Below is my video review of Pubcon Las Vegas 2018 if you prefer to watch.
Is it worth the money to attend Pubcon?
Let’s identify the elephant in the room, you’re here because you’re wondering if it’s worth your money to attend Pubcon? Bottom line is the return on investment, right? Short answer: yes, but with caveat.
If you are a marketer that needs:
- More technical chops and know-how in digital marketing
- Deep dive into advanced technicals
- Enhance your marketing game cuz you’re a one trick pony
- Curious about what’s hot and new
- A developer turned digital marketer
Then this conference is for you. If you just started out doing digital marketing with 1 year or less in your belt and with no technical experiences, I would recommend you hold out on Pubcon until you have more experience. Your money will go further.
The most valuable part of Pubcon? Networking with the big wigs. At the conclusion of Pubcon, there’s an off-site social networking event where you can talk shop with speakers and attendees. This year it was hosted in Hennesey’s Tavern. In my opinion, the social part alone is worth the price of the ticket.
What will you learn in Pubcon?
Every Pubcon has various topics that they cover, but mainly it focuses on SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing). For Pubcon 2018, I would say it was about 60% SEO and 40% SEM. They try to keep it balance for the most part.
Here are the main speakers and topics Pubcon covered for 2018 in Las Vegas:
- Lee Odden – 5 Secrets to Growing Influence in Marketing
- Purna Virji – Optimizing Customer Experience In the Age of Conversational AI
- Scott Monty – Social Media 2018 – This Time, It’s Personal
- Aleyda Solis – International Optimization Strategies
- Eric Enge – Technical SEO
- Roger Dooley – Neuro-Conversion: Science-based Ways to Sell More and Spend Less
- Bill Hunt – Leading Topics from The SEO Front Lines
- Joe Laratro – Local Search: Paid and Organic Masters Workshop
If you’re in the SEO game, as you can see, this is a pretty impressive line-up and mix of presenters.
In addition to the main speakers, there are numerous breakout sessions and speakers that are too many to name, but here is the schedule of speakers for Pubcon Las Vegas 2018.
If you saw the breakout session of speakers, you’ll realize you can’t be in all the sessions at one time even if you wanted to. The nice folks over at Pubcon will send over all the slide decks after the conclusion of the conference. Usually the week after. The conference ended on Thursday and I believe I got an email with all the links to the slide decks sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. So don’t stress about FOMO (fear of missing out).
Pubcon 2018 Highlights (nuggets of knowledge)
Did a presentation with a group of colleagues who were interested of my experience in Pubcon 2018. Here are some of the highlights, enjoy!
Conclusion
I enjoyed my time in Pubcon. I was both overwhelmed and exhausted from all the knowledge I was absorbing. I believe I spent a few days where my brain just felt numb, but in a good way. There were so much content and knowledge that I was noodling on. It was a great experience. If you just started out doing marketing, I would recommend you wait for a year or so before attending Pubcon. This conference might be a little too advance if you don’t have any marketing and/or development experience. If you are an intermediate marketer and above and would like to enhance your marketing game or chops, then this conference is definitely for you.
The next Pubcon will be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on March 5, 2019. I believe they do 2 Pubcons every year, one in the west coast Nevada, and the other in east coast Florida.
