Why I’m going to PubCon instead of SES Chicago in December

As most of you search geeks know, SES Chicago and WebMaster World’s PubCon are occurring at the same time this year – the first week of December. A lot of us on the SEMPO In-House Committee were conversing about who was going to which conference and why. I’ve decided to go to PubCon over SES… 

First, I’ve been to SES three times now. I went to SES New York in April and before that I had been to SES San Jose two years in a row.  I learned something from each one although the longer I’m in this industry the less I learn each subsequent time I attend – but that’s to be expected right?  If you haven’t been to SES before though, I’d highly recommend it.  I think Friday was the last day for early bird pricing so if you missed it you might want to scrounge up a discount elsewhere (maybe join SEMPO – you get a 15% discount as member – not to mention all the other great member benefits).  Also, SES is offered multiple times per year and usually my preference is the San Jose event because it’s the biggest and easiest for me to get to travel-wise.

Another, and really the primary, reason I’m going to PubCon is because I’ve never been. I’m looking forward to seeing some new speakers I’ve never seen before as well as some of my favorites from previous conferences I’ve attended like SMX and SES. Obviously I’ll be interested in the SEO tracks, especially as they relate to Enterprise level SEO but I’m really looking forward to SEO and Big Search.  I’m also particularly interested in International and European Site Optimization as that’s something you don’t get exposed to much without leaving the States.  Matt Cutts always puts on a good gig so I’ll want to catch the keynote coffee chat with him on December 6.  I love to see how he handles some of the crazy questions he gets from the audience. And finally I want to branch out of SEO and look more at social media so I’ll try to catch Monetizing Social Media Traffic on Tuesday. Vanessa Fox is speaking on that panel so it will be great to see her in her new role at Zillow as well as catch up on the latest Buffy happenings.  I didn’t forget I owe you a drink Vanessa (can I say that in my HP blog? Guess we’ll find out!) 

And what really pushed me over the fence I wasn’t really on to begin with was having to choose between Las Vegas or Chicago in December.  Love you Chicago but by December I’m ready to warm up a bit!

If you’re going to be at PubCon maybe we’ll have a chance to meet. I always enjoy meeting other people in the search industry – especially SEOs - so if you see me wandering the halls between sessions say hi!  

Which conference will you be attending?