Autumn is finally here, blowing away the laziness of the last days of summer and bringing me back to full activity not only on clients’ projects, but also with a full schedule of European search marketing and social media marketing conferences. And yes, also sporting the amazing colors of the season, that our blog replicates as we always do, changing the template and colors of our blog at each solstice and equinox.

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The first conference of the season I have been invited to happened right on September 23, the autumn equinox day, the same day we changed the template to the Global Search Interactive blog. I participated to a round table in Rome on Contemporary Direct Marketing ^[2] organized by Business International, where I contributed to the interesting discussion wearing my SEMPO Board of Directors ^[3] hat and talking about search engine marketing as “online direct marketing on demand” – but also giving good tips on how, rather than cannibalizing direct marketing, search and social media marketing can represent a huge opportunity for direct marketers when integrated in direct marketing practices, from targeting to conversion.

While I am writing this post from Stockholm, I am getting ready for my second conference of the season, the now classic Scandinavian appointment with advanced search marketing, SMX Stockholm ^[4]. The Swedish conference, part of the international circuit of events organized by Search Engine Land ^[5] (home to search gurus Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman), will bring to Stockholm the top Scandinavian and European search marketing experts for two days of interesting presentations, discussions and networking. I am proud to be involved more than ever at SMX Stockholm not only with two presentations (one on Digital Media Optimization ^[6], the other the hot topic of “Facebook tricks that get you killed” and lose your account), but also as moderator of one of the two conferences tracks for the entire first day of the conference. I will share my new presentations soon on Slideshare ^[7] and on this blog, stay tuned!

^[8]Yes, the autumn is pretty advanced here in Sweden, and the temperatures are definitely lower than in Rome. But I will revert the trend and will get back to summer later on this week, when I will fly from Stockholm to Malaga, Spain, to participate as speaker and moderator to the new internet marketing Spanish event WebCongress ^[9]. An outspring of the successful series of search marketing events Search Congress ^[10], with which I have been involved since day one back in January 2009, WebCongress Malaga ^[11] starts a new series of events where internet marketing is explored not only via search marketing, social media marketing and web analytics, but also with a close look at the key topics in web design, programming and hosting. This “bundle” is pretty unique in the landscape of internet marketing conferences, and WebCongress is ready to take over 2011 with several events scheduled across Spain and other countries in Europe (including Italy!).

October is still a busy month on my agenda for European conferences. After WebCongress Malaga, I’m expected to deliver a workshop on search and social media marketing topic in Oviedo (Asturias, Spain) for the Fundación CTIC ^[12] / Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Gijón. I really love Asturias, and I always like to get involved with the local professional circuits, as I already did a few times this year speaking at Foro Ecommerce ^[13], Internet Meeting Point ^[14] and also delivering a keynote for Iniciador Asturias ^[15], the Spanish entrepreneurs’ network.

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Immediately after the workshop in Asturias, I am expected in London as a speaker for International Search Summit London ^[17] (ISS London), another great conference and networking event for search marketers, focusing on multi-language and multi-countries search marketing campaigns. I spoke at ISS London last year ^[18], and also at ISS Berlin ^[6] last June, where I have been awarded a Medallion Speaker Award ^[19] by the public of the conference – another reason that ties me to the International Search Summit, beside of the long term friendship with the guys from WebCertain ^[20], who are behind the organization of the international search conference.

At the end of October, immediately after ISS London, I will be in charge as Chairman and moderator of another conference organized by Business International in Milan, Italy, on the topic of Viral and Buzz Marketing ^[21]. Cannot give other info now, but be sure that I will blog about it soon. November doesn’t seems so busy on my conference agenda, but I really look forward to participate as keynote speaker at the Digital Marketing Forum 2010 ^[22] (Digital Markedsføring 2010) in Holstebro, Denmark. Beside of the keynote, I will be presenting a workshop on social media marketing the day after the conference, and I am expected to deliver an “inspirational speech” the night before the conference at a private dinner for the speakers of the conference – I will be definitely talking about Burning Man ^[23]! =)

Also December it’s not so busy – I’m trying to keep November and December available for my clients, as of course we will have to support them closely to define all the initiatives and the budgets for 2011. Nevertheless, I cannot miss the second appointment with WebCongress, that after Andalucia will hit Catalunya with WebCongress Barcelona ^[9] in December (dates yet to be announced). In January and February I will be back to the United States for a SEMPO Board of Directors ^[3] meeting in New York and a speaking commitment in Santa Monica, California, for DomainFest Global 2011 ^[24], whose organizers actually invited me also for their October 2010 event in Prague, but I had to decline as it was in conflict with other previous commitments.

But this is already the winter agenda, when autumn will be just a memory and also the Global Search Interactive blog will lose the red leaves to change again its template and reflect the more snowy colors of the winter (just wait for the winter solstice on December 21).

I will blog about the next conferences, as we get more closer to all these events. Follow this blog as I will be also publishing all my presentations, and possibly video interviews to some of the international search and social media marketing experts that I will have the pleasure to share some conference panels with. Also, remember that I will be tweeting live from the conferences but not from my regular Twitter account @massimoburgio ^[25] – follow @massimolive ^[26] instead for live conference coverage.

That’s all folks! Enjoy the autumn! =)