I was fortunate enough in this economy to get to attend WebmasterWorld’s Pubcon South (Austin, TX) and here are the 5 main reasons I really enjoyed the conference.
- It was small. Yes they may have had 350+ registered people but the venue was small and intimate. I got to discuss A LOT of super-interesting stuff with a lot of great people. In some of the bigger SEO events you don’t get to really have that one-on-one face time with attendants and especially speakers.
- I have to interject something here, the cost to go was not astronomical – it was very reasonable which I’m sure the small venue helped in accomplishing.
- It was in Austin, TX. If you don’t know Austin is the weird/cool place in Texas. The live music scene is amazing and the town (downtown) really has a ton going on. Granted the conference was far from downtown so you weren’t right in the action – I still was able to go and really enjoy the nightlift and even have the best gas station food I’ve ever eaten (Rudy’s BBQ)
- I got to meet awesome people. I don’t like to list names – mostly because I’m not fantastic are remembering them all – but I got to finally meet Kenny Hyder (PositionTech), Rhea Drysdale (Outspoken Media), Lisa Barone (Outspoken Media), Dan Zarrella (HubSpot), Mark Jackson (VIZION Interactive), Ted Ulle (The MEWS Group), Adam Jewell (NetPlus Marketing), Seth Wilde (uShip). I also had the pleasure to chat with brand new to the SEO world attendants like Michael Pearson (OrgSync) and Dan Caradonna. So many truly awesome people – feel very honored to have conversed with all of them.
- I got to “get my head back in the game.” I spent the last year really releasing my own stuff under Mountastic Ventures and consulting some great companies, but I felt a semi-disconnect from the SEO field as I was mostly maintaining current rankings/conversions/etc. I don’t think going to Pubcon was really a teeth-sharpening experience but it did get me back into a hyper-focused mode for the current task at hand
- Pubcon boosted my morale for the online marketing industry as a whole. I have really felt bored with how things in the industry were really going – no huge big things going on other than Skittles front page and twitter’s emergence as another level for people to expand their existing persona/brand/etc. It’s not that going to Pubcon was like BANG! HERE’S A BUNCH OF EXCITING STUFF but rather making me realize things are maturing and that can be exciting too – especially if you’ve already been in the industry for a while (which I would consider myself). So instead of being crazy bored with online marketing, I feel really excited to be going into probably the most challenging project of my career.
All and all, it was a pretty good experience, one of my mentors once told me that going to a conference once or twice (or more) a year really helps keep you energetic, positive and focused and I would have to say, he was right.
