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Austin 2009
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.
Las Vegas 2008
WebmasterWorld's PubCon, one of the most historic of all webmaster conferences, successfully concluded its biggest grand celebration yet of all things search-related on November 14, 2008 under the bright lights of the conference capital of the world that is Las Vegas, where the leading search and Internet marketing gurus gathered for four exciting days amidst throngs of live-bloggers feverishly trying to Twitter and blog as much of a PubCon-record speaker agenda that topped 85 sessions and six simultaneous tracks as was humanly possible.
WebmasterWorld's 2008 PubCon Conference Shines Brightly In Las Vegas
Over the past few years PubCon has gained increasing mainstream recognition and popularity after many years of under-the-radar success among the technically-savvy programmers and in-the-know search engine 
experts who have for years enthusiastically savored the old-school style discussion forums of founder and chief executive Brett Tabke's WebmasterWorld.com online community, a massive collection of wisdom contained within millions of articles chronicling all areas of the Web from its very earliest beginnings.
The PubCon conference always seems to spawn both industry-sponsored and private networking parties, led by the huge informal gathering held in a pub setting that has been the event's trademark, giving everyone the chance to rub elbows with a wide array of the inevitable industry rock stars from tech titans such as Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Facebook, Adobe, Microsoft, and increasingly Hollywood celebrities such as "CSI: Miami" star David Caruso as well. In nearly every aspect PubCon 2008 was the conference's biggest success yet.
Day One: Bigger, Better, Brighter
One of PubCon's largest ever groups of attendees had the thrill of kicking off the conference on Tuesday morning with an exciting keynote speech given by Cirque du Soleil's masterful director of marketing Shawn Rorick, during 
which he gave conference-goers a vast amount of insightful information on the merging of traditional and new media, emerging media tactics, and the growing importance of mobile and social media search marketing strategies.
Having increased the number of speaker session tracks from five to six, PubCon 2008's first day saw opportunities abound for all in attendance, with tracks dedicated to pure search engine optimization and organic search, search engine marketing, video and multimedia, the world of affiliates, social media marketing, and a day-long series of live interactive Web site review panels, a format proven to be so helpful to attendees that PubCon offered a new slate of site review sessions each day of the conference.
After 30 sessions and Shawn Rorick's kickoff keynote address, Tuesday's PubCon agenda continued with a special cocktail reception sponsored by Bruce Clay Inc. and Apogee Search, and the sounds of networking attendees continued well into the night at the vast Las Vegas Convention Center.
Later that night and throughout the week a number of large and impressive parties were held at various hot spots around the Las Vegas strip drawing many PubCon attendees, either hosted by PubCon sponsors or other search industry companies who got the word out more than ever before through the use of Twitter. Some regular PubCon attendees even organized special events including a "FightClub" training session, a charity poker tournament held at The Venetian, and numerous breakfast and dinner gatherings. WebmasterWorld evangelist Joe Morin also did a brilliant job arranging a number of special discounts at leading Las Vegas attractions for conference attendees during PubCon 2008.
Day Two: "Will it Blend?", Twitter Success and Special Events
Tabke gave a packed PubCon day two audience exactly what they had been looking forward to on Wednesday morning when he introduced keynote speaker George Wright, the vice president of marketing and sales at blender manufacturer Blendtec, the man responsible for the wildly popular “Will it Blend?” online video series that has been among the most watched on YouTube. His tips for viral 
marketing, utilizing video channel subscribers and understanding new online marketing tools were among the most talked-about at the conference, as was his live demonstration during which he decided to blend a giant garden rake with a wooden handle that ended up in tiny bits, much like the iPhones he has blended in his online video series, to the visible delight of the packed PubCon audience.
PubCon's exhibit hall opened after Wright's keynote speech, and featured leading search engine companies such as Google and Microsoft, along with dozens of other industry firms including PRWeb, Matchpoint and Moniker, and for the first time PubCon had a full array of charity gambling tables available in a comfortable lounge environment, pleasing many attendees who were able to get in their gaming fix without having to leave the PubCon grounds while at the same time supporting the LiveStrong Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Another huge slate of session options made day two at PubCon a busy and productive one, with content tracks ranging from Web hosting, brand reputation management, and "King Content" to a slew of new interactive site review panels and even more SEO and SEM sessions featuring many of today's leading innovators such as Brett Crosby of Google, Shailesh Bhat of Yahoo and Robin Liss of Camcorderinfo.com.
Microblogging service Twitter was on the minds of many PubCon attendees this year, and on the screens of their smartphones as discussion about PubCon became Twitter's most popular term for a period during the conference, and conference-goers enjoyed Twittering questions to speakers and fellow audience members during many sessions.
Continuing on long into the night after the busy daytime agenda was an SEOmoz-sponsored "werewolf" gaming tournament played with custom decks of cards featuring the likenesses of many top search industry professionals, including some who were in attendance at PubCon.
Day Three: Microsoft Announces Major Initiatives At PubCon
During the morning of PubCon's third day Microsoft senior vice president of search, MSN portal and advertising platform group Satya Nadella launched the broad new Microsoft "Silk Road" project for Live Search, during an 
exciting keynote address.
A successful and well-attended day three slate of sessions included among its six tracks speakers delving into subjects as diverse as duplicate content issues, building the best online community forums, and in-house pay-per-click campaigns. A star-studded "Search Engine Smackdown" session featuring representatives from the major search engine companies drew such a huge audience, with speakers such as Google engineer and Webspam leader Matt Cutts, that it had to be moved into the biggest available PubCon venue.
An evening search bash sponsored by WebmasterRadio.FM and Microsoft Live Search amazed PubCon attendees with its spectacular entertainment and great networking environment at the trendy Rain nightclub in the Palms Casino Resort.
Day Four: PubCon Networking Event Kicks It Bavarian-Style At Hofbrauhaus
PubCon treated its attendees to one of the best networking events it has held since it first starting organizing
them in London in 2000, with a Bavarian-style search celebration that rocked the Las Vegas Hofbrauhaus and its huge German beer hall as hundreds of PubCon ticket holders mingled and took advantage of this final official opportunity to meet new people and conduct business in a relaxed and informal setting.
Even before the first day of PubCon's week in Las Vegas was over the complements praising this year's conference as the best ever began to pour in, and it wasn't long before the 2008 event had claimed the top spot among attendee all-time favorites. Those lucky enough to be in Las Vegas during November 11 through 14, 2008 were treated to WebmasterWorld putting on it's biggest and most successful PubCon yet.
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Las Vegas 2007
Everybody loves Vegas! The 2007 Las Vegas edition of PubCon was the most jam packed of any PubCon ever.
More sessions, more big keynotes, more exhibitors, and more parties than ever before.
PubCon was kicked off by big time site operator, Craig Newmark of CraigsList.org.
The day was packed with Grade A sessions that featured our first social networking track.
The afternoon was capped with a special cocktail reception hosted by DidIt with a book signing
by Kevin Lee.
The evening brought out our first after hours session in PubCon history. They say getting people to
an evening session in Vegas is like trying to herd wild rabid cats through a mouse hole.
PubCon answered the challenge with a panel of the super stars of search moderated by master
moderator and crowd favorite Guy Kawasaki.
You'd think we would call that a day and head for bed - but the fun wasn't over yet - it was time
for the bloggers in the crowd to live it up at some major Vegas shows.
PubCon organizers pulled off one of the most spectacular coups in Vegas history by getting
major Las Vegas shows to comp us nearly $100,000 dollars in show tickets. We called
it bloggers night out. The skinny, was that bloggers should write a review of the show
they went to see. That was all they had to do to score tickets with face values ranging from
$120 to over $300 a ticket.
driven approach to online marketing in an exciting
and informative keynote speech delivered to a standing room only crowd
overflowing the huge keynote area.
marketing Peter Arceo and Vegas.com vice president of marketing Bryan Allison
had the PubCon halls and session rooms buzzing throughout the week after their one-of-a-kind and informative keynote session.
"WebmasterWorld
PubCon was a blast on Saturday. Met a lot of new faces, and spoke a while with a
few old friends, while drinking lots." - g1smd
an appearance at the Demand Media/Enom anniversary party held at Luxor's LAX night club.
Wednesday featured a potpourri of topics. Many fresh sessions were introduced from domaining to
web hosting issues. A couple of the sessions featured HostingCon founder George Roberts. Another
favorite session of the day was by email marketing wizard, Dr. Ralph Wilson.
The afternoon brought the first ever domain auction by Moniker. Nearly a half a million dollars in
domains were sold at this unique event.
Thursday was kicked off with a large question and answer session by PubCon anchor Matt Cutts. Thursday was also notable
as the largest single day of sessions in PubCon history. It was also the largest number of new - built
from the ground up, sessions ever. The largest chunk of that content were several sessions featuring
video search, video content, and video content optimization. Several special invite parties were also held
Thursday night by major search engines.
