September 29^th through October 1^st, marketers and digital gurus alike gathered at the Javits Convention Center in NY, NY for the SMX East Conference.

For those of you who don’t know what SMX is, it is a search engine marketing conference programmed by the team at Search Engine Land. The days are jammed packed with informational sessions led by the leading pioneers of search engine marketing, an expo hall, and meet and greets galore. Seven of us from PCG were able to attend the conference on 9/29 and 9/30. Starting our morning with Bing learning about paid search evolution and remarketing, we then were whisked away into content and SEO world. On 9/30 we spent our day learning with GOOGLE! Besides getting new notebooks and pens, Google let us in to their world of back-end development, what’s to come, and open questions.

As a social media marketer, I enjoyed the two days not only learning, but being able to live tweet the event for PCG, and making new social connections. The expo hall exhibitors were very informative and eager to share their trade with us. Being able to spend two days in New York City was also unbeatable. Here’s what some of the other PCG attendees had to say.

I thought it was a great conference that had a lot of big wigs in digital marketing there. It was a nice experience (and bonding experience) for all involved. We were able to see what is out there when it comes to our field. There are so many different products that can only enhance our marketing efforts over here at PCG.  I think the main takeaway that we all got is that content is king. One class that I really enjoyed was on Wednesday and he was saying that if you’re going to be writing about something, find an article in the same topic realm and write about what they are missing. Skim through the comments section and see if other people chimed in with different topics. Someone else’s Top 5 list could be totally different from your Top 5 list. So, find the things that are missing and piece them together in your own way. –Erin Levine, Client Account Manager

I thought it was a great event that allowed us to explore and enhance (and Erin just beat me to it) our digital marketing projects. I learned a lot of great new tools and optimization techniques that are coming to Bing and Google, and can help me tremendously for my current clients and future clients to come. –Dana Hauser, Paid Search Manager

My favorite presentation was from Mark Traphagen – Senior Director of Online Marketing and Eric Enge – CEO of Stone Temple Consulting as they taught us a lot about the importance of Content Marketing. We all know that content marketing is trendy and that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to get involved, but as Eric said, “Content Marketing just for the sake of doing it is inefficient.” Aside from that, attending conferences is a really great bonding experience for co-workers. The fact that 7 of us from relatively different teams were able to attend this together, and get to know each other better since some of us don’t work together on the daily, was an awesome experience.” – Gina Orlando, Marketing Coordinator

I think it was a great experience. I’m new to the marketing game in general and it was really illuminating to see how content ties into the big picture of a marketing campaign. It also gave me some ideas on how to beef up my content and help the company offer further visibility to clients. Hearing from and learning about some of the industry’s lead influencers was very helpful and inspiring; I now know who to turn to when it comes time to alter my content to make sure it fits with best practices. – Maggie McBride, Content Writer

In conclusion, if you’re in the digital marketing field, you definitely should check out SMX. And if you don’t live on the East Coast don’t worry! SMX goes across the US and abroad! Click here to check out their upcoming conferences. http://searchmarketingexpo.com/