Kids these days. D^^n.

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Kids these days. D^^n.

rocknbil

4:59 pm on Sep 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

A young associate emails "Hey, Pubcon is in Vegas this year. Should we go? I'm not sure of the value of this conference."

I nearly fainted and went into a tirade about precisely which body parts were available in exchange for a pass to Pubcon LV. LOL . . . .

piatkow

4:12 pm on Sep 25, 2011 (gmt 0)

Could you actually produce a cost justification?

In other fields I have regularly attended conferences where their importance was pretty much regarded as self evident. All of a sudden a new manager asks for numbers and it gets very difficult come up with any.

johnhh

9:34 pm on Sep 25, 2011 (gmt 0)

Love to go to Vegas, but can't see a cost/benefits advantage, and then there's all that hastle with US immigration thats make life SO difficult

buckworks

10:21 pm on Sep 25, 2011 (gmt 0)

One way or another, every PubCon I've attended has taught me something that effectively paid for the trip after I got home and put it into action.

wheel

10:25 pm on Sep 25, 2011 (gmt 0)

Could you actually produce a cost justification?

I've never returned from pubcon without a tip well worth the entry cost. Two examples off the top of my head:
- I got one tip at pubcon Boston (I bought a blackhat guy lunch and a beer, cost me <$20) that I used on a number of sites. I sold one of those sites for about $35K - and that price was entirely the result of what the blackhat told me (I translated what he told me into whitehat. Both Google and the new site owner love the site to this day.).
- I connected with an affiliate at pubcon who associated with me on a site I owned. That site now makes $100-$150/month as a result of what they did to the site. $150 a month isn't much....until you figure out that I've been getting a check for $150 every month for years. On my own, that site would still be producing $0.

That's not to say that I don't make money from what I learn in the sessions - nothing could be further from the truth.

The cost justification is probably more along the lines of an educational thing - you come, you learn, you get payback later when you apply what you learn. But what you learn can have some huge $ value.

rocknbil

5:54 pm on Sep 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

The company owner would send me off without question. It's just that . . . I have too much on my plate ATM. I was just shellshocked at the statement. :-)

Innovate

8:17 pm on Sep 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

I've never been into conferences. I don't care to be bothered. Plus, people act all nice and schoomzy, but it's a bunch of crap.

But maybe I am doing it wrrrrrrrrrrong.

I would like to hear more about what I am missing out on....

wheel

8:27 pm on Sep 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

You are doing it wrong.

There's always people that know more than you. And if you don't believe that, there's people that just know *different* stuff than you. pubcon's where you get to talk to them.

Innovate

8:51 pm on Sep 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

Yes, there are people who know more than me. That doesn't mean that I am going to run into any of them who are willing to share, discuss, network, etc as opposed to trying to sell me something or milk me dry.

g1smd

9:28 pm on Sep 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

It's rare (well in the UK it is) for people to market to you over lunch; and even less so in the bar. However, the SEO tips scattered among all the other chatter are often revalationary.

wheel

9:34 pm on Sep 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

Yes, there are people who know more than me. That doesn't mean that I am going to run into any of them who are willing to share, discuss, network, etc as opposed to trying to sell me something or milk me dry.

You have my personal guarantee you're not going to run into either one of those types of people. You only risk that if you actually attend.

I should probably be more careful about that myself, though. What if I told someone something and it milked me dry?

Thankfully, *most* of the people I run into there know more than me, so I'm pretty safe. I'm at the bottom of the knowledge pyramid.. Reminds me of the 'pyramid of life' thing I tell my kids about. How I'm at the top of the heap and they're at the bottom of the heap, like a big pyramid. I make the shape of a pyramid with my hands as I remind them further that s*** runs downhill in this pyramid. And THAT"S why they have to cut the lawn - it's the pyramid of life.

Tell them the story enough times and eventually I can just answer 'it's the pyramid of life' when they ask for an explanation.

rocknbil

6:05 pm on Sep 27, 2011 (gmt 0)

I would like to hear more about what I am missing out on....

Umm, there are also parties. And it's Vegas. <EG>

How's that quote go? "I am convinced that 90% of all enterprise actually occurs in saloons and churches . . . "

engine

5:18 pm on Sep 28, 2011 (gmt 0)

I nearly fainted and went into a tirade about precisely which body parts were available in exchange for a pass to Pubcon LV. LOL

I've been watching the news to see if there are reports of body parts turning up. hehe

Yeah, it's easy to say it's great when you've attended. Yep, it's great! :)

wheel

5:26 pm on Sep 28, 2011 (gmt 0)

Apparently the OP is from the western seaboard of North America:
[en.wikipedia.org...]

From the link:

As of August 30, 2011, eight feet have been found in Canada, and three in the US State of Washington.

One can only imagine that these discoveries were found around the time of pubcon registration.

lucy24

4:34 am on Sep 29, 2011 (gmt 0)

As of August 30, 2011, eight feet have been found in Canada

And here I thought they went metric years ago...

But seriously! If everyone who goes to Las Vegas comes home knowing the correct pronunciation of "Nevada", it will be worth it.

And if not, pin your hopes on the next generation. Recently while shelving picture books at the library my attention was caught by a board book-- the ones made for very small children-- called "My Panda Book".

That's the way. Start 'em young.