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Last week, I went to Pubcon 2010, a Las Vegas Internet Conference about Search, Social Media, Internet Marketing and Website Operation. This conference was the epitome of ironic. Let me explain...

• Flew on Virgin Airlines...for the first time...to a conference that I have never attended before.
• 10th year anniversary of a conference that originally met in a pub, I probably didn't even understand the concept of alcohol back then.
• Lost my name badge in Vegas...sober.
• I have business cards with my twitter handles on them, however I couldn't attend some of the tweetups because of Las Vegas age restrictions at clubs.

Okay okay, all chides at my age. Yes, I was probably the youngest person in attendance, and yes it was intimidating, but who doesn't get a little nervous at these kind of events? I was very thankful for the opportunity to represent www.Trademarkia.com and learn from all the wonderful speakers and attendees. The first and hopefully not the last Pubcon!

Monday

• Ran into Tony Wright (@tonynwright) and Shilpa Nicodemus (@shilpanicodemus) of Wright IMC on the first day "tweetup". Tony spoke and moderated six Pubcon sessions! 
• Informed a few individuals that they received Office Action letter's on their trademarks...don't they have lawyers that are supposed to tell them?
• Personal note: Ate YUM sushi and watched a Cirque du Soleil show. 

Tuesday

• Learned about Raven Tools and other exhibitors at the Exhibit hall.
• Spoke Russian with Tim Ash (@tim_ash), author of Landing Page Optimization.
• Alan K’necht (@aknecht) gave me a signed copy of his book The Last Original Idea.

Wednesday

• Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) "Trends: Mobile, Social, Local, Real-time, HTML5" [Funny quote "If spam falls in the forest and no one sees it, did the spam show up on Google search results?"]
• Bought Unmarketing a book by Scott Stratten (@unmarketing).
• SEO Meatball Dinner with Greg Boser (@gregboser) and David Snyder (@davesnyder) of BlueGlass Interactive LLC.  Attendees: Scott Cowley (@scottcowley) of SEO.com,  Barbara Boser (@barbaraboser), Danielle Culmone (@dculmone) of Searchmetrics.com, Donna Snow (@snowwrite), Mike Ramsey (@niftymarketing), Linda S. (@i80equipment09). 
• Rode in a limousine for the first time EVER. 

Thursday

• Because I am a Dummy, I bought Search Engine Optimization for Dummies :D
• Tim Mayer Keynote: "The future of search is prediction and suggestion" i.e. Google Instant
• Sean Jackson from Copyblogger Media (@seanthinks) quoted Theodore Roosevelt, "There is no effort without error and shortcomings".
• Learned about Blekko, the new slashtag search engine.
• Started editing Facebook custom tabs for Trademarkia fan page. Added Deals and Services tabs.

Quick Tips...

• Just because your not an expert, doesn't make you any less qualified to attend, we are all here to learn!
• If you are a women, don't pack heels, pack shoes you KNOW you will be comfortable in for 10 hours. And perhaps 1-2 extra pairs of stockings in case yours' rip from all the walking...
• If you have a one sided bag/purse, SWITCH SIDES or else you may get blisters on the feet that holds the most work.
• If you are a coworker (*ahem* Cliff *ahem*) don't forget your toothbrush and floss
• If you are a klutz like me, don't lose your name badge!
• Don't forget to follow the #pubcon twitter stream!

Food For Thought...

1. A few people suggested I change my title from "Publicity and Media Relations" to something else. I can easily do that when this batch of business cards runs out, however I wear a lot of "hats" and it's hard to classify or constrain what I do... I do social media monitoring/marketing, content writing (blog, newsletter, press releases..), public relations,....what title fits all of that?
2. Is it just me or do a lot of popular pubcon speakers have really short names? I have three syllabules just in my FIRST name! "Maria" is probably the most popular name EVER, and "Orlova" is surprisingly common as well. And if you search for me, Google will try and ask you "Did you mean: marina orlova"? Thank you Google, I understand our names are SUPER similar, but I am not an etymologist, nor am I Hotforwords.

More reading...

*Quick Tip* Scott Cowley (@scottcowley) has great recaps of the events. Also SearchEngineLand.com has a big recap.

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Facebook Pubcon 2010 photo album.
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