PubCon & All of Us…A Story

Disclaimer: This post has less to do with the information I learned at PubCon and more to do with a few important lessons I learned.

I should kick it off by saying this past PubCon Las Vegas was my 7^th PubCon. Between Vegas, Austin, Dallas, and soon to be Hawaii I have literally wandered the U.S. to make sure I didn’t miss this show. I’ve spoken over ten times on topics like PPC, landing pages, retargeting, the state of our industries job landscape, PR and social media marketing. Not to mention I’ve been lucky enough to moderate panels around analytics, affiliate marketing, SEO, and more.

Like many of you I paid for my first PubCon out of pocket. I still remember tweeting out “should I go to PubCon if my company won’t pay?” and @Sugarrae responded with something along the lines of a “hell yes” and carried on to tell me that this is THE show that is worth attending.

Jesus was she right.

There is something inexplicably special about this show. It likely has something to do with the amazing people behind it, the story of how it came about, the way its grown, and the people that attend it every year. Then there is the hugs, and the sincere “how are you doing friend?” and of course the drinks, and the gambling, and the laughing. Wow has there been some really spectacular laughing.

Because of PubCon we have had secret jokes shared between thousands of friends, a face-to-face with Matt Cutts every year of our careers, we have had something to call “ours” and something to compare every other show to.

Some of us have gotten jobs, some of us have fallen in love, some of us have gotten raises, or started companies…all from a PubCon. We have left PubCon both proud of what we have learned over the past year and humbled by how much left there is to learn.

The crazy reality of all this is that all I’ve listed above isn’t even the half of it. I’ve heard stories of late night brainstorms that led to agency collaborations, new tools, revolutionary ideas and philosophical shifts in how we approach the industry we have all jumped into whole-heartedly.

At PubCons I have seen assholes apologize for being assholes, and quiet wallflowers take a stand (usually over a few cocktails funded by {fill in awesome company here}. This conference gives us a place to rethink things, to validate our gut feelings, and to catch glimpses of what is to come.

Dare I say that PubCon has always been my favorite show over the years? Closely followed by SearchFest up in Portland, and our own MozCon. What can I say? I’m a sucker for shows that truly are just a gathering of friends at some random place usually surrounded by bars. The bigger shows out there have their place and I would never take away what shows like SMX, SES, Dreamforce, etc. have done for me, but something about PubCon keeps it on a very special pedestal for me.

I thought it would be worth writing up a few things I took away from this particular PubCon (since I always say I am going to do it and never do)…

• I need to get over my issues with it and participate more on Google + … FINE! Geeeshhh.
• I need to start saying thank you more to the people in this industry who have supported me for years. Thank you so very much– Marty, Topher, Brad, David, Brett, Steve, and Steve and so many others.
• I must stop making jokes about not being able to see over the podium when I talk, no one has ever really laughed
• I took away I should push myself to do better things with Facebook advertising for SEOmoz, I’m slacking there – ask Brian Carter and Kate Buck Jr. about what they are doing.
• I realized I’m really happy with my job and finally at the place we all hope to get to – a place where I can hear about a new opportunity but not want to explore it
• I’ve realized I will forever be thankful to the veterans of this industry that continue to push out epic ideas that get me thinking– Loren, Streko, Tim, Greg, Chris, Lisa, Rhea, Andy, Tony and so many more.
• I learned that duplicate content issues really piss people off, I’m going to suggest to our bloggers list that we should write more on this
• I took away a whole lot of great information around social and its convergence with our current digital strategies – ask Joe Hall about the data battle out there, it will tell you a lot about where we are going.
• I realized there is not so much a revolving door in this industry (like many other industries) but instead a constantly open one and I am excited to see where all the newcomers will take us in the future, cuz they are freaking smart yo.
• I’m reminded again and again that the amazing women I know in this industry have become true friends and I am a better person for it – Kate, Ruth, Kristy, Monica, Dana, Pam, Carolyn, Shannon, Vanessa, Janet, Lauren, Melanie, Merry, Michelle and so many more.

Okay that’s enough rambling for me, but I will say one last thing that any future PubCon-er should know – this all started from a group of people that literally built this industry on questions and through connecting in forums…where we all tried to help each other move an industry forward.

Sometimes I think we have forgotten that. I only hope that as Brett and his team continue to put together these shows every year we somehow find our way back there – to a point of conversation, and questions, and curiosity…and collaboration.

That’s where I want to be. Sitting around a table with you crazy freaking braniacs, trying to share what little experience I have, and absorb all of yours. Thanks again to the brilliant team behind PubCon… once again you’ve managed to remind us how amazing, ambitious, and special this industry really is.

See you in Hawaii!

BlueGlassLA Goes Full Circle & Drops Knowledge

When it comes to conferences let’s just say I’ve been to a few. Okay maybe more than a few…maybe more like a lot. Okay fine! I admit it…I’m a conference junkie.  I can’t help it, somewhere between too much coffee, a few too many cocktails, and a lot of handshaking I find myself completely elated to be in this industry…with all of you.

{Enter BlueGlassLA.}

This past week I have been in Los Angeles (huge thank you to Rand—my boss for allowing me to work from coffee shops and enjoy the Southern California sunshine), for the first ever BlueGlassLA conference. For those of you (clearly living under a rock) and not sure what BlueGlass is, you can read all about the merger here, and quickly understand why I was excited for this one.

After tweeting out I was attending a few weeks back I got a DM from someone—who I will not publically embarrass at this time—and it said, “seriously what could possibly be special about this one, it will be the same old stuff.” My reply was, “just you watch, this one will be special.”

{Pats self on back for being right}.

BlueGlassLA didn’t just attract a top-notch speaker lineup, but it filled the room with people that are making waves in our industry. I was literally shocked to see all of those faces in one room, and even more shocked to see them all meeting each other, hitting it off, trading biz cards, clinking glasses. I mean wow…just…wow.

Okay this post isn’t meant to make you feel bad about missing BlueGlassLA (although it may not have been your best decision ever) instead I wanted to highlight something original that BlueGlassLA reminded me of…

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

What the hell am I talking about? BlueGlassLA set out to change up the conference agenda. You can tell by scoping out the schedule they wanted to capture the full cycle of Internet marketing, from the very beginning (seeking out investment) to the middle chaos (trying to build a community and harness attention) to the end challenges (increasing traffic, making money, optimizing the pieces).

While I have always been aware that you needed each piece to perform for success, I think somewhere along the way I forgot that it’s not about having each piece do well, it’s about having them intersect and do AMAZINGLY well.

The BlueGlassLA speakers each spoke to their successes, their failures, and everything in between but perhaps even more importantly, in my opinion, is that they all alluded to this idea of reaching out to your network for help in the areas you don’t know. In doing this, you are able to make sure that no piece is overlooked, or half-assed.

Even the moderators and BlueGlass employees themselves touched on this as they complimented each other (in typical sarcastic, smart-ass ways) on how well they each know their piece of the Internet marketing pie. By surrounding yourself with people that are the best at what they do, you start to see a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

I felt like this whole damn conference exuded this tenet, and I was privileged to sit in the audience. I think in many ways the conference audience became an extension of the knowledge on stage…again demonstrating the power of smart people eager to learn more.

Too often at conferences there are “tracks” of topics, and I go about my paid search, SEO, and social panels. While I get to see friends, and hear about a new site or tool to check out, I rarely walk away thinking “Jesus that just blew my mind.”

By tearing down the walls between the different parts of Internet marketing and filling in some, too often overlooked, holes, I think this conference reminded me just how little I know. For those of you who know me well, you know that I value few things more than “knowledge” and “exposure to new ideas.” They keep us humble, and stretching, and motivated.

While I could have written about my experience at BlueGlassLA in a few different ways, I felt the need to really reiterate—what I believe—to be BlueGlassLA’s biggest achievement—the way in which they took a bunch of really smart Internet marketers and reminded us just how much more we have to learn.

For that I think the audience walked away from the conference a little more excited to “get after it,” and that is freaking priceless.

Did you mess up by not attending? Yeah. You. Did.

Luckily for you, and for me, it looks like they are going to be putting on another one later this year in New York. See you there? I’ll be up front eating my piece of humble pie.