SMX West 2010, Steve Ballmer Edition

Starting tomorrow, Bing will be participating in full force at what’s shaping up to be another stellar SMX West (March 2-4, Santa Clara CA).  Every SMX show is a special one for Bing.  But this one is super-duper special for one reason – we’re bringing Steve Ballmer!  This will be Steve’s first ever conversation with the search community at an industry event.  Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land and co-chair of SMX, sits down with Steve to discuss Microsoft’s commitment to search and how Bing is working to evolve the search experience. 

In addition to Steve’s keynote chat, you’ll find Bing and Microsoft Advertising engaged with the community all across SMX in a number of ways.  Here’s a quick summary of where you can find us.

March 2nd (TUE)

· 9:00am – 9:45am Keynote Conversation with Microsoft CES Steve Ballmer

· 10:45am – Noon Real Time Search & The Major Search Engines Sean Suchter, GM of Search Technology Center

· 10:45am – Noon Mobile Paid Search Ads: Real Opportunities Raj Kapoor, Global Director, Mobile Advertising

· 1:15pm – 2:30pm Bing: What’s Happening? Stefan Weitz, Director of Search, Bing; Q&A – Eric Gilmore, Group Product Manager, Bing

· Noon – 1:15pm Lunch Topic Table “Meet Microsoft Advertising” Aaron Lauper, AdCenter Search Account Manager

· 4:30pm – 5:45pm Ask The Local Search Engines Mikko Ollila, Senior Product Manager, Bing Local

March 3rd (WED)

· 10:00am – 10:20am Simplify your Campaign Management! (in EXPO THEATRE) Aaron Lauper, AdCenter Search Account Manager

· 10:45am – Noon Bring In The Bling Via Bing Cashback Meagan Rochelle, Search Solutions Specialist

· Noon – 1:30pm Lunch Topic Table “Exploring Bing Captions” Mark Johnson, Senior Program Manager Lead, Bing

· 4:45pm – 6:00pm Ask The Paid Search Reps Aaron Lauper, AdCenter Search Account Manager

March 4th (THU)

· 11:30am – 12:30pm Ask The Search Engines Sasi Parthasarathy, Program Manager, Bing

· 12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch Topic Table “Talk to a Bing Engineer” Steve Macbeth, Principal Group Program Manager, Bing

Bing is also sponsoring the legendary SMX community event SMX After Dark on the night of March 2nd starting at 9pm in the Santa Clara Hyatt pool side (better not rain!)

And if these weren’t enough, Ignite is coming to SMX West as part of Global Ignite Week!  Ignite is the fun, high-energy evening of a dozen or so “speed presentations” where each speaker has 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about a topic.  The speaker lineup is an impressive who’s who from around the search industry.  If you’re in the area, come check it out by registering for FREE (an SMX badge will get you in too).  Free drinks and light food provided.  And if you can’t join us in person, be sure to catch the live stream.

Ignite SMX West is March 2nd.  Doors open at 7:30 and presentations start at 8:00pm.  Full details: http://searchmarketingexpo.com/west/2010/ignite.   

Aya Zook, Product Manager, Bing

*Matt McGee from Search Engine Land live blogged Steve Ballmer’s discussion with Danny Sullivan.