Conference Blog

PubCon Update
Date: 11/03/2005
By: Brett Tabke
We are getting sooo excited about the upcoming WebmasterWorld PubCon Vegas Baby!

Yahoo!

Yahoo announced they will be holding a special lunch session for the Yahoo! Publisher Network.
Yahoo in the tradition of last years legendary bash, Yahoo is throwing another mixer this year. This one is at the swank Pure Nightclub at Caesars Palace.

Google:

Google is holding a secretive luncheon on Wednesday. No details given to us. hmmm!?

The Grid:

The grid is looking better that any conference we have ever done. Four concurrent sessions with the highest caliber of experienced speakers ever.

RSVP for the Off site events:

Be sure to RSVP for the Google and Yahoo events. Find the reservation links on the session grid. http://www.PubCon.com/sessions.htm

The Hotel:

Drat! The Renaissance is full - so is the Hilton. The conference is in the south section of the Las Vegas Convention Center this year. It is about 50 yards from the Vegas monorail. Any hotel with a stop on the monorail drops you right in front of the conference. http://www.lvmonorail.com

See you in Vegas Baby!

Brett Tabke
http://www.PubCon.com

Q: How many Geeks does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Geeks aren't afraid of the dark!

WebmasterWorld Backup
Date: 10/24/2005
By: Brett Tabke

After a server move, we are back in full operation over on WebmasterWorld. Thanks for all the cards and letters of support.

WebmasterWorld Offline - mostly!
Date: 10/20/2005
By: Brett Tabke

The initial report was a cut fibre line leading to the data center that houses the core WebmasterWorld servers. We have since found out, that the main router and main backup router failed. To compound the problem, the router manufactuer flew in the wrong replacement router.

BUT! We are back - sorta - and flying over on SearchEngineWorld.

Coffee Talk with Matt Cutts
Date: 10/17/2005
By: Brett Tabke

A schedule change for Wednesday of the conference. We are going to do another classic Coffee Talk interview session. This time with senior Google Engineer and quality control specialist Matt Cutts. :-) Topics will include:

What can we do to prevent duplicate content issues?
Status of the redirect issue.
Will we ever see more old fashioned updates, or is the dance dead?
What is next for Google?
What is spam?
What's up in the Blogshpere?

Conference Advancement and The Plasmatics!
Date: 10/14/2005
By: Brett Tabke

We have strived to provide a unique look and content for our conferences. One of our overall goals has been to do something better each time we do a conference.

At PubCon 8 this last summer, we introduced rear screen projection for presentations. It was a big hit with the audience and speakers alike:

This time in Las Vegas at PubCon X, we are going to introduce plasma screens as a replacement for session signs. It should provide a fresh fun look for the conference:

I can't resist mentioning that Advertising time on the plasmas is available :-)

Google - Special Session
Date: 10/13/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Pleased to announce that Google will be holding a special lunch session on Wednesday of the Las Vegas conference. The topic is unknown.

Session Updates
Date: 10/11/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Most of the sessions have been flushed out with descriptions and players now. I am very excited about some of the new sessions and speakers we have scheduled.

Yahoo! To Repeat Mega Bash
Date: 10/5/2005
By: Brett Tabke

We've just confirmed that Yahoo will hold a special gathering at Caesars Palace on Tuesday night of the conference. For those that were at last years bash at the Palms Rain, you know just how huge this is going to be. Come early - come thirsty - come ready to talk - and stay late. Thanks Yahoo!

Yahoo Party details: Party at PURE on November 15 from 7-10pm. PURE is the hottest new lounge at Caesar’s hotel. We’ll invite all WMW attendees to be there. PURE will be closed to just our party but open to general public after 10pm, our guests are allowed to stay until whenever they want to leave.

London PubCon 9!
Date: 10/1/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Whew, what a great time was had by all at our recent London Conference.
Thanks to everyone who attended.

Sessions Updated
Date: 9/23/2005
By: Brett Tabke

We have begun updating many of the sessions we have scheduled with descriptions. More as the week goes along.

Yahoo YPN To Blitz PubCon
Date: 9/20/2005
By: Brett Tabke

It is official! Yahoo Publisher Network will sponsor a special Session at WebmasterWorlds PubCon 10 Vegas! The panel will include a whos-who of YPN execs:

Will Johnson, Vice President & General Manager, Yahoo! Publisher Network Online
David Zito, Sr. Manager, Development for Yahoo! Publisher Network Online
Don Loeb, Director, Business Development, Yahoo!
Arnie Gullov-Singh, Senior Product Manager - Content Match

Hotels Filling Up - Go for MonoRail
Date: 9/21/2005
By: Brett Tabke

The Hotels in Vegas are filling up fast. However, this year we are at the convention center stop directly in front of the convention center monorail stop. If in doubt where to stay, have a look at the Monorail Route map to decide. This makes the conference just 5mins away from most hotels.

Pubcon and the Rolling Stones!
Date: 9/19/2005
By: Brett Tabke

The Rolling Stones will be playing Vegas the same week as PubCon. Your chance to the legends. Check the MGM or Ticketmaster websites for more info.

John Battelles' The Search - Now Shipping
Date: 9/9/2005
By: Brett Tabke

My credit card just got dinged from Amazon. The only outstanding order is The Search by John Battelle. John was our keynote address at PubCon 8 in June.

New Buzz Word: Forensic Investigation
Date: 9/9/2005
By: Brett Tabke

So I was talking with Alex of Beyond Ink yesterday about her and Annes upcoming sessions in Vegas. She happened to say that one of their SEO specialties is Forensic Investigation. I have heard most of the buzz phrases in this industry, but that was a new one to me.

"We investigate dead sites that don't perform in the search engines", said Alex.

Andy Beal Out of Retirement
Date: 9/8/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Andy Beal is back in action with a new blog called MarketingPilgrim. Andy will also be joining us for his first PubCon appearance on a couple of panels down in Vegas baby.

Conference Signups
Date: 9/6/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Just a quick heads up that there are very few (less than 20?) rooms to go at the Renaissance Las Vegas for PubCon 10.

If you are coming to the conference - it is advisable to get a hotel room - ANY hotel room that you can because there are 3 conferences that have just been moved from New Orleans to Vegas during our week.

The Cube!
Date: 9/2/2005
By: Brett Tabke

I think Danny Sullivan and Susan Bratton are two of the only people that can really appreciate this blog entry:

Imagine a cube with 100 sides where each side can be 1 of 30 colors. Imagine further that each color can be in 4 different hues at 7 different times of the day.

I have just describe what it is like to build a conference session grid: 100 speakers, 30 sessions, 4 tracks, 7 time slots over two days. It is without-a-doubt one of the most complex, and rewarding tasks I have ever been charged with performing.

That said, I put up the layout for the session times to give you an idea of the schedule. I have also updated the speakers list with the current confirmed set of speakers.

Specific changes from last year:

Four stream tracks instead of three.
Two traditional conference days instead of two and a half.
Pubcon still on Thursday afternoon.
About the same number of sessions.

Last year, everyone agreed that the last morning was just too much after the Yahoo party on Wednesday night.
The fourth track this year will feature a split set of sessions devoted to site reviews and also some vendor topics.

The site review tracks will include:

Organic optimization. Raw SEO site performance and horsepower tweaking.
PPC Ad optimization. Increasing the value of paid advertising.
PPC Landing page optimization and conversion tweaking.
Link building garage.

Sessions

Some of the sessions you will see:

Super Session with Tim Mayer (Yahoo!), Matt Cutts (Google), Rahula Lahri (Ask Jeeves), and Eytan Siedman (MSN Search).
Niche Marketing via One Page Wonders.
Domain Mastery with two top notch IP/Domain attorneys and the boys from Moniker.
Search engine user behavior. Gord from Enquiro will be along to share some fresh eye tracking studies.
Tor Crocket from Miva (formerly Findwhat/Espotting) will again knock your socks off with one of the best real world ppc presentations I've seen this side of Dan Boberg. Dan will be back, and bringing fresh game himself!
Every webmasters favorite topic, linking will have atleast 3 sessions: site reviews, paid link advertising, link building campaigns...
Contextual programs with the major program operators (quigo, google, kanoodle, contextweb).
Affiliate program optimization. Three sessions.
Keyword Research.
Blogging, podcasting, rss - we got it covered.

Discount Extended
Date: 9/1/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Because the reminder emails did not all go out yesterday and are still processing, we are extending the early bird discount until the end of day on the 2nd. That, and I am not quite ready with the sessions to be posted yet.

Conference Signups
Date: 8/31/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Not surprisingly, Vegas conference signups are well ahead of any other conference we have done. We are right now, where we were about three weeks out from the last big one.

Discount
Date: 8/29/2005
By: Brett Tabke

The 31st is the last day for the early bird discount.

Please note - there are not very many rooms left at the discount rate. hurry.

Exhibitor
Date: 8/28/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Liveperson joins for the first time.

Exhibitor
Date: 8/22/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Gary and the boys (and GIRLS!) are coming to Vegas!

PubCon Online
Date: 8/17/2005
By: Brett Tabke

We made the big move to the new site!

Education First - Everything Else Follows
Date: 8/2/2005
By: Brett Tabke

So he looks at me with a straight face as says, "Brett, I walked into a session about PPC keyword selection, and I didn't have a clue what they were talking about and this is the same stuff I do for a living!"

So it is pretty clear to me, that we need some new user sessions at the conferences. To that end, we will have three newly named tracks in Vegas. Tentative names are:

Basic: entry level knowledge and skill set.
Intermediate: moderately difficult, but not for the newbies ;-)
Professional: our traditional top end seo/sem professional oriented information.

Hotel Vegas!
Date: 8/1/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Renaissance Las Vegas

Request for Speakers
Date: 7/25/2005
By: Brett Tabke

Requests for speakers for our Vegas conference have gone out. http://www.pubcon.com/session_proposal.cgi

InfoSearchMedia Steps Up
Date: 7/15/2005
By: Brett Tabke

I just heard from InfoSearchMedia CEO Steve Lazuka that they will again be the Premier Platinum sponsor for Vegas! Thanks to Steve and the whole InfoSearchMedia group.

Cringely Locked In
Date: 7/11/2005
By: Brett Tabke

The author of one of the most important computer magazine specials is joining us in Vegas to keynote! Details when the site goes live!

New Blog!
Date: 7/1/2005
By: Brett Tabke

We will track some conference news and events here.