It was an incredible event. For me, this was not only my first SES conference, but my first professional conference in the search industry. It was fantastic to see so many people that I only knew from their avatars and forum names. I believe the event helps to give a real sense of the SEO industry and it helped me to understand more about how it began and where it's going.

Our industry is not one that will stay small and private forever. Thanks to the open, honest & friendly dialogue inside the SEO community, we will grow and soon see major media and retail comapnies competing with us, even in many of the niche spaces. There were quite a few large companies who had representatives at the conference, and I would not be surprised to see them optimizing their sites and making the entire industry more difficult.

For those you are interested, I have full coverage of the SES NYC 2005 online now (at least those sessions I was able to attend).

The photo on the right, from left to right, fishsi, randfish, bragadochio, christine (Churchill) & Amy (don't know her online name). Thanks to Jill Whalen's Highrankings photo section for the pic!