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PubCon 4 - officially started - notes

         

Brett_Tabke

1:53 am on Apr 23, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Myself and SugarKane celebrated the first beers of PubCon 4 tonight. (eg: I probably shouldn't be posting at this time. lol. If you log in and find anything really really weird, it can be safely discounted.)

- hotel - most excellent. Everything it was billed to be.
- hotel bar - rather small, but cozy. Micro brewery within one block!
- odds are running 40-60 on a certain WebmasterWorld member making it into the states ;-)
- Top new SEO tips and tricks...as if...you had to be there ;-)

dougs

10:57 am on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



My 2 penny worth.

Many thanks to Brett and also those involved in organising everything. Excellent event.

Dougs

Damian

12:30 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



One thing I didn't get during the presentations.. what's the sign-language for "a spammer"? :)

pictures [b1-europe.com]

Eric_Lander

12:38 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Damian, seems like you got some nice pictures of the city and it seems like the entire event wasn't a complete rain-out for all... Very nice clarity and contrast with that digital camera. I'm impressed!

korkus2000

12:48 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It was great meeting everyone I could. There were so many people there that you would need several days to get around to everyone. If you are going to one in the future show up early.

4eyes

12:52 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Just got back and read through all the threads.

To all those I met - thanks for the most stimulating and entertaining conversations - my mind is still racing now, even with the jet lag.

To all I didn't meet - y'all come to London, OK

4Eyes

Craig_F

12:55 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



> It happened too early in the morning, so I didn't
> write it down. Who was it that said about PR something
> about "why would we use 4-year old technology?"
> Does anyone have the exact quote?

I don't have the exact quote, but Paul Gardi from Teoma said that. Very funny!

gniland

2:04 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)



Excellent time in Boston!

some more highlights
rcjordan quickly raising his hand when asked if there were any spammers in the room

brooklyn drug dealer trying to start a fight with us (and came very close to being successful)

seeing webmaster world people sneaking into the chipendales strip show

when someone asked matt cutts to confirm that they had found an easter egg, matt replied it is not always a good thing to talk about an easter egg in front of 200 people (no easter egg was discovered)

Too bad I missed the driverless car crash :(

It was a great time and I am looking forward to London.:)

Shak

2:15 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



where does 1 start and finish talking about PubCon.

been home for a few hours, and do I feel sad :(

everything was a highlight, met so many members and lurkers, that towards the end I was forgetting names, and just remembering whether they were Male/Female.

London PubCon was mad, this was mental.

some highlights:

seeing Seth Wilde sober, strange or what.
meeting the 3 female crackheads on Friday Night and talking shop.
having the photo where Brett, Caine and Myself are wearing the Martini glasses :)
Having to do a runner out of Cheers, after they kindly arranged a table for 28, but most of the attendees had changed their mind.

and the best 1 for me was Phoning up various members Hotel rooms every morning at 6.30 am asking them if they were awake :) - the answer was x-rated every time along with threats of violence, especially when I got the wrong room number 1 morning and an elderly couple were disturbed.

anyway too much fun was had for someone who is sober, and NO-One was willing to try the Shak-Shot, not even DaveN.

till next time folks, keep the memories alive, and I sure am looking forward to London already.

Shak

Eric_Lander

2:42 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Shak, speaking with you for a few moments in the hotel lobby on Saturday morning was the first time I had ever met someone from WebmasterWorld in the flesh. Your willingness to simply walk up and start conversation made me realize what the conference was all about. Thanks!

Brett_Tabke

3:09 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



whoa - please consider passing me the url to any pictures before you post them. I'm putting together a page here. We've knocked a few peoples sites offline with the heavy bandwidth traffic (sorry).

Eric_Lander

3:20 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Speaking of pictures, there was a member of WebmasterWorld that was taking some pics of inside the limo on our trip from Tremont to the 'Pub... There was only 8 or 9 of us in there, but we sure felt cool in the limo compared to takin the shuttles!

Mark_A

3:52 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Glad you guys all had a good one .. next year I will make the US version .. looking forward to the next time the gig makes it back this side of the pond at the moment.

Could be too often .. there are things I learnt in London Pubcon that I have not had the chance to put into practice yet :-)

Envy does not have a pictogram does it :-)

Nelson

4:20 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks to all!

I appreciate talking all the people I met over the weekend at Pubcon.

I am a newbie at Webmasterworld and based on the knowledge on these boards I decided to go to Pubcon. I wasn't dissappointed!

I arrived Friday night and basically walked out the Tremont lobby and struck up a conversation with a couple of cool Brits on the sidewalk. It was a great bunch of folks, all doing a wide variety of things online.

My only dissappointment was missing out on the informal affiliate discussion at the pub Saturday afternoon. Oh well - I will hopefully make up for it in London!

Thanks again to everyone I met.

Nelson

homegirl

5:09 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Some of the funnier things I discovered at PubCon:
1. If someone asks what you do and you reply "SEO", it generally prompts a second question: "Is that all you do?". If you reply "Yup.", the unspoken assumption is you're a spammer. Given both our diverse mix and fairly non-judgmental crowd here at WebmasterWorld, this does not lead to automatic shunning. Although this does now explain some of the interesting looks I got from various "heads" and white hats I talked to.
2. There are various levels of secrecy/protection that different people need. ALL the women I met were gracious and open about their websites, their b-cards, and what they did (even how they fell into doing what we do). I met quite a few men who were less willing- but no less gracious, warm, or funny.

PubCon- for those of you who missed it or are considering attending the next one- provides great opportunities behind the scenes to connect with different people, brainstorm, talk intelligently about anything from the work stuff to the personal stuff, listen and learn. All you have to do is come and introduce yourself to loads of people.

I could wish for venues that still allowed the drinking- but also made conversation easier... but all in all, PubCon was a wonderful experience- because it makes the community here accessible at a face-to-face level. If you feel the love online (and also benefit from all the stuff you're learning or passing on), you feel it "squared" in person.

P.S. The Brits were hilarious (actually, quite a good show from other countries in general)... but I've a soft spot for the Canadians. Also, Google's Matt & Fast's Tim are both very friendly and funny people; can't discuss specifics of future roll-out, but you end up sort of sliding around potentialities.

Thanks to Brett for the vision, and to Paynt, Laisha, Liane, Lorax, Daisho (and his wife), Jatar_k, and Oilman for the camaraderie. While I enjoyed all my discussions with the amazing folk who came, as a 1st-timer to PubCon (and as a genuine homegirl; there's a reason I have this handle!), your warmth and kindness are remembered.

Hawkgirl

6:56 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



> seeing Seth Wilde sober, strange or what.

Someone saw him sober?

paynt

6:57 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)



Once I got a bit of voice back, seriously and completely lost my voice. I sound like a husky blues singer now. Definitely looking for a quiet background of chatter for the next conference hangout. Loved everything and everyone though. Like the rest of you, only wish there was more time. I like the idea of tee-shirts with the nick on the back and also smaller on the front. And please, bring cards with your nick on them to hand out, that would have been nice.

I really feel a part of this community now. Going to Pubcon, no matter how long you’ve been here as a member or lurker, we’re all community. Ditto all that’s been said already. Loved meeting the other mods and admins, what a group. A lot of power in that conference room, a lot of money, amazing brains.

Do we really have a young member making 1 mil a year?

Even though the Brits win hands down in charm I met many delightfully charming folk from the states and other shores far and wide. It was an incredible diverse group. Thank you for making me feel so welcomed.

Liane, thanks for the lovely gift you hand made and carried all the way from home to the conference, very cool.

Loved the Martini sunglasses, didn’t write your nick on my card so I could send a sticky but they were a big hit.

Google Matt, next time bring more stuff, the same goes for all the speakers, we love stuff.

Brett, thank you for the interpreter, it helped and Shannon was terrific. Not enough women there so she was hit on several times. I know, she was cute but married ;)

I hope more of the women in the community attend next time, there really were too few females and I know we have more in the membership here and probably lurking. Believe me, the guys will like it from what I could tell.

Thank you Brett, for giving us this experience.

Thanks to the speakers and sponsors, we loved the drinks at the actual Pub event, wow. Thanks to all who bought me food and drinks, my goodness I’m not sure where they all came from but I was never hungry or thirsty.

Counting down the days to London….

Eric_Lander

6:58 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Someone saw him sober?

Sure did. Right at the bottom of the stairs, talking with me, Travoli, rcjordan, and DrCool at the time... That was fairly early in the evening though... :)

Winooski

6:58 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Eric, 'twas me with the camera in the limo. I've made the pics available (full-size and 40%-size) to Brett, but in the meantime a friend is also able to host the smaller pics on his site temporarily.

Before I spill the URL, though I'm wondering about something: I used people's nicknames in the filenames of the pics (for myself), but now I'm wondering if some people might rather they were not so publicly identified.

What's the "best practice" with something like this?

chrisnrae

7:01 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



"Someone saw him sober?"

LOL, that was the EXACT thought that popped into my head when I read that :).

BranMuffin

7:03 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hello to Everyone! This is my first offical post to the site. I was very dissapointed that we were not able to attend the conference. We were just putting the finishing touches on our new site and needed to stay put. We did, however,make it to London for Pub Conference 3 and had an amazing time. Brett you truly know how to coordinate and execute a very worthwhile event.

In addition, I am also orignially from MA. I wish I had started posting earlier, such that anyone who hadn't been to Boston or wasn't overly familiar with the area....I could have told them nicely where to go.

With that said....Shak; SEGuru sends regards and would gladly do a shot with you anytime, anywhere. Mackin, I was hoping to see you, I got ripped off. Did Jim have a good time?

I look forward to being a part of the board and getting to know everyone!

warlordbb

7:10 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Say, one thing I forgot to ask about at while at the conference. During Dan's spiel, he said "After DrFeet added a coupon code, their conversion went from 4.7% to 0.47%, of course we all know why". <-- paraphrase

Well, someone else asked me later, "why would conversion go down". Which gave me the boldness to admit that I had no idea. So.........

WTH was he talking about?

Also, there was a Rachel at the PubCon but I didn't catch her handle, is this chrisnrae?

korkus2000

7:15 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I think it is because people want to have a coupon so they will go searching for one or try and get one instead of actually purchasing through the click. Could be wrong though.

DaveN

7:17 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



BranMuffin

I tried the shakshot in nottingham I will just say "a fool and his stomach lining are easily parted"

Pencil me down to watch SEguru trying a shot

Daven

Jenstar

7:17 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



About the coupon code: When you go to a site, you are ready to type in your credit card number, when you see that coupon code field. So what do you do? Either you start scouring the net for a coupon code somewhere, or you wait until you HAVE the coupon code before you order.

I can't count the number of times I have gone to place an order, seen that coupon code field then started searching for a code online somewhere, rather than completing the order. Chances are, I get distracted, someone IM's me, I go and answer a quick email, etc, and 99% of the time I am multitasking too. Then I never seem to get back to finish off the order. And if I do, I am still ticked by the fact I am not getting a better deal with that coupon code.

IMO, anyway, LOL. Of course, maybe there is something else I am missing, too.

Jen

[edited by: Jenstar at 7:17 pm (utc) on April 29, 2003]

DaveN

7:17 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



BranMuffin

I tried the shakshot in nottingham I will just say "a fool and his stomach lining are easily parted"

Pencil me down to watch SEguru trying a shot

Dave

SEGuru2

7:19 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I am so all over that shot!

You know I'm not afraid of a lil ole shot Shak? or is that a Shakshot? lol

Missed you guys at the event, BranMuffin and I really wanted to be there. However, as stated...we have been very busy on our site launch.
However, you can definitely count us in on the next one for sure!

chrisnrae

7:19 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



"Also, there was a Rachel at the PubCon but I didn't catch her handle, is this chrisnrae?"

It may have been me. However, I rarely introduce myself that way and no one calls me that - even my biz cards say Rae LOL. But I DO remember that I intro'ed myself as Rachael to someone who caught me off guard when asking. So, if "Rachael" was in jeans with long brown hair and mid twenties, than that would probably be me, LOL.

Rae

[edited by: chrisnrae at 7:23 pm (utc) on April 29, 2003]

Winooski

7:22 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



korkus2000, that was my reasoning. In ecommerce the game is making things easier for people to order, not harder. The presence of a coupon field without any qualifying verbiage or design elements to indicate that it wasn't mandatory would be enough to deter a lot of customers.

vitaplease

7:39 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Just back again.

Google-merchant-guy, the real Vita (my daughter) is a Google fan now as well.
The free Google-give-away-pen I gave her, she found enlightingly fantastic. Although I'm deep-crawling the floor to find those little batteries now. By the way, she calls it Abra-Cadabra.

The highlights?

Too much to mention, and enough already forgotten. Not a person I met that whilst being a very enjoyable companion during all these days, did not put forward an original or new insight to the web and its workings.

So now we know what an Easter egg is (the -link) and they do not come alone..

Paranoia consensus found that there is a seperate algo for PPC (Pills, P**n, Casino's).

Trust is the new metric in passing through Pagerank (more on that later).

After plenty of Boston Ale's, and secret, mid-night hotel room spread-sheet reverse engineering discussions, it has been decided that the algo has been cracked by a certain member.

With all this classified Pubcon information, everyone promised to join 678 affiliates and is going to make him/herself freshly independant before the next update.

Any random walk out of the hotel, was a direct link into "Dominique" (the name of the next female update).

Off to bed, great community you built Brett.

Winooski

7:40 pm on Apr 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



...So, uh, nobody cares if I publish a picture which uses their nickname in the filename, e.g., "03-04-26, Winooski in limo.jpg"?

Going once...going twice...

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