At SES

It’s not easy to post from here, as the show does not have wireless coverage (I am sure by the next one, they’ll realize the importance of wireless to coverage of the blog/press kind). Anyway, missed most of the sessions today due to other meetings, but I did run into an old friend in the media investment banking business. His presence marked an interesting development in this homegrown industry – the money folks are starting to pay attention. Today there was a session track devoted to the financial side of running a SEO/SEM business, with titles such as “Coping With Growth,” “Valuing Your Company,” and “Cashing Out.” My investment banking friend, a media business specialist, said he got plenty of leads and interest after he spoke, and he mentioned more than one person had approached him with the idea of rolling up the SEO space. It’s happening already, and will continue apace – maybe this time we can avoid the Razorfish/USWeb/Sapient syndrome…