I arrive Wednesday afternoon for the 2008 Pubcon conference, and I’ll be staying until after the networking event on the last day, which is the heart of the event. It’s the heart because the networking event is held at a pub, and the original idea of Pubcon was that some of the best parts of a conference take place at the pub after the official conference is done.
If you see me, please come up and say hello! Tell me how you’re doing, or what you like or dislike about Google. I’ll be participating in the Search Engine Super Session that traditionally wraps up the formal part of the conference.
What are you likely to see if you head to Las Vegas? Well, here are some pictures that I’ve been meaning to post for a year. No joke, I’m that behind on things I want to blog. 
First off, you’ll meet lots of search engine optimizers (SEOs) and webmasters:
As you can see, they’re a very fun and friendly bunch of folks. And if you’re lucky, you might run across a celebrity. Last year, we saw David Caruso:
The rumor was that Caruso was there to record some promotional material for Microsoft, but I never saw anything. If anyone knows of a David Caruso/Microsoft commercial, please send me a pointer.
WebmasterWorld is also a nice place to get a glimpse of what other smart people are doing. Last year was the first time I saw an Asus EEE:
Nowadays this is known as a “netbook” and they’re getting pretty popular with the kids these days. It looked so cool that right after the conference I went right to Amazon and ordered one. Unfortunately, my order got delayed and delayed until I finally canceled it, so I never ended up getting a netbook. Maybe I’ll try again at some point.
What else do I like about Pubcon? It’s a great chance to connect with people and just talk. For example, remember when I did this post about how triple-tap power adapters should be branded as schwag? Well, at the conference last year both Topix and CareerBuilder surprised me by actually doing exactly that:
and
It’s pretty cool to see someone take your idea and just run with it. But the best reason to head to Pubcon is that lots of fun, smart people go, and it’s a chance to catch up with what’s happening in the world of search. Again, if you see me there, please say hello!
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
If I was in the US, I would definitely go. I’d liket o go to any of theese events, but here in ‘lil ‘o Sweden it is hard to get some kind of stuff gone by
@Marcus, I was thinking the same thing… I’d go to Pubcon too if I were in the US… I’m in Sweden also though. On another subject – now that I’m living in Stockholm people keep finding me on CareerBuilder and offering me jobs back home in the SF Bay Area… figures!!
Oh man, id love to go to this, unfortunately i am on the other side of the world. Looking forward to some coverage on here matt.
I am very crazy abt this event. I look forward to attend the next meet.
I’ll be there, Matt, and I’m looking forward to the super session (as I am with all the sessions). Plus it’ll be great to meet you too – that is if I can get through the crowd
@ Elan: Pubcon’s 2009 dates are set: Nov. 9-12. I’ve already budgeted to go, but it’s easier for me since I live most of the year here in Las Vegas (the Seattle area the rest of the time).
I would have to say, if you can go, go! Not only do they provide great sessions but the diversity of wonderful folks you get to meet!!! So kind and wonderful and it made my first PubCon Vegas visit in 2006 an event to remember!
I had one goal….was to meet Matt before the it was all over and on the second day he appeared out of nowhere!
Now only if I can get my company to send me again…I’ll be a happy camper!!!!!
Looks like fun…wish I was in Vegas this week!
I attended the last year conference and missing this one. I will keep saving $100 per month from now to attend 2009 pubcon conference. I don’t know how much you gonna write here about the conference but let us know the best place to find the max about this year’s pubcon conference, i will have a google search to find that as well.
That’s cool, i wish i can attend such kind of this conferences but i think i can’t
I am going to attend next time round. I need to learn this stuff.
Matt, I am curious, do you have any preference to Pubcon or SES or SMX? Just wondering ?
Something called work is keeping me away. Perhaps if it were to be held in Reno one of these years (45 minute drive from here) I’d have a chance to both go to it and go to my job too. Anyway, I avoid Vegas like the plague – way too crowded down there.
The Asus EEE PC is great, isn’t it? I hope you are having an awesome time at PubCon, and especially at the sessions. If you get a chance, stop by MarketLeverage’s booth #14. We brought our Cashinator with us!
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We will see you there. Leaving tonight
Forget him, who’s the nice young lady next to him?
Can’t make this one. Can you recommend any other up and coming search engine conferences?
When are you coming to Sydney?
Nice seeing you again Matt, especially the “taller” you.
http://zi.ma/4de641
Looking forward to your presentation @pubcon…will buy you a drink at the true pubcon on Friday and hopefully get you to tell me how you guys reverse engineer Y’s and Live’s algo’s!!
very nice sir. you share everything … centainly a lot of people (seo) could be participate this conference if it happened in their physical site
David Caruso from CSI? Is he there not just for the promotional thing, and is there for some investigation?
One of his fan.
Eventhough I can’t make it there, but with you share info, I wish I could be there. Thanks Matt.
Matt,
Great seeing you, have to catch an early flight, so I cant hit the classic today, really wanted to check out your android phone.
Can you put an order in for one for me?
Word
Bob
Matt I really would have liked to come to the party but I live in India and we do not have any sort of conference here. Btw I am a student so can not arrange for the tickets..
You wrote nice concept about the power sockets and they were used by carrerbuilder.. So do you have any more thing to demonstrate via paint or Photshop
where was the netbook when I was a kid. All I had was the 8bit Nintendo.
Matt,
Why does Google rank Yahoo Directory pages when they clearly fail the link selling test?
And wouldn’t hurt to tell the PubCon orgainizers that you want to come back to Boston:-)
morris
Man. Twitter traffic was crazy over Pubcon.
Because they have fooled Google (and most of World) into thinking they are ONLY charging for a site review, before being included.
TRUTH is they DO sell links, hence the annual fee and the ridiculously high cost they charge, preying on Webmasters completely misunderstanding PR.
@Dave Original:
But Google sells links too, and since Yahoo! is going under, Google will soon own them, so why give up on the revenue Google will soon get from selling those links?
Nice if you to be so inviting to strangers, Matt. Also, I love your favicon!
I bet ya Google would kill the YaWho? directory IF Google bought them out.
Directories are a thing of the past, IMO. Search is just too good & life is just too fast now-a-days for users to grap a Coffee and browse through directory listings.
The $300.00 fee YaWho? charge for a 1 Year listing is just plain highway robbery. VERY little traffic will come from a listing and ALL would likely get more from AdWords or a PPC SE. On top of that, YaWho? go into hiding after you pay for a listing and/or sponsored listing. I.e. That AFTER sales service in non-existent.
Think of it this way. Google states that PageRank cannot be bought, so it’s UNLIKELY that Google passes PR from the YaWho? directory pages. IF it did, it would tilt the playing field in favor of those with the deepest pockets AND those who are listed on the directory pages with the higher PR.
Selling links is no problem, even with Google, it’s ONLY when the paid links pass PR that Google takes a dislike. Hence the nofollow attribute.
Pubcon was pretty fun! Ping me back if you’re still interested in having a chat.
Sorry to have missed PubCon this year. Brett does a nice job keeping the cost low and the quality of the presenters high. Viva Las Vegas!
Didn’t seomoz also talk about how to buy a link without buying a link? Sponsoring sites to gain links, etc. I thought this has been done almost forever now? The w3c was selling links like this as well a few years ago.
I’m wondering when Matt will start using that new Patrick Gavin text link selling thang called inlinks? LOL Heck Matt; you could fly under the radar of Google if you started monetizing your blog in this way. The heck with your readers and the deception involved.
This is what SEO is all about though now; deceiving the entire internet population is the fashionable way to go these days. Fake linkbaiting, sponsoring, selling text link ads without disclosing to your readers, etc, etc… the list is endless. I’m now telling everyone who has an internet connection to never believe for one second that blogs who give reviews are “real” reviews anymore. They are all paid for reviews. I’ve told all my family, including cousins as most of them don’t have a clue about things.
But shoot; don’t many out there take the money from text link ads (TLA) for advertising? They don’t seem to mind of deceitful they are.
Here is why you saw David Caruso:
CSI: Miami actor david caruso has joined forces with two streaming industry veterans, Nils Lahr—one of the original architects of Windows Media—and Frank Nein, to launch a new online video initiative, Lexicon Digital.
Find the full article here:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/video/3677711.htm