Back from Pubcon and we had a fantastic time as always.  The show wasn’t as big as I remembered from last year and the people that went to SES Chicago were missed…even though some of them made an appearance at both…(Frank and Danny).

The majority of the conference attendees stayed at the Wynn and you could count on finding someone from the conference hanging out and networking downstairs at the bar or at the poker tables in the poker room at any given time.

Monday 12/3/2007

Whether you are a rockstar or not, you always feel like one when arriving at the Wynn, Las Vegas.  By far this is one of my favorite hotels in Vegas and the rooms are absolutely perfect and gorgeous.  We got in at about 6:30pm and had time to meet Dax and Cesar downstairs for a quick drink before we headed off to the Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay.  We met some of our real estate agents Glenn of (Naples Real Estate, Larry of Denver Real Estate, Matt and Max) there for a very fancy shmancy dinner. 

The Foundation Room has a dress code, but if you are wearing this particular t-shirt, they will let you in without any problem. (Especially if you agree to fondle their statues after dinner.)

(Matt Pellerin of Scottsdale Real Estate was introduced to Vodka martinis later that evening-big mistake)  

With agents this fun, who wouldn’t want to launch a real estate web hosting platform?

After dinner we went back over to the Wynn and spent some time getting caught up with Todd, the Mozzers and Vanessa along with whoever else was downstairs that I can’t recall at this moment.  We got a look at the new SEOMoz business cards and Dax entertained us as usual with his new found talent in drawing on them.  (Bad Dax!) I meant to collect a card from all the Mozzers, but only ended up with Rand, Scott, Rebecca and Jane. (Dang it)

Tuesday 12/4/07

Went to the social marketing sessions today and heard some different perspectives, not to say I agree with them, but different none the less. (Cough..sorry had a pistachio caught in my throat, cough.)  Another highlight was watching the SEO Rascals whizz around in front of the convention center on their scooters, I wonder if any of the scooters were returned in one piece.

Had lunch with Neil (who treated btw, thanks Neil), Dax, Cesar, Marcus, Doug and Wade before heading back to the conference for more afternoon sessions, then back over to the Wynn were we hung out in the bar with more SEOs.  Rumor had it that Matt Cutts said if he wanted to be anyone in the world, he’d choose Greg Boser, but the truth was it was really Eytan Seidman that said it.  Either way, we felt the news was worth spreading so we joined Twitter that night. (Yes, I regret it already)  Twitter takes some getting used to, I won’t give up yet, but right now it’s really a PITA. Although I would love to have lots of followers, haha…add me…! 

After all that excitement, we made our way to the Yahoo cocktail party with our contest winner Kris Farmer.  The Yahoo party was a blast and we were entertained with this great water show.  I was told that Kevin Lee made an appearance, I’ve never seen Kevin Lee so I don’t know what he looks like, but when this little cutie popped up everyone said…hey, there’s Kevin Lee!

Some of my favorite SEO peeps were at the Yahoo party like Dustin Woodward, Michael Gray, Jessica Bowman (the new SEO Evangelist for Yahoo), Joe Morin, Laura Lippay was just glowing with her new hubby Chris (aka SEOHusband) there, and of course Tim Mayer. The JoeBucks guys whom sponsored the show and provided everyone with these great tote bags also made an appearance.

Thanks to Yahoo for coordinating a fun evening for all of us. 

Wednesday, 12/5/07

Skipped the show today, had a few meetings, then headed over to Sushi Roku to have dinner with Tim, Melissa, Jeff, Todd, Dax, Cesar and Vanessa made a late appearance.  (I guess it was her second dinner of the evening.)  Anyway, Sushi Roku is a cool restaurant in Caesar’s Palace by the shops.  Dax picked up some cigars with a super cool cigar box which he ended up losing later that evening (filled with the cigars he bought). 

After sushi we made our way upstairs at the Wynn to the Rubicon Project party.  They had a small gathering up in a really nice suite and were very gracious hosts, then the party went downstairs and continued in the poker room.  (Nicole from Rubicon, super cool, super funny girl-love her)  Anyway, had some time to chat with Tamar, the BOTW guys , Jeremy, Brent and Marcus.

Thursday 12/6/07

Attended the ‘Site Review Session’ today.  It was a session full of discussion and input from Greg, Vanessa, Seth and Matt (sitting on the other side of the panel).  Matt announced the Greg was a tool. LOL A Google tool.  That’s right, Google has a tool named after Greg Boser.  One more claim to fame.

The MSN party at the Ghost Bar (Thanks Natala!) was great and it was neat to see that more SEOs brought their wives to Vegas.  I got to meet Jeff Randall’s wife Amanda and Jim Stob’s wife there as well.  I played a round of Guitar Hero with Robin and Avi, but we lost.  Avi and I got da boot, but Robin made it further and I think won a Zune or something.  I’m glad Chris and Danielle Winfield ended up coming to the party, hanging out with them is always a blast.  Shortly after that Dax got us all kicked out.  Not just kicked out, but escorted off the premises.  Apparently the Ghost bar security didn’t like him picking up Vanessa over his head.  It was time to head over to the Venetian anyway, so no harm done until later of course, when Greg launched the infamous Twitter hoax. I’ll leave this in the ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ category.  If you weren’t there, you missed it.  Anyway, the Poker tournament proved t
o be a huge success and while we sat around waiting and watching the tournament we got to party more with Carolyn, Pat, Rhea, Tony and Neil.  

Friday 12/7/07

Pubcon was at the Monte Carlo and Danny made it to that.  What a trooper after having been in Chicago to come all the way just to hang out with all of us.  Spent the afternoon with Dave, Todd, Frank, Dax, Cesar, Marcus and Doug.  

Our evening ended at about 4am after spending most of the night at Blush in the Wynn.  We were there with Jeff Manson and his wife and Michael Bonfils arrived along with Jill Sampey and Seth Wilde.  We all danced and partied until Seth hit is head on the door and was bleeding.  At that point, we knew it was time to go. 

At some point during this trip I had a great roll at the craps table that made Pat Sexton a killing.   Unfortunately, for the life of me, I can’t recall what night that was. A sign of a good trip.

If I left out some great event or some amazing person I talked to, don’t blame me, blame the martinis. Thanks to Brett Tabke for another fun filled show!   To see my pictures go to my Flickr.

Well, this week is finally over and we will be leaving Monday morning for Pubcon.  We are staying at the Wynn along with almost all of the conference attendees thanks to an incredible room rate.

Our plans for the week include the Yahoo Cocktail party and the MSN adcenter party followed by the Poker Tournament at the Venetian (hosted by some of the most awesome SEO peeps ever and then some). 

I will have my camera so if you see me, be ready to say cheese!

As always I’ll have a full recap of my week and hopefully a couple new celeb look-a-likes as well as at least one new favorite peep.

Viva Las Vegas!!! 

In the 20+ years I’ve lived in Southern California, I’ve never had the misfortune of living in a neighborhood in the direct path of a wildfire. That changed this morning. On the way into the office, I got a phone call

letting me know a mandatory evacuation had been ordered for our neighborhood. So Barbara and I hauled ass home and packed up all the important stuff. Now we’re just hanging out in the office with our dog trying to get some work done while we wait and see if the fire jumps the riverbed and makes it into our area. I don’t think it will, but you never know.

There are also dozens of other communities throughout SoCal that are burning. One of the worst areas being in San Diego. Hopefully, everyone I know from that area is safe. 

I really enjoyed reading all the recent blog taggings. I was waiting for someone to add…”if you don’t forward this to 5 friends right away you will lose all Google positions for 5 years”.
I wasn’t tagged, but I figure I’ll throw in 5 things people might not know about my SEOH. Things that he of course didn’t share when he was tagged.

1) He has lit himself on fire at least once…by accident of course.
2) He used to work construction.
3) His first car was a VW Baja Bug.
4) He once sat in Madonna’s kitchen (with Madonna) drinking water out of a 7-11 plastic cup.
5) Elton John once played “Candle in the Wind” for him in private.

Now of course, you’d have to know who my SEOH is in order for any of this to mean anything, but some of you will figure it out.

Tuesday arrived in Vegas about 4pm, checked into the New York Hotel. Went straight to the Nine Fine Irishmen bar. Stood around for a bit, watched my hubby get caught up with his peeps. Apparently, there was a drinking contest going on and he was worth 5 points, so we started the night off well.

Met Doug Blattner of DocSports.com and his girlfrend Kerrie for dinner at the new Italian restaurant at the top of the Palms…Nove. The food was delicious. Doug is apparently, well connected in Vegas and was able to get us up to the Ghostbar for some after dinner drinks and dancing. It looked like he had some special card. When he showed it, they let us right in. Pretty sweet. Upstairs we saw Doug’s partner Wayne and his wife. We danced til late, then back to the NY for some gambling. Down about $100. Not to bad for a night in Vegas.