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PubCon Conference Blog

PubCon Wrap Up
Posted by: Brett_Tabke, on March 24, 2009, 11:21 am in "Unfiled"

Austin 2009

by Lane R. Ellis

WebmasterWorld's PubCon successfully wrapped up its first-ever Texas event celebrating all things search related last week March 11 through 13, 2009 in the state's capital Austin, where the leading search and Internet marketing gurus gathered for three exciting days of cutting-edge multi-track sessions and networking events at a sold-out Norris Executive Conference Center.

Hundreds of PubCon South conference-goers packed the conference hall to kick off the week on Wednesday morning with an exciting fireside chat keynote speech delivered by digital entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki, recently named as one of the Web's top celebrities by Forbes magazine.

Thursday's keynote speech by Google lead quality control engineer Matt Cutts kept attendees buzzing at he chose PubCon South in Austin to launch Google's new Friend Connect API initiative.

Guy Kawasaki and Google's Matt Cutts Rocked PubCon South Keynote Sessions

PubCon South began with WebmasterWorld founder and chief executive Brett Tabke giving attendees an introduction to the conference before welcoming Guy Kawasaki and his fireside chat interviewer Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs.

Kawasaki, who also presented a keynote at PubCon in 2006, is one of the most popular users on micro-blogging service Twitter, a venture capitalist, and one of the original Apple team members responsible for marketing the first Macintosh in 1984.

Kawasaki is a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures, and the author of eight popular books including "The Art of the Start," "Rules for Revolutionaries," "How to Drive Your Competition Crazy," "Selling the Dream," "The Macintosh Way" and his latest book, "Reality Check," a compilation of the best "wit, wisdom and contrarian opinions" to come from the technology innovator and PubCon South keynote speaker.

On Thursday morning day two of PubCon South began with Google's Matt Cutts delivering the first public presentation about the search leader's Friend Connect API, which launched later in the day, giving PubCon attendees the first news about the blog-commenting widget program.

PubCon South Tops Twitter Popularity List

"PubCon is going to be so well-documented on Twitter," Cutts said, a prediction that came true as discussion about PubCon using the #PubCon hash tag became Twitter's most popular term for a period during the conference, and conference-goers enjoyed Tweeting questions to speakers and fellow audience members during many sessions.

Google insider Cutts, who is a frequent PubCon attendee and three-time keynote speaker at the conference, took questions from the audience in Austin and several submitted via Twitter and Google's Moderator service.

Cutts mentioned Tabke's popular online guide "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone," and cited WebmasterWorld as a prime example of a Web site that provides always-fresh "evergreen content."

Multi-Track Session Grid Offers Wide Variety Of Search Opportunities

A wide variety of simultaneous speaker session tracks gave PubCon South 2009 attendees a wide variety of choices and opportunities, including several sessions dedicated to Twitter, which grew to become the hottest topic at the conference.

Tracks dedicated to pure search engine optimization and organic search, search engine marketing, social media marketing and more were also well attended and live-blogged by numerous popular bloggers.

A list of some of the press coverage of PubCon South is included near the end of this conference write-up.

The huge slate of session options at PubCon South in Austin included SEO and SEM sessions that featured many of today's leading innovators such as Twitter star Wayne Sutton of SocialWayne.com, TopRank Online Marketing chief executive Lee Odden, SiteTuners.com president and chief executive Tim Ash, NVI chief executive Guillaume Bouchard, Outrider social media strategist Reem Abeidoh, and dozens of others.

PubCon South Arrived During Peak Festival Season

This year PubCon was held at an ideal time to take in Austin's famous music, film and interactive media festivals and events, many of which begin as PubCon wrapped up, and many attendees and speakers enjoyed the timing that provided added value by making an extended stay or family vacation in the technology and entertainment hub of Texas an attractive possibility.

PubCon South attendees enjoyed a number of industry-sponsored and private networking parties including one held by link-building and social media firm BuzzStream, which launched its BuzzStream for Link Building program at the trendy Austin Molotov Lounge.

The conference held its PubCon Classic informal gathering at Logan's on Sixth pub in historic downtown Austin, keeping a tradition dating back to the very first PubCon, and giving attendees a chance to network with new friends and business contacts in a relaxed environment.

Twitter Praise Pours In From PubCon Attendees

Twitter users followed all the PubCon action before, during and after the Austin conference, and used the service to share their thanks and appreciation for a highly successful PubCon South, some of which appear below.

"PubCon Austin was great. Incredible content, speakers and networking. If you were not there, you missed out." - Scott Polk

"Thanks for a great PubCon!" - googleandblog

"I'm so impressed with the quality of the content by PubCon speakers. This is a great value conference." - Lisa Riolo

"Looking forward to applying PubCon knowledge at work." - kristamq

"PubCon. The whole world is watching." - amaustin

"Just came back from PubCon South and am trying to implement all the new and hot ideas I brought back." Jenna Schneider

"Great PubCon today!" - Zachry Fragapane

"Loving the social media panel on old brands turning toward new social media at PubCon." - Joanna Lord

"Anyone in the online advertising business should be checking in on Tweets from Austin PubCon." - BiffBurns

"PubCon was the first conference where Twitter played a huge roll." - Amanda Stewart

"Absolutely awesome presentation." - esoomllub

"The Twitter session made me think about being more consistent with my topics and post frequency." - vanscoy

"I'm learning 1000 percent more about Twitter than I did yesterday because of PubCon." - Les Mcgehee

"Thanks PubCon for the two days. Learned a lot!" - nerdyandrew

"Loving PubCon in Austin. There are some of the smartest, coolest search and social media people here right now." - Melanie Mitchell

"Matt Cutts rocked this morning in PubCon." - Hasit Ruparel

"PubCon was awesome!" - humbyc

"I was honored to be there. It was a great conference." - Tony N. Wright

"400 Internet geeks all under one roof. We're causing Twitter 'fail whale' havoc for sure." - Amanda Stewart

"Craig Hordlow is talking about 'motive analysis' at PubCon. Great stuff." - bmassey

"CopyBlogger - Brian Clark - Your talk at PubCon was worth the whole price of admission!" - ohyeahsteve

"PubCon was awesome." - pscherer

"I'm already looking forward to PubCon Vegas - it's going to be so much fun." - Shari McConahay

"Thanks for a spectacular conference once again. See you in Vegas." - Amanda Stewart

"Had an incredible experience at PubCon. Thanks everybody for your knowledge shared!" - ScottieT76

"Great event, met lots of good folks and discovered new companies. Thanks again!" - dabrink

"Thank you PubCon for terrific times! See ya'll in Vegas November 2009." - chiropractic

"Thanks for an awesome PubCon! I learned lots, met awesome people and had so much fun!" - Shari McConahay

"Don't know where I would be without the PubCon friends." - jamaicatom

"Local Austin businesses have serious opportunity to shine (and profit) with masses of bloggers and Twitterers in town for SXSW and PubCon." - chiropractic

"Planning on Vegas - haven't missed a U.S.-based PubCon since Boston 2003." - Adam Jewell

"I thought that getting PubCon insight was way cool." - eyguy

"Just saw a great talk on SEO and PR at PubCon by Lee Odden." - Steve Boymel

"Just downloaded Twitterberry. Estimated Twitter apps I will have after PubCon: hundreds." - Wes Bailey

"Really glad I swung by PubCon, it wasn't originally in the cards, but great crowd." - Greg Cangialosi

"The PubCon crowd! This room is packed." - Wayne Sutton

"Very glad that PubCon in Austin, Texas showed just how great a search marketing show can be." - Brian P. Combs

"I love PubCon people." - Lee Odden

"Digging the Super Session panel at PubCon. Great minds on and off stage." - opie

"PubCon - always enjoyed that conference. Good, intense search talk and good people." - joeduck

"PubCon was very good! I learned a lot today, took plenty of notes, and have some ideas for work." Keith Goode

"Some of the stuff at PubCon was over my head. But it's a good place to learn." - Dena Davis

"Amazing Austin hospitality at PubCon. Really happy to have attended sessions with local businesses looking to learn." - George Bounacos

"I love PubCon." Joanna Lord

"PubCon was awesome today. Love it." - Griffin Granberg

"Two days at PubCon - great stuff!" - pscherer

"PubCon Austin has been a great blend of traditional SEO/SEM with a huge component of social media." - Roger Dooley

"Back from PubCon - so many notes, so many new tools to check out." - volusion

"Thanks for the warm welcome from everyone at PubCon at Austin!" - Tim Ash

"We had the best damn time at PubCon. Thanks to everyone who said hi and shared a beer. You made our trip!" - Lisa Barone

"Meeting folks in person is the best part of PubCon!" - Roger Dooley

"Promised myself that I am going to use Twitter more after PubCon." - Moses Chang

"PubCon was awesome." - jamaicatom

"Just counted 29 pages of notes from PubCon. what an amazing event. Thank you!" - Ricci Neer

"Had a great time at PubCon and met some great people." - rjaworski

"Wow, you don't realize how many PubCon notes you took until you actually start opening all the files - good stuff." - volusion

"Fantastic PubCon meetup. Old friends, new faces, hard working SEOs all sharing: ideas flying everywhere. Great to see and hear it." - SEOmom

"Am I the only one thinking about PubCon vegas in November?" - humbyc

PubCon South 2009 Press Coverage

WebmasterWorld's PubCon South conference successfully wrapped up Friday in Austin after three days of sessions, keynotes and networking. A selection of links to a variety of coverage is presented below, and dozens of video interviews conducted by SearchEngineWorld video content producer Vanessa Zamora will be coming soon.

Even before the first day of PubCon South's week in Austin was over the complements praising the conference as a superb regional event began to pour in. Those lucky enough to be in Austin during March 11 through 13, 2009 were treated to WebmasterWorld putting on it's biggest and most successful PubCon South yet.

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