The 2nd annual SearchFest conference (hosted by SEMpdx) is in the books, and the folks in Portland have a good thing going here.

This year’s conference was held at the Oregon Zoo (thus this photo of a sleeping tiger, which is pretty much how I felt by the end of the day), and the location was the only downer. We were downstairs in a conference area that, for some reason, couldn’t get an Internet connection, nor (for many of us) a cell phone connection. On the other hand, being at the zoo meant I was able to walk around the premises late in the day after the gates closed. Nice! (I love zoos.)

The event was crowded and the Q&A I heard in various sessions was quite good. The social media session seemed to draw the biggest crowd, although I’m pleased to report that my Small Business session was standing room only (but in a smaller room). I was a lot more nervous than usual about this presentation because it was somewhat atypical in that I didn’t really provide the common list of tips that I think a lot of people expect at conferences. Mine was more … theoretical, I guess … especially the first half. But afterward, four different people gave me the best speaking reviews I’ve ever had, so I must’ve done something right.

Twitter (%$#@#) was the hot topic during the social media session, with one speaker going so far as to recommend it as a B2B social marketing tool. Hmmmmm. Not sure I can see that being very effective, but okay.

I always like to speak with non-industry people to hear what they think about these conferences, and I had a chance to chat with two such people — one, a small business owner’s wife, and the other, a traditional PR person. Both had nothing but praise for the information, speakers, and the event as a whole.

So, hats off to all at SEMpdx on another successful SearchFest!

I didn’t take a ton of photos, but you can see some of what you missed on my Small Business SEM Flickr account.