Utah SEO - Bryan Phelps

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to attend my first Internet Marketing conference with some co-workers from OrangeSoda. Overall, it was a blast. Lets start at the beginning…

Day 1

• Wake up in Orem, Utah at 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight to Vegas.
• Arrive in Vegas, catch a cab to Circus Circus. Survived several near death experiences with the cab driver who appeared to have some serious shakes from who knows what he was on.
• Unfortunately we were too early to check-in so I got to carry my backpack which contained my laptop and everything else I brought with me around the conference hall. Some of my conference-experienced co-workers were smart enough to pack their laptop and clothes separate so they were able to leave their luggage at the hotel.
• Managed to somehow stay awake through several PubCon sessions. They were interesting but 3:30 a.m. is even earlier than it sounds.
• Return to the luxurious Circus Circus where I can finally unpack my bag. Tried to be positive and convince myself I was experiencing the “historic” side of Vegas while I sat down on a bed that appeared to be a rock covered by a wood board covered with a stained comforter.
• The night picks up…off to see Blue Man Group. Lucky enough to hear a new dirty joke from the cab ride to and from the show. The Blue Man Group put on a good show and we all enjoyed it.

Day 2

• Head back to the conference hall and enjoy another day of PubCon sessions. It was fun to see/hear some of the popular SEO experts speak on various panels.
• Raided the exhibit hall for some schwag…picked up some good stuff from IZEA, Best of the Web & others and had some interesting talks with various link brokers/blog review companies. It should be interesting to see how and which paid linking companies evolve as Google cracks down.
• One highlight of the day had to have been the live domain auction. I was expecting to go for just a little bit and see some domain auctioning action but it turned out I was with a domain buying h igh roller who bought coveted domains such as DogShowTickets.com and cBatteries.com.
• Checked out the Wynn Buffet which was pretty tasty except for the sushi which Alex talked me into eating. Overall the buffet was excellent but unfortunately the sushi didn’t stay with me through the night. Thanks Alex!
• Wandered the streets of Vegas and took it easy.

Day 3

• Checked out of Vegas’ finest hotel, Circus Circus and got to carry all my laptop, clothes and schwag around for the rest of the day.
• Most of the PubCon sessions weren’t of any particular interest to me on this day but I heard the live site reviews were good so I checked some of those out and they were pretty interesting. Might have been nice if they screened them beforehand so they weren’t just “you need more links”.
• We took our final taxi ride/dirty joke to the airport and finally headed home.

Although it may not sound and probably didn’t look like I was having a blast (I was sick pretty much the whole time), I really had a great time. The sessions were informative and inspiring and listening to Chris (co-worker) carry on unusual conversations with cab drivers made me laugh harder than I have in a long time. Overall, PubCon was great and I hope to make it to more conferences in the future.