PubCon 2008 Vegas Baby! The Counter Balance

Wow, what a week! The comments from everyone have been that it was an excellent conference and it just may have been the best PubCon yet. We had several old school attendees say it was the best SEO/SEM/Webmaster/Marketing conference they had ever attended. This years PubCon was a major morale boost for independent webmasters. PubCon was an affirmation that websites are on the right track and doing everything they can to push their businesses forward. Just 10 minutes into the conference it became clear that everyone has a very positive mind set and outlook on their business and the economy. Chris Tolles of Topix said, "PubCon was a counterbalance to a lot of the negative stuff I've been hearing for the past month or so. Small businesses and site owners making there way, and folks outside of the echo chamber of Silicon Valley".

The Economy: 
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The master under tow out of PubCon was just how positive people are about the Internet and our businesses. Time and time again I talked with people that we very positive about both the short term and the long term business prospects.

I took an audience survey at the first morning keynote:

• Who's business was down the last six months? Not a single hand went up.
  
• Who's business is flat right now? 1 hand went up.
  
• Who expects their business to decrease in the next six months? A couple hands went up.
  
• Who expects their business to increase the next six months? Most hands in the place went up.
  

Back Beat Conference Coverage: 
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Lane Ellis put together a great list of links over on SearchEngineWorld.

Social Media - Still Buzz Worthy: 
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Social media was again the gleam in every SEO's eye. Topics around Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and general social networking sites were again all the rage. SM topics ruled for most of the conference both in and out of the sessions.

Twitter: 
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Twitter is a great way to keep up with friends and meet new networking buddies. ( you can follow me here ... ) and be sure to follow the #pubcon. Thanks to everyone who put out all the tweets during the show. I tweeted during several sessions and it helped make them better sessions that attendees got more out of...

Microsoft: 
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I had a real moment of clarity about Microsoft during the conference: they are serious about being a player in search. Microsoft had a massive presence at PubCon with dozens knowledgeable search people on hand to answer questions and demo new products. Several of those new features and products they introduced at the show itself. I think it is pretty clear that Microsoft is getting close to a tipping point on their search efforts. (Microsoft also showed they know how to throw a serious party!) Thanks Microsoft!

Whacky and Weird: 
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We were again shocked by the total number of people that came up to the WebmasterWorld PubCon booth and asked, "What is this WebmasterWorld site?". It had happened a bit before, but we easily had 50 people that did not know about WebmasterWorld. There was a cute Tweet on twitter, "I see the CEO of WebmasterWorld is speaking at PubCon. I hope to meet him." lol I think that indicates that PubCon has really become a major brand unto itself.

Overall numbers were up slightly from last year, and the new location in the North Hall worked great. According to some scuttlebutt from those in-the-know, PubCon was the first conference since March at the convention center that reported increases in attendees. I think that says more about the Vegas economy than anything else.

I heard many different comments from, "it was double last year", to it "was down from last year". It is hard to judge just from looking at the number of people wandering around. Last year, we were in the huge south hall that was 4 times as large as the hall we were in this year - so it seemed small. The year before that, we were crammed into meeting rooms - so it seemed larger. That old saying that you would rather have a room that is standing room only instead of the same number of people with plenty of extra space in a big room, is true. Striking that balance between enough, and too much is at best, an educated guess.

One Offs: 
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• The Spring PubCon South speaking proposal form is now open.
  
• PubCon Euro - London registration will open after the first of the year.
  
• Exhibitors, we are working hard to get your leads out, within a couple of days max.
  
• The CD containing the conference presentations will start to roll out at the end of the week. They are all printed and ready to burn. We are editing, collecting, and creating the CD files today and tomorrow. Burning will commence on Thursday. It takes about five solid days for the robotic CD burner to bust them out.
  
• We do not plan - at this point - to produce any video DVD's of the sessions.
  
• Facebook coupons. There was a typo on the expiration date. They expire in 2009 and the user must be a new advertiser that has signed up an account within the last 29 days. You must also verify identity by entering a credit card #, and you can use only one coupon.
  
• We had 2 usb drives found at the show. Identify them and claim them.
  
• I found a pair of worn out children's shoes in my hotel room safe. I think someone got lucky on that old gamblers sayin, "baby needs a new pair of shoes" and left the old pair. (true story).
  
• We will again be in the NORTH HALL of the convention center next year in 2009 (N3 in fact). For those that went to the South Hall - I apologize for not thinking of having signs down there and repeating the fact we were in the North Halls more than we did. After working with the conference for a year and getting it ingrained in the fiber of the conference, I assumed everyone had gotten message. Thankfully, the weather was nice, and some found the exersise refreshing.
  

PubCon Vegas 2008 Keynote Speakers

Shawn Rorick (Cirque du Soleil), George Wright (BlendTec - WillItBlend), Satya Nadella (Microsoft Live Search)

Quotes:
"We paid for our entire conference bill while at the show on the first day" - SEOmoz

"Webmasters, you people are just so freakin' cool!" - Marty Weintraub

"PubCon is the mecca of all search engine marketing events world wide. After being in the SEM field for a while you begin to expect a little repetitive information when attending SEM conferences. But I have to say that PubCon was the best conference I've ever been to." - Darwin Hall

"If you are an Internet marketer of any level I would suggest that you make your way to the next event in March in Austin or next year's west coast event. All in all though, this show was tremendous" - Frank Reed

"In evolutionary terms, the fittest, most-likely-to-survive marketer is the one who understands messaging and relationship-building like a PR person, branding and creative like an ad geek, and the technology, tools and measurement that power the web like an SEO." Kat French

"Big ups to PubCon. It's like New Media Expo meets Blogworld meets SXW. Very cool." - Jeremy Wright of B5 Media

"After attending SES, SMX and now Pubcon, I'd have to say that Pubcon was the most fun" - John Beagle

WebPro News Mega Round Up and Video Coverage: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/11/14/the-pubcon-wrap-up-roundup (Thanks Mike!)

- PubCon Baby!