Justify going to search conferences - with your boss!

With so much talk about the SMX conference in London last week and with many great conferences in the States coming up soon, how do you justify with your boss the costs involved and more importantly get the time off work?

If you work for an agency or consultancy then you probably don’t have this problem. However, if you’re an in-house SEO you will need to sell the idea to your boss so he gets his cheque book out and signs you off work for a few days.

Here are a few tips that should help you sell the idea.

1. You’ve got to stay ahead of the game!

The search industry in the UK is competitive, if you’re going to stay ahead of the game and learn what those around you are getting up to, you really should attend a conference. Many conference sessions offer valuable information that is not always available online. The chance to then go and grill the speaker and ask questions after his/her presentation is invaluable. Research your competition online and show your boss how they are doing certain things that you may need to learn about, tell him that if you are going to compete and reap the rewards financially…you need to go to this conference.

2. Don’t mention the partying!

Search conferences provide great opportunities to party, there will be evening pub meet ups, invites to go and eat at restaurants and all night drinking sessions in the hotel bar… but your boss won’t like the idea of his few grand being spent on a drunk employee with a killer hangover. Instead talk about the type of experts that are going to be attending and how the conference will provide a great opportunity to network with them. Tell your boss that you have a strategy to meet certain experts and ask them lots of questions. That way if a picture of you getting drunk with a bunch of SEO’s appears on the web, you know what to say.

3. Save money on consultancy!

Could you imagine the cost of getting Matt Cutts in for an hour to look at one of your sites? What about asking Danny Sullivan to come and carry out a site audit for your lead client. It just won’t happen. However, if you manage to grab one of the hotshots while at a search conference, as long as you’re polite and don’t go too overboard with the questions, they will always be accommodating and will answer your question. Approach experts and say “Hi, I read your blog all the time, can I buy you a beer?” That always works! Go to the conference with a list of things you would like to find out, tell your boss that you have a strategy in place for what you are going to learn and come back with.

4. Spread the wealth!

If your company decided to take the whole team out to PubCon in Vegas, it’s going to get pricey. If your boss pays a few thousand quid for you to go, he may have concerns that you are going to be offered a job and may not come back. Instead tell your boss that you are going to gain as much valuable information as possible, take loads of notes and then brief the whole team when you get back. Spread the knowledge around your organisation and provide write ups for employees to read, blogging the information is also a great way to spread the word around your team.

5. If you’re part of an agency, pitch it to your clients

If you work for a few clients or provide consultancy, why not speak to them and inform them about the conference. Pick out a few key areas that they are interested in and discuss the benefits of you attending the conference and coming back to implement everything you have learned on their website. If you are lucky they may even offer to contribute to the cost of you attending. This can happen, trust me.

6. Choose the right conference

If you are like me you probably want to go to all of them, but some are better than others. Research the conference schedule, see who is talking and what they are speaking about. Make a list of things you really want to learn and make sure the conference has the relevant content. Ask questions at forums and blogs with industry experts and ask them for their view on a particular conference. Tell your boss that you have researched all of the conferences and have picked the best one to go to.

Hopefully these tips should help you sell the idea of going to the next search conference with your boss, maybe you have some other tips or ideas that you would like to share.

See you at SES in Feb!

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