Search Engine Strategies New York 2006 Tsotchkes Lackluster -- Like Most Exhibitors

Every time I cover a conference, I troll the aisles for a tsotchke report. I believe that the level of creativity in selecting the tsotchkes and the value of the giveaways is directly related to the health of the industry represented at the show. With the services and spiels of one search optimization firm's exhibit pretty much impossible to distinguish fromany other at Search Engine Strategies NewYork, it was not surprising that tsotchkes were lackluster too. There weren't even any booth chicks, except for the stuffed one in the photo. There was some new information in the sessions, and I will report on that separately. Posted by B.L. Ochman

What I found was a lot of "me too" and nothing special stuff, like the usual pens, t-shirts, flashlights, Hershey's Kisses, more pens and a ton of brain shaped stress balls (yechh.) Then there were handcuffs, from Clicktracks ( go figure,) and the cute little chickens from A Couple of Chicks and a chance to see your aura and have a personal style consult with live experts at I'm Live.com video chat service.

To my astonishment, I won an iPod at the Advit booth, where you first had to listen to their rap and then sign something saying that you heard it before spinning the wheel to see if you could win an iPod or a rubber chicken or other prizes. I thought my puppy would really like the rubber chicken, but was happy to have another iPod. Hey, you never know when a dead battery will render the one you have unusable.

There were scores of iPod giveaways, a Jeep raffle, and other not very exciting stuff to win. Makes one long for the circus atmosphere of the go-go days of Internet World shows.

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Search_Engine_Strategies_New_York_2006, SES_New_York, SES_New_York_tsotchke_report, B.L._Ochman_tsotchke_report, What's_Next_Blog_SES_tsotchke_report, events, conferences, search_engine_marketing, search_engine_strategy, iPod_Nano

I was dissipointed at the lack of good teeshirts at SES NY this year. Usually I walk away with 2 or 3 bags full of pens, shirts, gizmos and more. This year I collected none.

For Tsotchkes, Ad-Tech is ususally much better. I think one year I even got a couple bottles of Hydroderm.

Hi B.L. -

Good to finally meet you after having been a reader and some time commenter. Look forward to running into you again in the near future.

Joel Richman
PAN Communications.