For nearly 10 years, Danny Sullivan has been a leader in the field of search and search marketing. Today, he's departing from SearchEngineWatch & the Search Engine Strategies conference series:

I love both the site and the conference series. I hate to say goodbye to them. They've also been good to me. I've done very well financially and enjoyed plenty of personal satisfaction through them. I've written things that people have told me have helped them immensely. At our conferences, it's great to hear from so many people that they've learned a lot or far more than they were expecting...

...Whatever I do, I've tried to make it a hallmark to always to be inclusive of content, people, web sites or organizations that will help my readers, even if I might technically be competing with them. Whatever I end up doing, you can expect I'll still be pointing at Search Engine Watch as appropriate and wish those that remain a part of it the very best.

Obviously, his full post at Daggle is a must-read.

From my perspective, this is a very bad move on the part of Incisive Media. Whatever Danny's actual value to the conference series and the site is, they've severely underestimated it. I would personally guess that if Danny started up his own conference series and an accompanying site (equivalent to SES & SEW), it would become equally popular in a short matter of time. The community of search, from the engines to the advertisers to the speakers and the attendees are, in my mind, loyal to the man - to Danny - first.

My primary fear is a selfish one - that the industry will turn corporate, faceless and cold without Danny keeping us firmly on track. In his position as head of SEW & SES, he was our leader not only in name, but in direction - operating the largest sources of information dissemination available to folks seeking to learn about search. My brief experience with other industries and the stories I've heard from those who've been to SES or involved in the search space is that our industry is one of the most friendly, unassuming, cordial and welcoming in the professional world. Without Danny, I fear for the survival of our culture.

How does this affect you? What do you think are the lasting implications of this move? Are you planning to go to Chicago in December to see one last show with Danny? I know I am.