When you're in-house, it's so easy to get caught up in getting stuff done that you do not have time to network with the search marketing community. If you top it off with being isolated in a city with few search marketers and no budget to attend conferences, you may rarely network and feel like an isolated search marketer.
As one who makes the time off-and-on, and I can honestly say that when I do take the time to focus on networking, it pays off. I now have a group of colleagues from various industries to reach out to with questions and to aid in our "what happened" analysis, or to assess the risk of various changes.
Duane Forrester had a very nice write-up on networking for in-house search marketers. Much of it happens online within discussion boards and via social media sites such as LinkedIn. It's a long article, so if you're strapped for time, just check out the bulleted list for the top places to network with the community.
Tip: If you're going to SES San Jose, I highly recommend you come to the in-house happy hour to mingle with other in-housers. It's a great way to meet a ton of contacts in a short time. Date and locale TBD, I'll post details once they're available.
