The Fun Side of Pubcon

This is a post about Pubcon, but not from a session standpoint. There were plenty of those out there. Outspoken Media had great daily recaps and Lane Ellis put together a thorough wrap on the Pubcon blog.

This post is about the nightly events. All of them were so much fun we wanted to put together a thank-you post and share how much fun we had.

For context, we (McKremie) were a small firm out of Orange County, California at the time. Three and a half employees. (OK, three full-time and one part-time.) Two of us went to Pubcon: myself (Anna) and Stuart McHenry, the head of the company. It was my first Pubcon. Stuart had been going back to 2005.

Raven Tools Poker Tournament

Our first night in town we went to the Raven Tools Poker Tournament. Arienne Holland of Raven did a great job organizing and hosting at the Wynn Resort. Each participant got a keepsake card protector with Raven's logo. Did I mention it cost the players nothing? Raven is that cool, and they gave out over $2,000 in cash prizes.

I didn't play (I don't feel comfortable at the game), so I mingled and talked to non-players and people who got knocked out. Stuart loves poker, and even though he didn't make it far (better luck next year), he said he really enjoyed himself. He also lost a side bet to Ben Cook (@Skitzzo) which cost him a Jackson.

Stuart's table had Patrick Keeble (the CEO of Raven Tools) and Brent Csutoras of Kairay Media. Both looked like they could be on ESPN's WSOP coverage. He was sandwiched between Mike Ramsey from Nifty Marketing and Rich Farr from Click Advisors. On the other side of Rich was his partner Theresa Baiocco, who seemed to get a lot of Stuart's chips.

Beauty Bar (Mike King, AKA iPullRank)

Instead of hanging out at the Wynn bar all night, we headed downtown to see Mike King (Director of Inbound Marketing for iAcquire at the time) perform at the Beauty Bar. We'd seen tweets about Mike being a rapper and were curious how good he really was.

First, the Beauty Bar. Interesting place, geared toward a younger grunge crowd, awesome prices on beer. We paid a $5 cover (cheapo for Vegas), and the beer crowd got unlimited five-cent beers for the first hour. Very relaxed place for live music.

Mr. iPullRank should probably change his name to iFlowMaster. He was good. Best SEO rapper we've ever seen. The highlight was a magic-trick rap where he covered his eyes with a shirt, asked audience members to bring up random objects, and not only guessed every object correctly but worked each one into a rhyme. The crowd went nuts. Stuart and I had a great time.

Epic Dinner

Alan Bleiweiss put on an awesome dinner event during Pubcon called Epic Dinner. The dinner was free. All you had to do was get on the list via Twitter before it filled up. Alan rounded up sponsors to cover the cost for everyone else. We were proud to be one of the sponsors. Special shout out to Carlos Fernandes of ISOOSI for being the Platinum Sponsor.

Epic Dinner was held at Pampas Brazilian Grille in the Miracle Mile Shops next to Planet Hollywood. If you have never been to a Brazilian grill, you're in for a treat. Meat, meat, and more meat shows up magically at the table every few minutes. Bacon-wrapped filet, sausage, tri-tip, grilled chicken, ham, pork, and more beef than I can remember. Plenty of non-meat options too.

The best part was meeting new people. 150 online marketers at one dinner. Our table had Trish Carey (social media for a Portland-area university), Jim Robinson (SEO Director for Nasdaq), Bruce Greer (a web marketer from Nova Scotia), and Steven Ferrino (a developer turned SEO who also helped sponsor Epic Dinner). With 150 people, it was a little crazy.

There's so much to learn during a conference, but the most valuable thing you take away is the connections. It was wonderful meeting people from all over the world who share our interest in online marketing. Excited for the next Pubcon.

Photo credits

Special thanks to Michael Dorausch (chiropractor, SEO, and excellent photographer) who took most of the great pictures at the Raven event and Epic Dinner.