When I first asked my fiancée if she would mind if we postponed our honeymoon for a week so that I could speak at SMX Local & Mobile, she looked at me like I was crazy before eventually giving me the green light. Since I’m getting married this Friday, and would have gone on my honeymoon immediately afterward, the timing, quite frankly, couldn’t have been worse. Still, there are very good reasons to attend SMX Local & Mobile, even if you’re not speaking at it and the timing could be better. Chris Sherman mentioned a few of them on Search Engine Land earlier this month, but these are the four that made me postpone my honeymoon:

1. Local & Mobile is Advanced SEO – SMX Advanced may be officially over, but this is an entire conference devoted to an aspect of SEO that most SEOs at best don’t quite understand, and at worst, ignore. But with the iPhone, mobile web usage is truly exploding, to where it’s going to be difficult to ignore for much longer and still do your job as an SEO. This is an opportunity for some SEOs to really specialize in a growing niche that can be, and often is, completely different from desktop SEO. SMX Advanced may have covered some aspects of Local & Mobile Search Marketing, but this is the conference that covers them all. To me, this conference, because it dives deep into a topic that SMX Advanced may only have given an overview of, could be in some ways more “advanced” than SMX Advanced.

2. I hate search conferences – This shouldn’t be underestimated. I don’t learn anything at search conferences anymore, and I generally find many search celebrities to be caricatures of real people, but I am excited about this one. I’ve worked with or interacted with many of the speakers over the years, and I can tell you that they’re the best in the business. At SES I have been disappointed in the past when learning about Local & Mobile search marketing, as the message was simply either “go mobile” or “it’s too new”. At SMX Local & Mobile, the message is closer to “we’re doing this now, and here’s how to do it better”. I know that I will be speaking at two sessions: Monetizing Local & Mobile and Blended Search in a Mobile World, and planning on giving attendees less of a sales pitch and more of a collection of tactics and strategies for improving visibility in mobile search engines. If that’s not worth the price of admission, then I’m not sure what is.

3. Local & Mobile is the Future and the Present – Yes, local and mobile is still emerging, but eMarketer, Jupiter Research, Juniper Research, Google and others are bullish on the future of mobile search. Furthermore, the present of mobile search is rewarding for a number of marketers. With conversion rates as high as they are in mobile, this is likely to be a conference that pays for itself in the long term, and probably the short.

4. I’m marrying a wonderful woman. You’ll forgive my sentimentality, but two days before my wedding it’s clear to me that this is the most important one. I’m lucky to have found such an understanding partner who may not understand exactly why anyone would want to type in such a small search box, but who loves me and wants what’s best for both of us. Thank you, Jenny, for being such a great lady. We’ll be in the western Caribbean soon enough. And I promise to leave my phone at home.

If you haven’t done it yet, consider joining me at SMX Local & Mobile, July 24 & 25th in San Francisco. If I can postpone my honeymoon for it, what excuse do you have not to go?