We just finished our fifth annual Search Engine Strategies trade show in London, England. SES England is our largest SES event outside of the USA and it had robust growth this year. Total attendance approached 2000. Exhibit space was up smartly from 2004 and paid registrations grew by 26% while total attendance jumped by 45%. The growth of our SES events is a barometer for the future of the Search industry (of course Google's stock price might be a better indicator!).

So far this year we have had solid growth with the New York City show in early March, The Japanese show in Tokyo, the Canadian show in Toronto, the German show in Munich and now this show in London. Next up is SES in San Jose which exhibitor-wise is already significantly larger in paid square footage over the 2004 event.

We have now decided to kick off a French event in Paris for this fall. We will announce shortly the venue and dates. We will also start an Italian SES show in Milan this fall. This means that in 2005 we will run 10 SES shows (7 outside of the USA) in the following countries: Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Sweden. We are also on the verge of announcing an Australian show and a Chinese show (to start in 2006).

I doubt there is another trade show property in the world that has the ability to be produced in so many countries. The reason for this success is that Search has turned out to be the killer application of the Internet. And clearly Search is only at end of its beginning.