SphinnCon Israel: SEM, Backgammon & Dancing Camels

March 11, 2010 - PRLog -- SphinnCon 2010, the shortened, informal side event of the Search Marketing Expo (SMX), held last Sunday, March 7, in Jerusalem. Despite several attempts to reproduce the first ever Jerusalem 2008 SphinnCon in other locations around the world, it was the second SphinnCon event ever (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/021796.html). The half-day convention allowed local search engine marketing professionals several opportunities to learn from experts in their field, as well as to mingle with their peers during the various networking breaks and the closing Tel Aviv party, where online backgammon game room GammonEmpire (http://www.gammonempire.com) got the guests drunk on their expense.

As the only conference in Israel targeting search engine marketing professionals, SphinnCon was fully booked within two weeks from its announcement. According to SphinnCon initiator and host, Barry Schwartz, a veteran search engine marketing specialist and multiple blogger of New York, the demand was twice as big, and if it was not for space limitations (SphinnCon took place at the lecture rooms of the Jerusalem College of Technology), more than 400 tickets would have been sold. Mr. Schwartz had mentioned on more than one social media platform on intending to make SphinnCon Jerusalem into an annual event.

SphinnCon 2010 hosted online marketing authorities from Israel and abroad including the SEM founding father of the UK, Dixon Jones and "Marketing in the Age of Google" author, Vanessa Fox, who, among others, spoke and hosted panels on paid and organic search engine optimization, link building and web analysis. The scholastic part of the day was closed with the inevitable acquaintance with Google one man delegation (simultaneously with a paid search campaigns clinic). Tomer Honen of Google Dublin spoke expansively on hackers, malwares and other potential intruders until it was about time to send the hundreds of webmasters, bloggers, SEO, PPC and SMO enthusiasts to highway 1, wherein its end the wild party took place, courtesy of GammonEmpire and 888 (http://www.888.com/ ).