My first search conference wasn't quite what I expected, and that's not a bad thing either.

Some things I learned from SES Toronto:

1) Panelists love to name drop.

2) Panelists can't stop talking about the golden triangle.

3) Panelists love to help the community (I think this is a truism with most, if not all search marketers though).

4) Sometimes bad reviews can convert better than good reviews.

5) Search marketers will not admit to having learned anything new in the panels. They will, however, admit to having learned at least one exciting thing (maybe it's that passive aggressive Canadian thing?).

6) Non-search marketers think SES Toronto is a geek's conference. This may be true--James T. Kirk, light sabers, and Darth Vader were touched on in the panels.

7) Canada loves search.

8) Brands matter. Who knew?

9) Blue won the A/B test. (I wasn't blue.)

10) Semantics are exciting.

11) SES Toronto '08 was full of bananas.

I hope you enjoyed my lighthearted Top 11. I will be blogging more in depth about my experiences, as there were many great panels and panelists, and honestly my brain is still buzzing from all the data. 

Thanks to the keynote speakers, moderators, panelists, and staff at SES!