This week is chock full of networking events in the Boston and NYC metro area, and we are going to be very busy.  Here's a quick rundown of everywhere we will be this week and where you can find us:

Boston:

• Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) - Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA (June 15-18) - IRCE is always one of the best shows of the year, and we will have a full team there.  We're exhibiting at Booth #350.
• Pecha Kucha Night - Mantra, 52 Temple Place, Boston, MA (June 17 - 6:30pm) - Pecha Kucha is a fun gathering of graphics designers who provide short presentations on a variety of topics.  It is free and open to the public and always has great content, great company, and great food and drinks.
• AIGA Boston AFTA - Neoscape, 330 Congress Street, Boston, MA (June 18 - 6:00pm) - Onward's Sarah Wilkins will be attending Neoscape's first ever AFTA event at their studios.  It should be a great opportunity to see Neoscape and network with your contemporaries in the Boston area.

• DM Days - Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY (June 16-18) - Another "must attend" conference for marketers.  We're exhibiting here and you can find us at Booth #235.
• SEMPO NY - Digital Media for Search Professionals - Yahoo, New York, NY (June 16 - 6:30pm) - SEMPO NY always hosts funevents and this should be no exception.  Sign-up if you are in NYC and are not yet attending!

I hope we have the opportunity to see you all there.  For additional info and updates on these events, please follow us at @onwardsearch on Twitter.

With all the media attention on social networking of late, it is easy to forget that in-person events are probably the best way to build your personal and business networks.  The spring networking season is definitely upon us, and there are a lot of great internet marketing-focused local and national events that we'll be attending over the upcoming months.

This week alone Onward Search will be attending three events.  Here's where you can find us:

• Tuesday, May 12: Determining the SEO Health of Your Website - Boston Marriott Peabody, Boston, MA, 6:30PM - 9:30PM.  This event is sponsored by SEMNE and features Jill Whalen discussing what she looks for when performing an SEO site audit, as well as conducting some live site audits from the audience.  We're really looking forward to hearing Jill speak and will have several Onward Search team members at the event.

• Thursday, May 14:  Connstep Manufacturing & Business Conference - Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford, CT.  Connstep provides consulting and training solutions to Connecticut's manufacturing industry, and I will be presenting with Kathy Hokunson of Site-Seeker, Inc. on how manufacturing companies can leverage internet marketing to grow their business.

• Thursday, May 14:  SEMPO NY @ Google: Data Stories - Google HQ, New York City, NY, 6:30PM - ???  SEMPO NY, which hosts some of the best networking events around, has a great night planned at Google's NYC headquarters.  There is always great networking at SEMPO NY's events, and we will have a number of our team members there.

We're going to do our best to chat with as many people as we can, but please hunt us down if you're going to be at any of these events!  They should all be a good time.

Looking to the future, we have a pretty busy calendar and will be attending a number of other networking events in the upcoming months.  We will be posting updates on our whereabouts and where we will be via our @onwardsearch Twitter account as well as this blog.

Thanks and happy networking!

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to update you on some changes we will be making to the Onward Search Blog.  Going forward, we will be discontinuing our "This Week in..." blog posts and will instead be providing links to articles important and content through our twitter account so we can get them to you faster in a more real-time environment.

We will continue to write articles and tips for the blog to help you further your internet marketing career, but we felt the best way to keep you up-to-date on the latest news and trends in the industry will be through twitter.

Thank you for all your support to date and please feel free to give us feedback to help us provide you with the best content going forward.

Sincerely,

Reilly

This week our own Ken Clark, will be speaking at WebmasterWorld's first ever PubCon event in Texas.  Ken will be speaking on the panel titled, "Career Gut Check - SEM/SEO Employment Landscape."  This panel will discuss the current employment trends in the internet marketing industry and what you need to know to stay ahead in this economy.

The session will take place from 1:20pm - 2:30pm on March 12th in Salon B of the conference hall and will be moderated by Carolyn Shelby.  Ken will be joined on stage by Lyndsay Walker Bhalut, Joanna Lord, and Gary Swart to discuss the current search marketing career landscape.

PubCon South begins this week on Wednesday, March 11th and will run through Friday the 13th.  For its inaugural year, it is being held in Austin, Texas at the Norris Executive Conference Center.  The conference will feature highly anticipated keynote speeches from Guy Kawasaki and Matt Cutts, as well as three conference tracks offering a wide range of educational topics for both novices and experts.

If you are going to be out at PubCon this week, I would definitely suggest attending the panel to learn more about the state of internet marketing industry and how you should position yourself to further your internet marketing career.

In the world of creative design, your portfolio and accomplishments have the ability to speak louder than the names of the companies you have worked for.

If you are looking for ways to boost your creative design resume, one great way is to enter awards contests.  They add tremendous credibility to your portfolio, and depending on the size and scope of the contest, your work can be promoted worldwide with little effort.

Communication Arts is currently accepting entries for their 50th Annual Illustration Competition.  Entries will be accepted through Friday, March 6, 2009 for illustrations printed or produced between March 12, 2008 and March 6, 2009 in the following categories:

• Advertising
• Books
• Animation
• Editorial
• For sale
• Institutional
• Self-promotion
• Unpublished

If chosen by the awards committee your art will be published in Communications Arts Illustration Annual, which is distribute worldwide to over 70,000 people.

So if you are looking for another way to boost exposure to any illustrations you have completed in the past year, you should definitely consider the Communications Arts Competition.