Show me the way to San Jose

Do you know the way to San Jose?
I've been away so long
I may go wrong and lose my way

The SES conference in SanJose kicks off soon. At 5.30 (PST) tomorrow there will be a meeting of SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organisation.

As I'm rather busy this week, I thought I'd get up early and, though not at SES in body, I can certainly be there in spirit.

SEMPO is, apparently, "working to increase awareness and promote the value of Search Engine Marketing worldwide". Bravo! They even mention the word "worldwide". Hey, I'm worldwide! I'm as worldwide as you can get, given the next stop south is Antarctica. Perhaps I'd like to support this. I'd like to find out what it is all about.

Putting the day-to-day work on hold for a moment, I head on over to the SEMPO website, which breezily invites me to a get-together "Please join us to hear the latest on trends in SEM, benefits and resources available for members, and to spend time interacting with your fellow members and our sponsors. Don't forget to stop by the SEMPO booth, #711, and to register for the conference"

Sounds fun! California dreaming on such a winters day. Or night, as the case may be. Damn it's cold. The frost is building up on the window sill and my breath forms icy clouds in front of my face. My cat, blinking in the glow of the solitary desk light, wonders what I'm doing up at this hour and leaps upon my desk. She, and I, are glad of each others company. Working by yourself can get lonely sometimes, as many SEM small business owners know. I bet they're not lonely in San Jose. I bet things are buzzing under the california sun.

"Hey California waiting
Every little thing's gotta be just right
Say
While you're tryin' to save me
Can't I get back my lonely life"

Basic membership costs $299US. I run that figure through the currency converter and that works out to be $498 NZ, or roughly 2/3 the equivlient of the average weekly wage in New Zealand. Well, I'm doing better than the average weekly wage, so the fee seems manageable. The SEMPO site doesn't quite explain what that fee will be used for, and given all the elitist language of inner circles (5K), rumours of 78K payments for part time director positions, crediblilty issues associated with a year of poor organisation, direction and communication, many more rumours that are pretty much unrepeatable, I'm left with a lot more questions than answers.

However, that's all a bit academic as first I have to actually get to the meeting. I look up the Air New Zealand website. How much does it cost to get to San Jose anyway?

The airfare seems rather high. I could probably get that a lot cheaper if I hunted around. I get out my calculator. There's accomodation, the conference fees and the invetable massive bar tab. Oh, and there's a few days away from my business (note to self: train cat to run business in event of absence) and the jetlag that comes with a total of 24 hours flying time. Will my business be able afford to hear what SEMPO is saying, I wonder?

Sadly, I must face the inevitable. It's just not going to be economic for me to hear what SEMPO is saying. In person, anyway.

Perhaps there's another way. After all, one of the great things about the internet is that allows communication at the speed of thought, and the tyranny of distance is no longer an issue. Unless people make it one. Given that SEM is at the bleeding edge of the dot.com business, no doubt SEMPO will have some cutting edge communication facilities in place - streaming webcams, live chat sessions, bloggers posting to the internet in real time (well, if the politicos can do it, why can't we?) Erm...a bulletin board, even?

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any of this on offer. The SEMPO site, silent and dark, just invites me to come to San Jose. The old fashioned way. Perhaps I'll ring Burt Bacharach and see if he will elaborate on the "how" of getting to San Jose on a budget.

When one lives far away from the centre of the tech world, one becomes resigned to the fact that one will enivitably miss out on events. That's ok. SEMPO can't be all things to all people, although I start to wonder if the word "worldwide" in the SEMPO slogan is merely one of those curious American-isms that, in fact, refers exclusively to the land mass between the east and west coasts. Perhaps I should move back to London. Although, according to SEMPO, isn't Italy pretty much the influential centre of search in Europe these days? Perhaps Mike, Ammon, Barry, Shak and all the other island-based people are thinking of moving to Italy, too.

I flick open MSN messenger and see what other night owls are up and about. There's certainly a lot of buzz and chatter on the lines, at least when compared to the monolithic silence of the SEMPO site. Some guy in Arizona is hoping to hook up with a woman of carefree existence. Perhaps he'll make a connection.

Unfortunately, after digging for a while, I find there is no chat room assigned to the conference. Or SEMPO. Perhaps they're all too busy enjoying themselves. Can't say I blame them. Meanwhile, guy from Arizona appears to have hooked up with hotlady96, and has taken his meeting off to a private room to discuss matters further. That's nice.

Is it just me that acumulates tech junk that never gets used? I've got a webcam sitting on top of my firewall, gathering dust. Perhaps I'll package it up and mail it off to SEMPO in the hope they can stream the next meeting for me. That would certainly solve the problem of getting there. Other SEM's who can't be there will benefit too. I notice the cat has curled up on my desk and gone to sleep, no doubt dreaming cat dreams and not even vaguely concerned that there is a SEMPO meeting about to start soon. Without us.

Alas, at this point in time, there appears to be little way from me to find out what SEMPO is all about.

I shouldn't feel too bad. After all, people a lot closer to that action than me, many of whom do know the way to San Jose, are also in the dark. Sitting in front of the glow of the monitor, I feel comforted in the knowledge that at least, in that respect, I'm not alone. Perhaps I'll write this up and post it. Perhaps it will turn out to be a wry take on SEMPO and their communication and relevance issues. Perhaps SEMPO might look to solve these issues at their meeting. Perhaps I will pull off the cliche of posting cat pictures on my blog and still manage to retain credibility. Perhaps not. Perhaps this is all getting just a bit too self referential.

6.01am

Finished.

As the sun peaks over the horizon, and beams her tentaive rays across the dark waters of the Pacific, I'm sure of one thing: the SEMPO meeting will be happening across the ocean in one days time. Attendees may be able to find out what SEMPO is all about. The many SEM's who also couldn't get there may be able to find out in other ways, I guess. Perhaps there will finally be some straight answers to straight questions because the industry dearly needs an organisation to represent it and take it forward.

Perhaps someone will tell me what transpires. We net kids are impatient.

© Peter Da Vanzo 2002-2004 All Rights Reserved