I will be heading down to Las Vegas tomorrow to attend the annual WebmasterWorld PubCon Conference. The actual conference doesn’t start until Tuesday next week, however I decided to go a little early to take in some of the Vegas attractions, shows, sights and, of course, the nightlife. Posting may be a little lighter than normal, but I do intend on publishing some must see content today, tomorrow and next week, so it won’t be completely deserted, just not everyday like I prefer.

Here’s the conference in a nutshell…

• Where: Las Vegas Convention Center
• When: Dec 4th-7th, 2007
• Format: Six Track Educational Conference with Expo Hall
• Topics: Search, Web 2.0, Net Marketing, SEO/SEM, Affiliates, Domainers, Video, Multimedia
• Levels: Scaled from novice (light content) to advanced experience levels (heavy content)

• Keynotes: Craig Newmark (Craigs List), Richard Rosenblatt (DemandMedia), Matt Cutts (Google)
• Evening Session: Guest Host Guy Kawasaki will moderate the first ever evening session
• Evening Panel: Tim Mayer, Rahul Lahiri, Dan Boberg, Matt Cutts, and Eytan Seidman

Here’s the agenda…

Tuesday, December 4th

• 7:30am: Registration Opens
• 7:30am-8:45am: Continental Breakfast
• 8:45am-9:00am: Conference Introduction by Brett Tabke
• 9:00am-10:00am: Morning Keynote with Craig Newmark
• 10:00am-11:30am: (Social Marketing 101 - The Playing Field), (Duplicate Content Issues), (SEO 101 - The Timeless and Classic Hits), (Major PPC Engines) & (Contextual Ad Programs)
• 10:30am-4pm: Vendor and Exhibitor Display Setup
• 11:35am-12:50pm: (Monetizing Social Media Traffic), (Perl - PHP - Databases - What Every Webmaster Should Know), (In House SEO), (PPC Marketing 101) & (Optimizing Your Site for Contextual Ads)
• 12:30pm-1:45pm: Lunch
• 1:30pm-2:45pm: (Reputation Monitoring and Management), (Link Building Campaigns and Strategies), (Universal and Personal Search - This Changes Everything), (Keyword Research, Selection and Optimization) & (Quality Score Management)
• 2:45pm-4:00pm: (Social Media and Search), (Link Baiting - 96 Different Strategies), (Content Creation - Cranking it Out), (Landing Page Optimization) & (Email Marketing with Dr Ralph Wilson)
• 4:00pm-5:30pm: (Forums and Communities : Building, Management, and Optimization), (Link Buying), (Enterprise Level SEO and SEM Issues), (Large Scale Bid Management) & (Analytics, Tracking Performance - Beyond the Page View)
• 6:00pm-7:00pm: Exhibitors Cocktail Reception
• 7:00pm-8:30pm: Evening Session with the search engines moderated by Guy Kawasaki

Wednesday, December 5th

• 8:00am-8:30am: Continental Breakfast
• 8:00am: Registration Opens
• 9:00am-10:00am: Morning Keynote
• 10:00am: Expo Hall Opens
• 10:15am-11:30am: (Analytics Vendors and Package Implementation), (Local and Mobile Search), (Domain Names and Trademarks - Legal Issues), (Webhosting Industry Overview) & (Interactive Site Reviews - Focus on Links)
• 11:35am-12:50pm: (SEO Design and Organic Site Structure), (Local Search Optimization), (Effective Domaining Strategies), (WebHosting - When to Switch to Dedicated) & (Interactive Site Reviews - Focus - Social Media)
• 12:30pm-1:45pm: Lunch
• 1:30pm-2:45pm: (SEO and Big Search), (Alternative Discovery and SEO - Feeds, PDF’s, and Blog SEO), (Domainers Round Table), (Hosting Issues and SEO/SEM) & (Interactive Site Reviews - Focus on Organic)
• 2:45pm-3:00pm: Exhibit Hall Break
• 3:00pm-5:30pm: Domain Auction Presented by Moniker
• 6:30pm-8:00pm: Special Events TBA

Thursday, December 6th

• 8:00am: Registration Opens
• 8:00am: Continental Breakfast
• 9:00am-10:00am: Keynote by Matt Cutts of Google
• 10:00am: Expo Hall Opens
• 10:15am-11:30am: (CSS and HTML Coding Today), (Brand Management), (Video Search Engines), (Effective Action Based Copywriting) & (Interactive Site Reviews)
• 11:35am-12:50pm: (Search and Blogging Reporters Forum), (International and European Site Optimization), (Video Search Engine Listings and Optimization), (Responsible Web Design) & (Interactive Site Reviews)
• 12:30pm-1:45pm: Lunch
• 1:30pm-2:45pm: (Multivariate Testing and Conversion Tweaking), (Ecommerce and Shopping Cart Optimization), (Startup Costs - Getting in the Video Game), (Effective Affiliate Strategies) & (Interactive Site Reviews - Dynamic WebSites)
• 2:45pm-3:15pm: Exhibit Hall Break
• 3:15pm-4:20pm: (Competitive Intelligence), (Word of Mouth Marketing), (PodCasting, and Podcast Optimization), (Balancing Income Channels Between Aff and Ads) & (Organic Site Reviews)
• 4:20pm-5:30pm: (Tools of The Trade), (Press and Public Relation Campaigns), (Blue Sky Small Business Round Table), (Organic Keyword Research and Selection) & (Interactive Site Reviews - Focus on Pay Per Click Advertising)
• 6:30pm-8:00pm: Special Events TBA

Friday, December 7th

• 1:30pm-Whenever: Special Event - (The PubCon Classic Networking Event)

As you can see there’s plenty of sessions to go to. Sometimes it can be hard to get to all the ones you want to see as they may be running concurrent, but I think this year I will be able to attend nearly all the ones I want to without having to worry about overlapping sessions (last year was little more difficult due to the session scheduling). Many of the ones I am most excited about are on Thursday, including the eCommerce and shopping cart optimization session.

If you are coming down to PubCon, feel free to blast me a message and we can meet up, shoot the breeze or have a drink together. I am really excited to meet some of you who regularly visit, it will be nice to put a face with a name I think. If you haven’t attended a PubCon conference before, and like the kind of content posted on eCommerce Optimization, you can get tons from one of these events. It’s always end of November or biginning of December, so plan for it next year if you aren’t able to go this time.

Viva Las PubCon!!