Next Tuesday night, you’ll have an opportunity to hear two usability experts talk about real-life examples and case studies, and perhaps even some live reviews, (if you’d like to submit your own  site) in the February SEMpdx event.

Instead of the usual Hot Seat panel focused on nothing but SEO, two new panelists will be showing their skills:

Matthew Brown, NY Times
As Director of Search Strategy for the New York Times Company since 2005, Matthew Brown continues to drive the research and technology side of the search marketing effort for the Times, the Boston Globe (Boston.com) and the International Herald Tribune.

Matthew is responsible for the architecture and execution of solutions that deliver a more engaged audience to these online properties.

Melissa Casburn, ISITE Design
With 12 years of experience as a web strategist, information architect, project manager, and instructional designer, Melissa can get a lot done in a day.

Comfortable in both corporate and agency environments, she helps much-loved companies bask in the glow by adding stickiness to their sites.

She’s good at spreading the love too, creating experiences that inform, connect, and empower users.

As the Director of User Experience for ISITE Design, she leads a team of web strategists, information architects and content strategists whose focus is helping clients create and protect their competitive advantage online.

Are you brave enough to have your site critiqued in front of others? Maybe you just like to see others squirm? Maybe you just want to enhance your own knowledge, and stop making the same mistakes on your own site.

Join members of  SEMpdx next Tuesday, February 10th, 2009, at Hotel DeLuxe for an eventful evening of SEO and user experience, and you can sign up to attend right here.

Believe it or not, the board of SEMpdx has been getting a number of emails asking us where to register for SearchFest 2009, coming up in March.

So, I figured I would take a minute to point out the SearchFest registration, as well as the entire SearchFest 2009 agenda, and a link to our sponsors.

This year’s event promises to be the best ever, with a lineup of speakers including:

• Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land
• Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz
• Vanessa Fox, Nine by Blue
• Marshall Simmonds, New York Times
• Neil Patel, ACS SEO
• Riona MacNamara, Google
• Laura Lippay, Yahoo
• Matt McGee, Small Business SEM
• Greg Hartnett, Best of the Web

and many more…

I will be moderating two sessions myself, including SEO For WordPress, and SEO for Bloggers and copywriters.

The event will take place at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon on March 10, 2009, so what are you waiting for? Go register now!

Next week’s SEMpdx presentation gets very specific regarding the local search ranking algorithm. SEMpdx is fortunate to have a new board member join us for 2009 who’s recently moved here from San Fransisco.

His name is David Mihm, he’s an expert in local search, and he’s agreed to give a similar presentation to the one he gave at SMX West in California couple of months ago.

If you’re with a local business and want to know some specific things you can do to rank your business better when your city name is used in the query, then this is one presentation you don’t want to miss.

Also at this event, I’m going to be on the 4 person panel for a mini – SEM Hot Seat event, along with David,  Todd Mintz and Lisa Williams and we’ll be critiquing three websites.

Check out more info here, and if you come, please do take the time to introduce yourself.

Searchfest 2008, Oregon’s annual search marketing conference will be held on Monday, March 10, 2008, at the Oregon Zoo’s Cascade Crest Banquet Center.

We’ve now got the prices posted, the sign-up form live, and I’m sorry, but it’s already too late for you to be the first person to sign up…

That’s okay thougfh, because it’s not too late to save some money, and if you’re already a member of SEMpdx you can save 50% compared to the door price for non-members!

These early bird discount prices will only be good through the first of February, because we’re budgeting now for headcount, catering etc. and so the sooner you get in, the more money you can save.

Here are the confirmed speakers so far, and Rand Fishkin, from SEOmoz will be giving the keynote presentation -

* Paul Colligan
* Jeff Pruitt, SEMPO, iCrossing
* Stoney deGeyter
* Matt McGee
* John Andrews
* Kevin Wilk – Yahoo
* Marshall Simmonds, New York Times
* Dan Harbison, Portland Trailblazers
* Ben Hanna, VP Marketing, Business.com
* LinkShare
* Brian Schmidt – Google

Sign up today with the early bird discount and don’t miss this rare Portland opportunity…