Look how old this is!
I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 16 years 11 months 30 days ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.

I was packing this afternoon for my trip to Los Angeles for the local search engine strategies conference, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t even planned out my session attendance for either one.

It only took me a minute at the SES website, because without multiple tracks, there wasn’t much to choose from. It’s a show focusing on local search though, so I expect to learn a lot about an area I’m not really that strong in, and where there have been a lot of innovations.

On the other hand, PubCon hasd a lot to choose from, so planning ahead took me a while. Here’s my current game plan for PubCon Las Vegas 2007, but as usual, it’s subject to change.

The entire session grid is here, where you can see that at any given time there can be as many as five sessions running at once.

Day 1
The first morning session is the Kickoff Keynote Address by Craig Newmark (o1f Craig’s List fame, so that’s certainly going to be something to see

The next session holds no big draw for me, so I think I’m actually going to attend one of the 101 panels, likely Classic and timeless hits because I’ve been doing a lot more teaching myself, and I certainly have something to learn from each of the presenters.

However, anyone not already comfortable with social networking would probably want to attend this panel for sheer star power and packing a lot of information into a short amount of time.

Following that I think I’ll find Monetizing social media traffic to be the most enlightening. Last year I attended the concurrent PHP databases presentation, and it was very good, if not over my head at times.

After lunch the first day, four of the best pros on the planet will be talking about link building campaigns and strategies, and that’s probably not one to miss.

However, there are some great presenters in every session this period, and they all promise to be excellent. This is one of the frustrating things about any conference… deciding which sessions to attend.

After that, 96 strategies for link baiting is the only clear choice for me, and the last session of the day still has me on the fence. On the one hand, it’s tempting to think that I will learn something valuable in the link buying session but the reality is that none of the good stuff can even be mentioned in a session like that for fear of the wrong person finding out something valuable.

Most likely I’ll attend something that has more practical information to share, like Forums and communities, building, management and optimization. I’ll also point out that this is the same time slot for fellow SEMpdx‘er Scott Orths’ presentation on Web analytics

Day Two
Wednesday opens with a Keynote Address by Richard Rosenblatt and I’ll be following that up at the interactive site review session with Dixon Jones and Rae Hoffman. Dixon is a great guy, and if you’ve never seen Sugar Rae during site reviews, you’re missing out.

The last session before lunch is another tossup, and frankly I wonder if another 101 session isn’t the best option, taking a top-down look at site design at SEO site design & organic structure. Sometimes hearing well presented fundamentals over again can be a valuable experience.

After lunch on day two comes my own session, Web hosting and SEO issues, and I’m excited not only because it’s my first Webmaster world speaking engagement, but because I get to sit with some real pros, including my favorite presenter Jake Baillie.

After that there’s a break, and then a domain name auction followed by a reception with the Google engineers. If you think you’re going to learn anything from the Google engineers, you’d better be a fast talker, because every time I’ve had a chance for a one-on-one conversation with one of them, they’ve pinned me in the corner and had nearly as many questions as I have! Seriously, they’re all nice, and usually willing to answer anything you can throw at them within reason.

Day 3
Matt Cutts kicks off day three with his “Coffee with Matt Cutts” chat supersession, and that’s always informative.

The second session of the day I may hit up Brand management unless I can weasel my way onto the site review panel. When Brett at Webmaster World accepted my application to speak this year, he did tell me I’d be on a review panel as well, and this is one that still isn’t listed as full for speakers 😉

The third session is going to have to be the Search and blogging reporters forum, with four of the most respected names I know in search. Then again, there’s another empty review panel just sitting there…

After lunch I think I’m most interested in startup costs of getting in the video game , but will likely end up in Multivariate testing and conversion tweaking because that’s where I can do the most good for my remaining clients.

Following that is the site review session that I’d really most like to sit on, (are you reading Brett?) with Greg Boser, Todd Friesen, and Seth Wilde, but when I’m not added to that panel I’ll either go to word-of-mouth marketing or just go back to my hotel room and pout 😉

Surprisingly the last session of the day is not the “search engine smackdown” that seems to be conspicuously absent this year, but instead it’s just another breakout with four to choose from.

To be perfectly honest, at this point I’ll probably be hanging about in the halls trying to get invited to something private, but if that fails I’ll probably go to the Blue sky small business roundtable.

*edited – Thursday night I’ll be attending the Microsoft party at the Ghost Bar in the Palms. (I’m not sure why I got an invitation, but I’ll be there anyway). Someone commented below about an SEO poker going on tournament too, but the link seems to be down.

Day 4
There’s nothing going on in the morning, but at 1 p.m. comes the “Pub” part of PubCon with the location yet to be announced. If you see me there, please come up and introduce yourself, don’t be shy, and if you mention you read this on my blog, I’ll buy you a beverage and talk search for a while.

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