Webmaster World Search Conference 7 - Las Vegas

So I went to the Webmaster World Conference Las Vegas. It was fun...this is kinda a personal post. On SEO Forums...
There are many problems with SEO forums, many SEO forums are decaying, and some people feel like they were burned by the commercialization and policies Webmaster World have adopted over time. As the largest webmaster forum Webmaster World often is stressed harder than many of the other forums.

Webmaster World Search Conference VS other Conferences
Webmaster World's conference was much larger than SEO Roadshow, but the conference still seemed to have a fairly strong sense of community (much stronger than that of Search Engine Strategies) I think SEO Roadshow had about 100 people, WMW had about 800 people, and SES was like 2,000 people.

Webmaster World Search Conference Highlights
Webmaster World's conference had many no B/S type speakers who spoke in a "results oriented" (thanks RC) manner. Yahoo! stated that they fixed their redirects problem, but it can take about a month to propigate throughout the web. During Google's lucheon they stated that they were eventually going to work on giving advertisers better control of spending through their various ad networks.

Seeing People
Many times I type keys thinking I am just typing keys...with actions that almost seem automated, but the web server logs are showing the traffic patterns of people. Some people I did not know came up to me and said "your SEO Book," which I found both really cool and somewhat weird...as it is not something I am used to.

On the web I am not too shy, but in person I am. I rarely leave the house and sometimes even have a bit of social anxiety in crowded areas. Despite that I spoke with a ton of people and had a ton of fun though.

People I Spoke With...
I talked to a ton of people, drank a bunch, and have a somewhat sketchy memory sometimes, but thanks to the following people who I got to say hi to:

and thanks to Brett Tabke for putting on the conference. Looks like the next one will be in New Orleans and then back in Las Vegas after that.

Published: November 23, 2004 by Aaron Wall in internet

Comments

November 23, 2004 - 6:31am

Awesome, glad to see you had fun, I was wondering where you were! :)

I wish I could have came, but I'm coming to the next one though, and I'll be at the December SES though!

November 23, 2004 - 9:56am

That sounds like it was a lot of fun... I need to make it to one of these soon. (College student = poor). I do find it kinda odd you linked to all these threads about WMW's problems in the same post about how you like their conference (not that I'm disagreeing about the problems).

November 23, 2004 - 10:44am

>I do find it kinda odd you linked to all these threads about WMW's problems in the same post about how you like their conference.

My point in linking to the bad things too are:

  • every business model or community model will have problems
  • on the web these problems will be syndicated greatly
  • its really damn hard to run a forum
  • generally good natured people are behind most websites
  • in spite of all the statements of a dying community there is still something worthwhile...something special at WMW...and lots of good people who are in some way involved in the Webmaster World community.
Andy H.
November 23, 2004 - 11:49am

Well said. Maybe it's time I renewed my subscription...

November 23, 2004 - 1:00pm

>Well said. Maybe it's time I renewed my subscription...

currently I am not a paid subscriber, but I do believe there are some extremely knowledgable and interesting members there.

I think the value of the conferences can't easily be measured though because you only need to learn a few things (or maybe only one thing) for the conference to pay for itself.

I may soon subscribe to WMW too.

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