Walk straight in if you've printed your badge at home or ask our team to print yours for you.
Plan your San Diego agenda
With so much happening across two days, it's worth planning ahead. Browse the full brightonSEO & Hero Conf line-up, explore every session, and build your own personalized schedule by adding the talks you don't want to miss. Your saved agenda will be waiting for you whenever you come back, and you can print it before the event so you're ready to make the most of your time in San Diego.
Conference Schedule
Here is the full agenda for our conference days on September 15-16, 2026, including all the Hero Conf talks too. Remember to check out our networking page too for lots of extra events and activities surrounding the conference.
08:15 AM
Registration
45 minutes
09:15 AM
Search Intent
brightonSEO Track 1
Natasha Post
SEO level up: Using the psychology of "why" to turn traffic into conversions
Lindsie Nelson
Life after keywords for sierra nevada brewing co.
Michael Louderback
Keyword research in the age of AI
Delivering Impact
brightonSEO Track 2
Jen Cornwell
Why your 2026 SEO strategy must be a cross-functional OS
Ruth Burr Reedy
What to do AFTER you get buy-in
Matt Thompson
If AI can't read your site, does it even exist?
John Shehata
Google discover - Advanced SEO strategies and tactics
Enterprise SEO
brightonSEO Track 3
Christian Hustle
Your GEO strategy works great... in one city
Nikki Lam
AI Visibility at scale: learning from 9M prompts and 400+ enterprise brands
Michael Yules
The importance of authenticity in the age of agentic search and commerce
Chris Schweppe
Never waste a good crisis: How AI panic is giving SEO a seat at the c-suite table
Meta Ads
Hero Conf - Track 1
Brett Fish
CAPI, EMQ, FBC - WTF? LFG! The Expert Meta Ads Tracking Walk-through
Akvile DeFazio
Breaking the rules: How top advertisers actually win on meta
Michelle Wiltz
A system for creative diversity at scale
Ecommerce & Amazon Ads
Hero Conf - Track 2
Sean Stone
Spillover commerce, how premium Amazon brands spend once and profit twice
Kenton Snyder
Using amazon shopping signals to drive DTC sales
Ben Riggle
How ecommerce brands win more visibility in Google's next generation of search
10:40 AM
Break
30 minutes
A chance to browse our exhibition hall, get some fresh air or chat to other attendees.
11:10 AM
GEO
brightonSEO Track 1
Ross Hudgens
Actionable tips that will drive GEO results today
Amanda Kopen
AEO in 2026: What's actually working now
Christian Ward
Two studies, 38 million data points, and the blind spot in every AI search study
Visibility
brightonSEO Track 2
Prashant Puri
From rankings to citations: The future of organic visibility
Grant Simmons
Entities speak louder than words: getting actionable data for AI visibility
Brie Moreau
2,000 hours of research, 11 million AI citations. How visibility in LLMs actually works
Brad Wetherall
The future of the knowledge panel
AI & Ecom
brightonSEO Track 3
April Zhong
I let an AI shopping agent make all my purchases for a month - here’s what e-commerce SEOs need to know
Joe Ball
The future of ecommerce, LLM driven-discovery: Becoming discoverable in an AI-first world
Amanda Beales
Can AI agents shop your site? Auditing access and discoverability to protect eCommerce revenue
Paid Media Strategy
Hero Conf - Track 1
Navah Hopkins
SEO and PPC winning together
Jeremy Hull
Beyond best practices: The paid search plays hiding in plain sight
Jon Kagan
Different tactics for different verticals
Mastering Advertising Fundamentals
Hero Conf - Track 2
Chris Frank
Designing ad campaigns that work
Leo Polanowski
When Search Stops Scaling: How to Extend PPC Performance Beyond the SERP
12:30 PM
Break
1 hour 20 minutes
A chance to browse our exhibition hall, get some fresh air or chat to other attendees.
01:55 PM
PR, Link & Citation Building
brightonSEO Track 1
Luke Cope
5 category PR strategies to make you money in search and LLMs
Noah Greenberg
Scaling authority: An offpage playbook for increasing visibility in AI search
Eric Hoover
Digital PR & SEO: Continuing the journey that fuels AI discovery
AI & Technical SEO
brightonSEO Track 2
Tiffany Kroll
Before SEO: The layer that's killing your visibility
Serge Bezborodov
Busted or confirmed: Live-testing the biggest AI bot myths
Itamar Blauer
MCP for technical SEO: Turning crawlers into actionable SEO systems
Dashboards & Reporting
brightonSEO Track 3
Dana DiTomaso
Fewer graphs, better answers: dashboards that get used
Brie E Anderson
AI ate my traffic (should I care?)
The Future of Advertising
Hero Conf - Track 1
Michelle Morgan
How to win in paid media when automation continues to expand
Cristiano Winckler
The new rules of PPC: 5 principles to survive the AI traffic collapse
Liam Wade
Let me challenge your performance marketing principles - practical tips for paid media pros in 2027
Paid Media Efficiency
Hero Conf - Track 2
Brooke Osmundson
Why small PPC budgets need fewer tactics, not more
John M. Williams
The paid media tools you need don’t exist, so we’re building them live
Breanne Bartlett
You get what you optimize for
03:00 PM
Break
30 minutes
A chance to browse our exhibition hall, get some fresh air or chat to other attendees.
03:30 PM
Branding & AI
brightonSEO Track 1
Brooke Weller
LinkedIn & AI search - What gets cited and why. Insight Into LinkedIn's own research
Amanda Walls
Tackling authority gaps with hyper-relevant digital PR to improve SEO & GEO performance
Content Strategy
brightonSEO Track 2
Chima Mmeje
Enough with the "what is", "how to" boring ass content
Ken "Magma" Marshall
Content strategy in 5 years: Why your verbal identity is your competitive moat
Greg Wasserman
Why every business needs a podcast: Building SEO, relationships, and revenue
Agentic Search
brightonSEO Track 3
Samanyou Garg
We Sent AI Agents to Win AI Search. Here's What Actually Happened.
Alex Halliday
The compounding edge of agentic content
Mike Korenugin
Brand visibility on autopilot: Building AI workflows with agents, MCP, and cross-channel data
Lead Generation
Hero Conf - Track 1
Aashna Makin
Understanding lead quality, not just quantity
Roger Cooney
Stop Optimizing to the Wrong Signals: Why Your Lead Gen Conversions Are Training Google to Find Garbage
Michael Wisby
Why fewer leads are a good thing (and how to explain this to your boss)
Reporting Reimagined
Hero Conf - Track 2
Matt Carter
How to translate PPC for non-PPC stakeholders: Turning complexity into clarity
Joshua (Josh) Slodki
The marketer's intro to enhancing Google looker studio reports with Google bigquery
Michael Cooney
Value in, value out: The PPC signal that changes how you bid and how you get paid
04:30 PM
Break
30 minutes
A chance to browse our exhibition hall, get some fresh air or chat to other attendees.
05:00 PM
AI
brightonSEO Track 1
Chris Long
What We Learned From Analyzing 28K+ ChatGPT & Gemini Fan-Out Queries
Rob Delory
How to measure AI search: The 5 stages of SEO grief
Automation
brightonSEO Track 2
Eric Wu
AI Automation for AEO/SEO Workflow
Ralph Cockburn
Replacing manual SEO workflows with AI: How I broke my own agency
Martin Canchola
Reviews to rankings to mentions: Mining customer feedback to amplify SEO & AI search
Technical SEO
brightonSEO Track 3
Patrick Stox
Technical SEO is dead
Sam Torres
A practical guide to javascript SEO
Martha van Berkel
From search to AI agents: How to succeed in the agentic web using schema markup and knowledge graphs
Performance Max
Hero Conf - Track 1
Anthony McDaniel
Mythbusters: Pmax doesn't work for lead gen
Jack Hepp
Using PMax and search ads to promote physical locations like a pro
Patrick Ortenzio
Performance max for B2B: When to launch, when to wait, and what to watch
Paid Media Essentials
Hero Conf - Track 2
Dii Pooler
From Best Practice to Best Fit: Landing Page Lessons From Real PPC Accounts
Lisa Raehsler
When ad platforms betray you: Why performance drops and how to fix it
Sophie Logan
The role of PPC in modern B2B marketing strategies
07:00 PM
majorActivity
Tuesday Networking Party
3 hours
East Village Tavern & Bowl, 930 Market St, San Diego, CA 92101, United States
Sponsored by Searchable
After a full day of talks and insights at brightonSEO and Hero Conf, keep the energy going with us on Tuesday night from 7–10pm at East Village Tavern+Bowl in sunny downtown San Diego.
Expect laid-back California vibes, cold drinks, free bowling, and the perfect chance to connect with fellow marketers, colleagues, and new industry friends. All conference attendees are welcome, your first drink (or two!) is on us, and the bowling lanes are booked - so come roll into the evening with great people and even better vibes.
No ticket required, just bring your conference badge and lanyard.