Australia's booming search engine industry will be put under the microscope, at the biggest-ever Search Engine Room conference in Sydney on March 20 & 21.

This year Search Engine Room features hard-hitting interviews with industry leaders alongside sessions detailing the latest website optimisation techniques and search engine marketing practices.

Search is now the fastest-growing sector of digital marketing with Frost & Sullivan estimating total paid search spend will quadruple over the next four years to more than $1.5 billion.

Of this, Google receives around 85%, giving the company extraordinary reach and power – one of the issues that will be explored in an interview with the company's regional boss, Richard Kimber.

Rivals such as Yahoo!, Ninemsn and Sensis will be grilled about their plans, while emerging search sectors such as Vertical and Local Search will also be examined through industry leaders like Shopping.com and TrueLocal. Other highlights include:

• The first live demonstration in Australia of ‘Panama' – the much-hyped new advertising platform from Yahoo! Search Marketing
• ‘Blog Marketing and Optimisation', featuring US expert Lee Odden, who is also presenting on ‘SEO Public Relations and Reputation Management'
• Media Convergence and Search, exploring the relationship between television and the internet
• 50 speakers from Australia, New Zealand and the United States
• Latest research from Hitwise, Frost & Sullivan and Nielsen//NetRatings
• Case studies on a range of sites including Australia.gov.au and Travel.com.au
• An entire conference stream devoted to the Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing
• Interviews by leading tech journalists Brad Howarth and Foad Fadaghi

Search Engine Room Director Martin Kelly said bookings are tracking well with delegates coming from as far afield as Bangkok and Singapore, plus every Australian state.

Kelly said every delegate receives the latest Hitwise market trends report plus access to all sessions, food and presentations. For further information and bookings please visit www.searchengineroom.com.au .

Media Queries: Martin Kelly - (0414) 774-978 

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

• Gavin Appel, Senior Vice President – Product Development, Hitwise;
• Frank Arrigo, Group Manager, Developer Platform Evangelism, Microsoft;
• Ben Barren, Co-Founder, Feedcorp;
• Jeremy Bolt, Executive Director, Bruce Clay Australia;
• Jason Bresnehan, CEO, Funnelback;
• Shaun Cornelius, Country Manager, Australia, Shopping.com;
• Tessa Court, Chief Marketing Officer, Hitwise;
• Andrew Dent, Managing Director, Catch.com.au;
• Chris Dimmock, CEO, Cogentis;
• Aaron D'Souza, Software Engineer – Search Quality, Google (US);
• Andrew Eckford, Analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings;
• Michael Edwards, National Marketing Manager, Travel.com.au;
• Foad Fadaghi, Technology Editor, BRW Magazine;
• Tony Faure, Chief Executive Officer, ninemsn;
• Bruno Fiorentini, Chief Operating Officer, Yahoo!7;
• Frank Grasso, Managing Director, E-Channel;
• Stephen Harvy, Group Marketing Manager, Yellow;
• Craig Hewett, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Bezurk;
• Robbie Hills, Managing Director, 24/7 Real Media;
• Brad Howarth, Director, LaGrange Communications;
• Rod Jacka, Managing Director, Panalysis;
• Martin Kelly, Director, Search Engine Room;
• Richard Kimber, MD Sales and Operations, SE Asia, Google;
• Ian Leuchars, Senior VP Search North America, 24/7 Real Media;
• Nick Leeder, Chief Operating Officer, News Digital Media;
• Victor Leung, Marketing Manager, Fairfax Digital;
• Stephen Murphy, Director, Pay Per Click;
• Darryl Nelson, Research Director, Frost & Sullivan;
• Lee Odden, Founder, TopRank Online Marketing (US);
• Jon Ostler, Founder, First Rate;
• James O'Toole, Chief Product Officer - Search, Facilitate Digital;
• Andrew Pascoe, Author, Under The Rotunda;
• Tom Petryshen, Chief Executive Officer, Amplify;
• Brett Poole, Head of Search, Yahoo!7;
• Joseph Renzi, CEO and MD, SwapAce Phil Robinson, Product Development Manager, Catch.com.au;
• Hilton Rutgers, Director of Sales, Trellian;
• Dr Shaun Ryan, Chief Executive Officer, SLI Systems (NZ);
• Fred Schebesta, Director, Freestyle Media;
• Jamie Silver, Director, Clear Light Digital;
• Chris Smith, General Manager, Sensis Interactive;
• Damian Smith, General Manager - Digital Media, Network Ten;
• Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, NetConcepts (US);
• Nathan Stewart, Managing Director, Alkemi;
• Craig Wax, Regional MD, Australia, India and South East Asia, Yahoo! Search Marketing;
• Jason West, Director, Websalad.