I showed up late for breakfast, at about 7:40, which was only 20 minutes before the day was supposed to begin. The buffet (again spectactular) was set up in the hall, so with my backpack over my shoulder, I made my plate, and went inside to try and get a seat.

The morning started out great with a buffet breakfast of rosemary potatoes, scrambled eggs, chicken apple sausage, thick sliced bacon, and an assortment of bagels and breakfast breads. I’m typically not a breakfast eater but I’ll never turn down something like this, and I piled my plate high and when into our private dining room.

As I write this we’re circling San Francisco Airport, and I expect to be told to shut down the computer in a moment, but I wanted to give my blog post about the first night at the elite retreat.

As if I needed another reason to be glad I’m attending Elite Retreat this year, Shoemoney has announced that WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg is going to be speaking.

I feel that I owe a lot of my personal and client success to my use of the best blogging platform in the world, and I’m really looking forward to meeting Matt, and thanking him personally.

I’ll be filling out my speaker proposal soon for Webmaster World Pubcon 2008, because the date has just been announced, and it’s being moved back to November. Maybe if I submit early I can get a topic more exciting than web hosting and SEO issues

There are approximately 72 hours remaining for you to obtain a ticket to SearchFest ‘08 at more than half off of the non-member door price.

Here are the steps…

1. Join SEMpdx
2. Register for the conference. (Price goes up slightly March 1st)
3. Before checkout - apply this additional $40 discount code - SEMBD

In January of 2007 I joined StomperNet under the belief that I would get the personal attention of their world-class faculty.

I assumed that for the nearly $10,000 I was going to pay for the year, I would not only learn everything I wanted to know, but I would establish some personal relationships that I could continue to nurture over time.

Searchfest 2008, Oregon’s annual search marketing conference will be held on Monday, March 10, 2008, at the Oregon Zoo’s Cascade Crest Banquet Center.

We’ve now got the prices posted, the sign-up form live, and I’m sorry, but it’s already too late for you to be the first person to sign up…

I skipped a lot of Pubcon sessions this year, either because I was working on my presentation, or because there just wasn’t anything appealing to me at the moment. I did take notes during many of the sessions, but since I always keep my Blackberry on my hip, I also try to write down and remember the really good things I overhear in passing.

I was packing this afternoon for my trip to Los Angeles for the local search engine strategies conference, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t even planned out my session attendance for either one.

How lame is it that Microsoft chose “Party like a rock star” as the theme of their Webmaster World party this year?

Shoemoney (Jeremy Shoemaker) ran a contest he called, “Party like a rock star” paying the airfare, hotel bill, conference admission, and %400 cash for one lucky winner, and he got quite a few entries, quite a bit of blog buzz, and created a pretty good thing, in my opinion. (Yesterday he announced his winner, which was Laura Martin)

Unfortunately, I won’t be attending the SMX social media event in new York city next week, and now I’m even more disappointed.

I don’t think I’ve ever regretted not going to a specific event so much before, and not just because I’m missing great content, but because this is a great way to spend an evening in support of a good cause.