ramada Limited. And Limited is an understatement - if a room with no air conditioning, no ventilation, poor lighting, weird holes in the sheets (like a family of praire dogs made the bed their home for the winter months) and the disturbing scent of cigarettes and moth balls is only considered Limited then I apologize to the man running the front desk of this prodigious establishment.
I decided I didn’t want to commute the 2 hours (each way) on Caltrain from San Francisco to San Jose for the Search Engine Strategies convention. Plus, it puts me closer to the fire, closer the buzz. Ahh… there is nothing like trading a few hours of commuting for a week of filth and insomnia.
I have made my final decisions on what sessions I will be attending (and blogging) - take a looksy before I bronze them.
Monday
Searcher Behavior Research Update (9am)
Does Demographic Targeting Matter? (11am)
Social Search: Up Close With Google (2pm)
SEM Via Communities, Wikipedia & Tagging (4pm)

Tuesday
Auditing Paid Listings & Click Fraud Issues (9am)
Search Arbitrage Issues (11am)
Search Ad Buyers Forum (2pm)
Search Algorithm Research (4pm)

Wednesday
A Conversation With Google CEO Eric Schmidt (10am)
Big Ideas For Small Sites & Small Budgets (11am)
SEM Tactics (1:30pm)
Usability & SEO: Two Wins For The Price Of One (3:15pm)
The Vice Presidents Of Search Marketing (4:45pm)

Thursday
Search APIs (9am)
Ad Copy & Landing Page Clinic (10:45am)
Balancing Organic & Paid Listings (12:30pm)