Rae Hoffman

Vegas PubCon 2008 and UFC 91

by Rae Hoffman on November 17, 2008 | Internet Marketing Conferences

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I’m writing this post from the Las Vegas airport. I should have been home last night, but Air Canada decided to cancel “delay” my flight by about 13 hours.

While Vegas is my favorite city in the states, it becomes very… old, after about five days. I’m on day seven. I’m ready for this trip to end.

That said, this was easily the best trip to Las Vegas I’ve ever done, and I can’t count how many times I’ve been there on two hands.

The conference itself was pretty cool. I did a video interview with Vanessa Zamora from Search Engine World (she’s an awesome chick) and did my traditional site clinic panel. I was also threatened by a bird in a back alley (I’m so dead serious - it fluffed it’s wings, squawked and ran at me, on purpose).

I unfortunately missed fight club due to a hotel snafu, so no one got a chance to kick my ass in the literal sense. My ass was however kicked in the proverbial sense afterwards when the guys returned to tell me how they’d met one of my favorite fighters, Mac Danzig (yeah, I have no shame).

DK arranged several gatherings throughout the week open to all conference goers so that those who didn’t make it into private parties had somewhere to go. Good man. Many, including myself at times, could learn a lot from his humility.

Newer Sugarrae hire, Deanna deBara decided she would pony up to going drink for drink with me. The results were as expected, though I gotta say, I didn’t expect her to be in bed before ten. ;-)

The Thursday night party at Rain was amazing. No other way to describe it. It was easily the best Search Bash I’ve ever attended (and I’ve attended most). I had a lot of fun there before ducking out to head to the Hard Rock to see some non conference friends before heading to the Venetian to catch the end of the poker tournament before heading to bed.





Friday morning, after dragging my industry children from their nice cozy beds, I had a good breakfast and headed on over to “PubCon proper” (what I call the Pub portion of the event that gets back to its roots). So off the Hofbrauhaus we went. I’m curious as to WHY this was the venue chosen by PubCon.

We had the entire back room, which was plenty big, but it was setup to almost look like a picnic in a park. There were only two kids of beer (light or dark) and no ability to buy hard liquor. Since there were tables everywhere, no one was really moving around and, you know, networking.

I felt like I was out to lunch with several hundred people, not at a bar drinking and socializing. I love PubCon, we all know that, but I was highly disappointed by this years “PubCon proper”.

Most who read this blog know that I stayed a few days extra to attend UFC 91. I had an absolute blast. On top of having great seats (though the Vegas crowd was no where near as “electric” as past crowds at past live UFC shows I’ve attended), we were able to hit the after party (I may have pounced on met CB Dollaway in the hall on the way there) at Studio 54 where we had a kick ass table directly in front of the DJ (who was amazing) and the dance floor where I proceeded to spend most of my night.






I was lucky enough to meet, have dinner and hit Studio 54 with Sam Stout, Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki (who is fighting in Japan next week - I wish him luck) and Nick Johnson who has helped George St. Pierre hone his Greco Roman Wrestling.

Absolute fucking blast this week. Thanks to all who contributed to it.

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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

The Mad Hat 1 The Mad Hat November 17, 2008 at 6:17 pm

“I’m going to rest my eyes for a second” - Deanna :)

Vanessa Fox 2 Vanessa Fox November 17, 2008 at 6:19 pm

Yes, that bird was intimidating. For a sparrow.

Michael Streko 3 Michael Streko November 17, 2008 at 6:43 pm

“I am just going to go upstairs to my room to shower & change then I will be back downstairs to meet up with you guys before you go out!”

Yeah, sure.

Rhea Drysdale 4 Rhea Drysdale November 17, 2008 at 6:44 pm

So jealous of Sam Stout pics, mmm. Sorry you missed the MMA training session, but it looks like you had a week filled with UFC fun regardless of Dave kicking your ass. Now about pole dancing…

Rae Hoffman 5 Rae Hoffman November 18, 2008 at 8:44 am

@Vanessa Fox what, are you saying he didn’t poof and run at me? (I don’t care if I stomped my foot at it first) :P

And if Vanessa tries to tell yell I ran from the bird, arms flailing in the air, she’s lying. ;-)

Deanna de Bara 6 Deanna de Bara November 18, 2008 at 1:19 pm

I am never going to live this one down am I? Damn you, liquid cocaine, damn you!

Kid Disco 7 Kid Disco November 18, 2008 at 7:07 pm

Haha… poor Deanna!

Also, the greatest Search Bash that I have ever attended… I was supposed to play poker, but I couldn’t leave! It was awesome to see ya’ll!

Vanessa Fox 8 Vanessa Fox November 18, 2008 at 7:19 pm

Bird, bird! Aaaaaaah!

eathan 9 eathan November 21, 2008 at 4:47 pm

“While Vegas is my favorite city in the states, it becomes very… old, after about five days. I’m on day seven. I’m ready for this trip to end.”

Mid-week, rent a car and head up to Zion for a night. Completely flushes Vegas out of the system and preps you for the rest of the week. It’s not really a quick trip, but it’s the only way I can survive an extended stay in Vegas…

10 Mark James March 30, 2009 at 5:05 am

Love the UFC, huge fan…

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