DALLAS – Federal agents are investigating whether a helicopter they have held for 14 months at an airport in Texas was earmarked for shipment to Iran.
The agents suspect an Italian company has already shipped two helicopters in contravention of a U.S. trade embargo with Iran, and that the third was also intended for the country. The $8 million aircraft meanwhile sits in a Bell Helicopter hangar at Arlington Municipal Airport, The Dallas Morning News reported in Sunday's edition.
At least one of the aircraft believed shipped to Iran was equipped with night vision and autopilot technology subject to strict U.S. restrictions, the newspaper reported.
A federal seizure of an Iran-bound helicopter is "a unique circumstance" for North Texas agents, said George Richardson, special agent in charge of the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security office in Dallas. "This is driven by economics," he told The News.
The Italian company, Tiber Aviation SRL, last year bought three Bell 412 helicopters from Helivan SA of Mexico for about $22 million, the report said. Bell Helicopter says it leased three helicopters to Helivan in Tarrant County but that Helivan was not authorized to sell them.
Tiber asked Swiss-based shipping company Panalpina Inc. to transport the first two helicopters through North Texas to Italy, said Panalpina deputy general counsel Robert Ernest. Panalpina was about to ship the third when a Tiber pilot asked for a quote to ship the aircraft to Iran.
Panalpina refused to ship the aircraft and contacted the U.S. Commerce Department in Dallas, Ernest said.
Tiber has denied intending to ship any of the helicopters to Iran, according to court documents. The ownership of the helicopter is in dispute in a pending lawsuit between Tiber and Textron Financial Corp., a unit of Bell Helicopter Textron, Bell Helicopter's parent company.
The newspaper did not report any comment from Helivan.
The United States has imposed a trade embargo on Iran since 1995, but foreign companies linked to the United States can still use legal loopholes to sell U.S.-made goods legally to nations under U.S. export bans.
"We don't want technology to go to Iran, regardless of whether it will be used militarily or by civilian businesses," said Kenneth Wainstein, former U.S. assistant attorney general for national security.
"We don't want American businesses engaged in trade with a regime whose policies are antithetical to our national interests," he told The News.

COPENHAGEN – As police cracked down on climate protesters, church bells tolled 350 times Sunday to impress on the U.N. global warming conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions.
Conference negotiators went behind closed doors in talks to pin down an elusive new pact on climate, talks in which the figure 350 looms as a goal for true believers, but one that appears impossible based on progress so far.
It refers to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the highest concentration that some leading scientists say the world can handle without sparking dangerous climate effects.
"It's the most important number in the world," said Bill McKibben, founder of the environmental activist group 350.org. "It's the line between habitability on this planet and a really, really desolate future."
Not everyone buys into that. But an entire environmental group has sprung up around the number, pushing 350 as a goal, sporting it on T-shirts and flags waved by throngs of protesters that marched to the conference center over the weekend. About 100 nations at the U.N. climate summit have signed on to the idea of heading for 350.
Actually, the world has lived with more than 350 for a while.
The last time the Earth had 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the air was a generation ago, in the fall of 1989. This year CO2 pushed over the 390 level. When scientists started measuring carbon dioxide in 1958 it was 315.
Since the atmosphere passed the 350 level, ice sheets have been melting and other dramatic changes have been happening. Prominent scientists — notably NASA's James Hansen, one of the earliest to warn about global warming, and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — have said 350 is the only safe level of carbon dioxide in the air.
Still, many economists, political leaders, and even some scientists believe that the worst effects of global warming can be avoided even with less stringent actions.
But there is general agreement among negotiators and climate scientists that continued global warming will lead to dramatic changes that mean more widespread drought in some regions, greater flooding along coastlines, stronger storms and the loss of species.
On Sunday, hundreds of churches around the world had signed up to ring bells at 3:50 p.m. in their respective time zones.
"It was an incredibly powerful moment and to know that there are bells ringing all over Europe, up to Greenland, down into the south Pacific and every corner of the planet," McKibben said moments after the bells stopped ringing in Copenhagen.
As they tolled, more than 40 government environment chiefs and other high-level negotiators were meeting at the Danish Foreign Ministry. They were trying to bridge the gap between their positions in informal talks before the second and last week of negotiations gets under way. The week will end with the arrival of President Barack Obama and more than 100 other national leaders for the final hours of negotiation.
Sharp divisions remain between rich and poor countries on greenhouse emissions cuts and financing for developing nations to deal with climate change and shift to cleaner energy.
"I think there was recognition around the table of the urgency of what we need to achieve in the coming days," Britain's Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said after Sunday's talks. "I think there needs to be more movement from everyone, more imagination, and I think we will all be striving for that."
Australia's Climate Change Minister Penny Wong also said a lot of work remains to be done.
"It's going to be tough to get an agreement by Friday but that's what we have to do," she told a news conference.
According to participants, the closed-door consultations focused on about a half-dozen plans on financing for poor countries to deal with climate change. One joint proposal by Mexico and Norway calls for a "Green Fund" for climate financing, starting with $10 billion a year in 2013, and increasing to $30 billion to $40 billion a year by 2020
Separately, a proposal aimed at saving the world's tropical forests suffered a setback Sunday, when negotiators ditched plans for faster action on the problem because of concerns that rich countries aren't willing to finance the plan. A deal on deforestation — a sizable global warming factor — is considered a key component of the larger pact.
For a second day in a row, police cracked down on climate activists marching through the Danish capital. More than 200 were detained as police stopped an unauthorized demonstration headed toward the city's harbor and carried out a security check of some of the participants.
Meanwhile, nearly all of the 1,000 detained on Saturday — from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the U.S — were released without charges. Thirteen of them were arraigned in court and faced preliminary charges of assaulting police or were let off with a warning for wearing masks, which are outlawed during demonstrations in Denmark, or carrying box-cutters or other sharp objects.
Reducing carbon dioxide levels to 350 would mean reversing the trend of the past couple of centuries. Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for as long as 100 years. And the emissions cuts currently being pledged by developed countries, including the United States and European nations, are aimed at having CO2 levels peak at around 450, not 350, in coming decades.
And even that may not be possible. Some economists say the world should plan to stop at 550.
Economist Henry Jacoby, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, has said that even 450 is "totally impossible, there's no way we can do that."
To get down to 350, civilization has to remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the skies, something talked about but not yet achieved. Trees and oceans suck CO2 from the atmosphere, but that process is overwhelmed by emissions from burning coal and oil. McKibben said it would probably take 40 years to get down to 350 even if emissions stopped today.
"It may be on the edge of impossible," he said Sunday. "We could do it. At the moment, there's no sign that we are going to do it."
MIT management professor John Sterman said scientifically 350 makes sense, even if economically it seem unreachable.
"We ought to have a goal of 350 and realize we're already above that," Sterman said.

LOS ANGELES – A wintry storm hit California with rain and snow Saturday and sent muslides down hills denuded by fall wildfires, forcing dozens of home evacuations and stranding some 90 vehicles on highways covered by debris.

Authorities said the mandatory evacuations of 44 houses in a Los Angeles County area scorched by a recent massive wildfire were carried out as a precaution against landslides while the rain continued.

That wildfire, known as the Station Fire, was the county's biggest ever, killing two firefighters, destroying 89 homes, and ravaging more than 250 square miles of Angeles National Forest.

The storm also sent mud and rocks sweeping down on roadways. Parts of a 12-mile stretch of the Angeles Crest Highway just north of Los Angeles were buried by mud and rock, prompting authorities to close the road while crews cleared the scene, said county fire Capt. Frank Reynoso. No injuries were reported.

Seventy of the stranded vehicles had been freed Saturday night, but another 20 would be forced to remain overnight, authorities said.

About 50 of the stranded motorists gathered at Newcomb's Ranch Restaurant off the highway.

"Everybody was just looking to get down off the mountain," restaurant manager Mike Noxin told the Los Angeles Times.

Several small slides were reported on the highway between La Canada Flintridge and Mount Wilson, and the road was to remain closed indefinitely, the California Highway Patrol said.

Debris flows can occur because the ground in recently burned areas has little ability to absorb rain, which instead instantly runs off, carrying ash, mud, boulders and vegetation.

Rain was expected to fall at rates up to three-quarters of an inch per hour through early Sunday.

Near the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, a family decided to evacuate a home in a neighborhood where rain threatened to bring mud and debris down the hillside. A city building inspector put a yellow tag on the house, advising residents of potential structural problems.

Flooding shut down a three-mile section of the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, authorities said. The stretch along Bolsa Chica State Beach was expected to remain closed until Sunday.

About 16,000 utility customers throughout Southern California were sporadically without electricity, mostly because of downed branches crashing onto power lines.

Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles also was closed Saturday after mud and rocks slid down a hillside into lanes. Several cars had their tires flattened by sharp rocks along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. No injuries were reported.

Snow accumulations between 8 and 16 inches were expected by Sunday morning above 6,000 feet in the Southern California mountains. Winds were blowing at 25 to 35 mph.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch through Sunday night for western Plumas County and the west slope of the Sierra Nevada in the northern part of the state and the mountains of Ventura and Los Angeles counties in the south.

"It looks like we'll be getting a lot of precipitation," said George Cline, a National Weather Service forecaster in Sacramento.

He expected the storm to bring an inch of rain to the Central Valley, with wind gusts up to 60 mph. Gusts up to 90 mph were expected on mountain ridges.

The California Department of Transportation was requiring chains for travel on all major highways over the Sierra. Chains were also required for Interstate 80Nevada. through most of

Forecasters were warning of whiteout conditions, with snow expected to fall up to two inches an hour at the peak of the storm. They said the new snow would also bring extreme avalanche danger to the alpine backcountry.

The storm was expected to leave more than a foot of new snow at lower elevations and two feet in higher areas in the northern Sierra. Snow was falling at elevations of 6,000 feet Saturday and was expected to dip to 4,500 by Sunday morning.

Cline said most soils in the northern part of the state aren't saturated this early in the winter, minimizing the danger of mudslides even in burned areas.

"We don't anticipate anything really unusual from it yet," Cline said. "We're keeping an eye on the burn scar areas. Things have been so dry, it's still soaking into the ground."

Saturday's storm is the second in a series of warmer, wetter storms blowing in from the mid-Pacific Ocean. Another similar story is expected to move in by midweek, Cline said.

SANTIAGO, Chile – A billionaire who started his fortune by providing credit cards to Chileans has brought the right wing closer than it has ever been to the presidency since democracy was restored 19 years ago.

But the key to victory may be a rebellious young socialist with a growing following among voters hungry for change.

Sebastian Pinera, whose many investments include Chile's main airline, most popular football team and a leading TV channel, has been appealing to centrist voters and leading the polls ever since he began his third run at the presidency. He now has an outside chance at a first-round victory Sunday against three different candidates.

A win by Pinera, 60, would mark a tilt to the right in a region dominated by leftists, and a real break from the governing center-left coalition that has held onto power since the end of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship.

"The time of the Concertacion has passed," Pinera declared in his closing campaign speech, referring to the coalition. "It is used up, it has run out of material, lost its way, its force, its desire, and is unified only by how it is stuck in the past."

But when Latin American leftists manage to present a unified front — as they have in Uruguay and Bolivia in the past two weeks — they have shown they can defeat candidates whose core voters are wealthy elites.

Whether that happens in Chile depends in large part on Rep. Marco Enriquez-Ominami, 36, whose charisma and energy have fired up a new generation of voters who have grown tired of traditional politicians.

About 44 percent of likely voters favored Pinera in the last major poll published before the vote, compared to 31 percent for former President Eduardo Frei, 18 percent for independent Enriquez-Ominami and 7 percent for communist Jorge Arrate. The survey by the Center for the Study of Contemporary Reality had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

If Pinera and Frei face each other in the Jan. 17 runoff, the ruling coalition can remain in power only by capturing the votes that would have gone to Enriquez-Ominami. And while Arrate has already pledged to support Frei in exchange for communist seats in Congress, the upstart everyone calls MEO has shown zero interest in making a deal with party elders.

Chile's strong economy, negligible inflation and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America. Together with booming prices for its copper exports and prudent fiscal policies, the government has systematically reduced poverty from 45 percent in 1990 to 13 percent today, boosting per capita income to $14,000 a year for the nation of 17 million.

But both MEO and Pinera have tapped into a strong sentiment that Chile can provide much more for its citizens.

"We need a modern political system, renewed to fit these new times," MEO said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Today the Concertacion represents a worn out group of politicians, from a tired past, reactive rather than proactive. This situation of running out of ideas, of few decisions for confronting poverty and problems in education, pushed me to propose an alternative."

Frei, himself the son of a Chilean president, already governed Chile from 1994 to 2000, and while his latest campaign has swung to the left politically, he has failed to gain anywhere near the 78 percent approval ratings enjoyed by outgoing President Michelle Bachelet. Also, at 67, Frei can't help but represent the old guard.

So the big question is, will MEO's voters keep supporting the center-left coalition, even with Frei at the helm? Or will their desire for change be so strong that they vote for Pinera, whose alliance of right-wing parties provided a show of democracy during the last decade of Pinochet's dictatorship?

Pinera, ranked No. 701 with $1 billion on the Forbes magazine world's richest list, is a Harvard University economist and the most moderate candidate Chile's right has ever had. In 1988, he voted to end Pinochet's dictatorship — a fact he often recalls on the campaign trail. But leftists do not trust his assurances that he won't roll back human rights trials that have only recently gained momentum, with about 750 former military figures being prosecuted.

Ricardo Israel, a political scientist at the University of Chile, figures that in the end, leftists will back Frei in a one-on-one race against Pinera.

He said the result won't bring major change since all four candidates in Sunday's vote share a remarkable consensus in their campaign promises about what Chile needs.

"Absolutely nothing will change," Israel told the AP. "Nothing will change if it's a new Concertacion government, or the first government of the right in a half-century ... not in the economy, nor in social matters nor in the institutions of government."

"This has its good and bad aspects: the good part is that it shows stability, and the bad is that it shows a poverty of ideas and a lack of alternatives and debate," Israel said.

Patricio Navia, a Chilean political scientist at New York University, agreed that the elections won't likely bring radical change to Chile, even if EMO somehow wins. "The big surprise of this election is that all the candidates are proposing very similar policies," he said.

HOUSTON – City Controller Annise Parker made history Saturday by being elected Houston's first openly gay mayor, seizing 53.6 percent of the vote in the hotly contested race.

"This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. Just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better, and that's what my administration will be about," Parker told supporters after former city attorney Gene Locke conceded defeat.

Of the more than 152,000 residents who turned out to cast ballots in the fourth largest U.S. city, 81,652 chose Parker — some 11,000 votes more than Locke received.

The election battle leading up to Saturday's balloting was marked by fierce campaigning and anti-gay rhetoric.

Parker has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation. But that orientation became the focus of the race after anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups endorsed the 61-year-old Locke and sent out mailers condemning Parker's "homosexual behavior."

Meanwhile, gay and lesbian political organizations nationwide rallied to support the 53-year-old Parker by raising money for her campaign and making calls urging people to vote.

Locke tried to distance himself from the anti-gay attacks while courting conservative voters who could tip the race in his favor.

Although Locke condemned the divisive rhetoric, two of his key supporters contributed money to a conservative political action committee that sent out an anti-gay mailer earlier this month, urging voters not to pick Parker because she was endorsed by the "gay and lesbian political caucus."

Campaign finance reports show Ned Holmes, finance chairman of Locke's campaign, and James Dannenbaum, a member of the campaign's finance committee, each gave $20,000.

Late Saturday, Locke offered his congratulations to Parker and urged the city to move on from the bruising campaign fight.

"Here's what our city needs now: It needs unity. It needs us to come together and heal like we've never healed before, and to move forward under a new administration," he said.

Parker will succeed Bill White, who is term-limited after serving six years and is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

Several other U.S. cities, including Portland, Ore., Providence, R.I., and Cambridge, Mass., have openly gay mayors, but none as large as Houston.

Houston is predominantly Democratic and about 25 percent black and one-third Hispanic. About 60,000 of its 2.2 million residents identify as gay or lesbian.

___

PubCon Preview - Vegas Just Around the Corner

As the dates of PubCon draw closer anticipation is building for a week of PubCon networking with and learning from some of the industry's biggest names in sunny Las Vegas.
Some of the key players shaping the future of the Web and in particular social media have come to PubCon over the past few years to tell their stories and share their visions with our attendees, including digital entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki, named as one of the Web's top celebrities by Forbes magazine, author and The New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell, former MySpace CEO Richard Rosenblatt of DemandMedia -- who has sold over $1.3 billion of Internet media companies -- and Google lead quality control engineer Matt Cutts, who is a frequent PubCon attendee and three-time keynote speaker at our conference, to name just a few.
"PubCon was the first conference where Twitter played a huge roll." - Amanda Stewart
PubCon Keynotes
We're bringing seven social media leaders to present fresh keynote addresses at the Las Vegas Convention Center in November, including leading online shoe retailer Zappos visionary chief executive officer Tony Hsieh, Bob Brisco, chief executive for Internet Brands, the parent company of Jelsoft Enterprises Limited, maker of the market-leading message forum software vBulletin, and a unique panel of five social media experts from the largest hotel and casinos in the world.
Having Tony Hsieh (pronounced "shay") present a keynote speech at PubCon is a natural fit for our conference, with his more than 1.4 million followers on Twitter and a fresh and inspiring approach to social media marketing and customer service sure to both educate and inspire.
As the new social Web brings ever more user content to the forefront through communities such as message forums, Brisco and his vision as the leader of vBulletin will be a great keynote addition to this year's Las Vegas PubCon.
"I'm so impressed with the quality of the content by PubCon speakers. This is a great value conference." - Lisa Riolo
MGM Grand, Luxor, Hilton and Planet Hollywood Marketers Keynote PubCon
In our groundbreaking keynote panel, business marketing leaders from the Luxor resort hotel and casino, the MGM Grand hotel and casino, the Las Vegas Hilton, and Planet Hollywood resort and casino will come together to examine how their marketing departments successfully use social media.
This unique keynote speaker session will offer a rare glimpse into how some of the largest hotels and casinos in the world use social media.
All of our keynote speakers will bring their inspiring and groundbreaking social media insight to our Las Vegas PubCon.
"PubCon is the Mecca of all search engine marketing events world wide. After being in the SEM field for a while you begin to expect a little repetitive information when attending SEM conferences. But I have to say that PubCon was the best conference I've ever been to." - Darwin Hall
PubCon Twitter Track
"PubCon is going to be so well-documented on Twitter," Google's Cutts said at our PubCon South event in Austin, Texas earlier this year. His prediction came true as discussion about PubCon using the #PubCon hash tag became Twitter's most popular term for a period during the conference, and conference-goers enjoyed Tweeting questions to speakers and fellow audience members during many sessions.
Our Austin event was so successful that we sold out the conference center.
In Las Vegas at PubCon on November 10 - 13 Twitter and other social media services will play a larger role than ever.
All aspects of successfully using Twitter will be covered by marketing, social media, search and programming experts, with an entire PubCon Twitter Track of sessions including "Capitalizing on Twitter and the Microblogging Revolution," "Experts on PR and Twitter," and a unique offering called "Let's Tweet" that promises to take Twitter as an educational conference tool to new heights.PubCon Product Launches And Vision
PubCon often serves as a launching ground for major new products and services from some of the largest Internet firms, such as Google's PubCon launch of its Friend Connect API initiative in March.
"Planning on Vegas - haven't missed a U.S.-based PubCon since Boston 2003." - Adam Jewell
We have an extraordinarily diverse pool of talent helping to guide our conferences, led by the members of our PubCon Advisory Board that includes:
Guy Kawasaki
Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
Tim Mayer
Vice President of Product Management, Yahoo! Search
Justin Osmer
Senior Product Manager, Bing, Microsoft Corporation
Melanie Mitchell
SVP of Search Strategy, Digitas
Adam Lasnik
Search Evangelist, Google
Gordon Hotchkiss
President, Enquiro Search Solutions
Rick Schwartz
Rick Schwartz, CEO Traffic Conference
Greg Boser
President, WebGuerrilla LLC
Heather Lloyd Martin
President and CEO, SuccessWorks
George Roberts
President and CEO, Interjuncture.com
Jim Stobb
CEO, Position Tech
Joe Laratro
President, Tandem Interactive
Ted Ulle
Partner, The MEWS Group
Jake Baillie
Managing Director, STN Labs
Todd Friesen
Vice President of Search, Position Technologies
Jim Boykin
CEO, We Build Pages
Thomas Ball
Venture Partner, Austin Ventures
Chris Tolles
CEO, Topix
Enrich Your PubCon Adventure
If you'd like to come to PubCon but are looking for ways to make it happen at your company, we have several tips available that show both the educational and monetary value of PubCon. In his "Top Tips to Get Your Boss to Send You to a Conference" PubCon founder Brett Tabke took a light-hearted look at why it is worthwhile to make an effort to attend our conference.
PubCon has always been a premium social media and search conference at an affordable price, and Tabke explained how we manage to do it in his "Keeping Conferences Affordable and Fun" piece.
If you're already registered for PubCon and planning how to best organize your time during the busy November week next month, have a look at "Conference Survivor - Sports and Games: (PubCon fun)," a look at some of the creative ways you can get more from the PubCon experience.
If you'd like to know what PubCon holds in store, look no further than our PubCon History Archives, and check out our PubCon photo-retrospective piece called "You Never Know Who You'll Run Into At PubCon."
"I'll be at PubCon this November. These PubCon photos bring back a lot of good memories." - Google's Matt Cutts
PubCon Banners And Affiliate Program
We share your enthusiasm for the upcoming PubCon in Las Vegas, and have provided a variety of PubCon Web banner images available to include on your Web site, social media pages or blogs. In August we launched our new PubCon Rewards Affiliate Program designed to thank our partners who help promote PubCon.
Whether you are a first time attendee wondering what to expect at your first PubCon or a seasoned veteran of a decade of PubCon events, for a glimpse inside what makes a good presentation -- the kind we work hard to bring you -- have a look at Tabke's "PubCon Street Tips: Giving a Kick Ass Presentation," a valuable guide for speakers, potential speakers and attendees alike.
"I send one or two people to every major conference. I send my entire team to PubCon" - Gillian Muessig, SEOmoz
Build Your Own Itinerary And Take PubCon's $20,000 Poker Challenge
To help you pick from so many tracks comprising nearly 100 session choices we encourage you to take advantage of our online "Build Your Show Itinerary" feature, which Tabke explains in detail in his "PubCon Conference Itinerary Builder" piece.
Casinos play a big part in most peoples' visits to Las Vegas, and PubCon has offered charity casino events at previous shows raising thousands of dollars for charities such as the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
This year we're offering a $20,000 PubCon Poker Challenge that will be held at the Las Vegas Hilton, conveniently located directly adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Las Vegas Hilton will offer complimentary tournament entries to the Poker Challenge for 40 lucky poker players. Prize money in the Poker Challenge will be $20,000 in Las Vegas Hilton hotel and casino promotional poker chips, spendable at the Hilton Casino.
We feel that it's important for PubCon attendees to gain valuable "take-aways," and that's why we provide every full conference pass holder with a CD containing the conference presentation files, mailed out shortly after the conclusion of PubCon, as a way to say "thank you" and to help you keep implementing the plans and insight presented in our sessions throughout the year and long into the future.
PubCon Event Scene Heating Up
The party scene for PubCon Las Vegas is beginning to heat up, and you can expect several exciting announcements for after-hours industry-sponsored and private networking parties and events as PubCon draws nearer.
We've already announced our "PreCon PubCon Kickoff Networking Blast," a pre-show networking event to be held on Monday, November 9, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center featuring many of our speakers, sponsors, and lead exhibitors gathered together for this kickoff event, the first one we've had after several years absence.
Taking place the day before PubCon, our kickoff networking event offers a unique way to gather with friends and colleagues before the conference begins.
We've been building momentum throughout a successful 2009 that kicked off with our first-ever Texas event in March, and four months later, when many search and social media industry professionals in the United States were celebrating Independence Day, London was abuzz as the city hosted a PubCon networking event in England.
"PubCon Austin was great. Incredible content, speakers and networking. If you were not there, you missed out." - Scott Polk
New Features And Events In Store At PubCon
It's been a whirlwind of activity as we've had overwhelming response from nearly 500 top speakers hoping to present at one of our sessions and some of the largest sign up weeks in conference history. With our largest set of session proposals ever we are excited about what is on tap for the thousands of people we expect to see at PubCon in November.
We'll also be bringing PubCon back to the southern U.S., with our spring 2010 PubCon South multi-track conference that will take place in Dallas Texas on April 13 - 15, 2010.
We've added many new events and lined up new promotions for our upcoming PubCon, including our PubCon Training Program and Workshops, a one day two-topic slate of intensive educational training programs that will take place on Monday, November 9, the day before the full conference officially begins, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with two simultaneous tracks of in-depth sessions led by some of the industry's most respected search professionals.
Monday will be the biggest pre-show day ever at PubCon, with our new professional search training program followed by our evening Kickoff Networking Blast pre-show event.
"Meeting folks in person is the best part of PubCon!" - Roger Dooley
PubCon Networking Lunch
Another entirely new event at this year's Las Vegas conference will be a PubCon Networking Lunch Program hosted by a variety of top speakers leading conversations about more than 20 social media and Internet marketing subjects, giving you the opportunity to get close to some of PubCon's top speakers and spend time discussing the industry topics they know the best, all in a relaxed shared environment around a lunch table.
In September we teamed up with Seattle-based Internet marketing and search engine optimization company SEOmoz on a special cross-promotional PubCon registration and SEOmoz PRO membership rate, a deal that quickly sold out thanks to all of you who recognized and took advantage of a fantastic opportunity.
Wynn, Other Travel Promotions Still Available
Our special PubCon room block at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel also sold out, however we have been able to secure a second block of luxury accommodations at the Wynn, the only casino resort in the world to receive the Mobil 5 Star, the AAA 5 Diamond, and the Michelin 5 Red ratings.
The Wynn Las Vegas Hotel still has very special PubCon pricing of only $129 a night on a limited number of opulent suites, conveniently located across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center where PubCon 2009 will take place, and offer that comes in addition to our existing choice of Treasure Island as a PubCon hotel, and offers attendees another exciting luxury hotel option.
"Thank you PubCon for terrific times! See ya'll in Vegas November 2009." - @chiropractic
We've arranged PubCon travel discounts with airlines, hotels, Las Vegas monorail and car rental companies in order to make your PubCon experience more economical and convenient.
Our "Fly JetBlue to PubCon and Save" promotion gives conference attendees a five percent discount from JetBlue's lowest available fare when you book your PubCon Las Vegas 2009 flight online.
Our "Dollar Rent a Car promotion" gives PubCon attendees discount rates for those who prefer driving in Las Vegas, available up until the conference begins.
Whether this will be your first visit to Las Vegas or your one-hundredth, our "Planes, Trains and Limos" tips for getting around Las Vegas during PubCon will help you spend as little time and money as possible on transportation so that you can spend more time at the show.
PubCon Sponsors And Exhibitors
As a Gold Sponsor at PubCon, Microsoft Bing continues a long and successful relationship with our conferences, and will have representatives speaking on several session panels. Microsoft Bing will also be an exhibitor at PubCon.
Among others joining Microsoft Bing in sponsoring PubCon are Raven SEO Tools and Market Health.
"Just counted 29 pages of notes from PubCon. what an amazing event. Thank you!" - Ricci Neer
New PubCon Video Blog
Another new feature we've added is the PubCon Video Blog, showcasing past, present and potential future PubCon speakers in interviews by WebmasterWorld video content producer Vanessa Zamora and PubCon founder Brett Tabke.
Watch PubCon-produced video interviews with many of the "Who's Who" of top search and social media marketers, webmasters and technology innovators, and learn as they speak on a wide range of the Internet-related subjects that are the trademark of PubCon conferences, including many from our previous conferences.
We've continued to have tremendous response to our upcoming PubCon conference in Las Vegas, which is shaping up to be the biggest and best conference in our ten year history.
Keep up with the latest news about PubCon by visiting the PubCon LinkedIn social networking site group, the PubCon Facebook group, the PubCon Flickr photo stream group, and our PubCon Twitter feed.

Getting Around PubCon At The Las Vegas Convention Center Guide

PubCon is just around the corner on November 10 - 13, 2009, and whether this is your first or your tenth PubCon, we have a huge slate of tracks, sessions, networking events, parties and even poker tournaments in store for you.
We want to make it easy to find your way to and around PubCon and offer the following tips for getting around our event at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
PubCon will take place in the North Hall N2 of the Las Vegas Convention Center, with sessions on the upper level and keynotes, registration, expo hall, breakfast and lunch on the lower level in the North Hall N2.
The LVCC north halls are the closest to the Las Vegas Monorail convention center stop, making it more convenient than the south and central halls.
The north halls are also nearest to the Las Vegas Hilton, where our $20,000 poker tournament will be held.
This year PubCon offers seven sessions rooms on the upper level, labeled A through G, for our biggest selection of session choices ever.
PubCon Tips And Guides
Each year a number of PubCon conference-goers write handy blog posts with their own tips and tricks for getting the most out of the conference, and some recent offerings are listed here:
Dr. Peter J. Meyers, or "Dr. Pete," president of User Effect has offered his "Seven Tips For Surviving PubCon" on the SEOmoz blog.
PubCon speaker Heather Lloyd-Martin has written "15 Tips For A Successful PubCon Conference."
Chris Hooley, a PubCon speaker, has written a "PubCon Is Coming!" preview.
Dave Rohrer has written about the sessions he plans to attend in his "PubCon Vegas 2009" blog post.
This year in Las Vegas we are giving PubCon attendees what we feel are some of the best conference badge holders available, and PubCon speaker Michael Dorausch has written about his "Five PubCon Badge Essentials."
The Hosting News has written about PubCon in his "Are You Heading To PubCon Las Vegas 2009? You Should Be" blog post.
Jeff Tirey has written a "PubCon Survival Guide" for the beginner, including a second part.
The latest addition to the PubCon party scene is the Trackur PubCon Social event.
Growth Partner has started a "PubCon Vegas 2009 Personal Assistant Giveaway," and we have begun accepting entries for PubCon's PowerFan Twitter contest.
Here are the details for our Twitter contest:
Are you the biggest PubCon fanatic? Prove it in our PubCon PowerFan Twitter contest and win a new Acer netbook computer worth $450.
What is the PubCon PowerFan Twitter Contest?
It's simple.
In one Twitter tweet tell why you are PubCon's biggest fan.
Tell us why you are the most dedicated and enthusiastic PubCon supporter who gets the most out of PubCon.
Or, if this will be your first PubCon, tell us what you are most looking forward to getting out of our conference.
How do I play?
Entering is easy.
Simply use Twitter to tell us why you are PubCon's biggest fan and mention hash tag #PubCon in a tweet before the contest ends on Friday, November 6, 2009.
You'll be entered to win a new netbook computer that will be awarded to PubCon's biggest fan during the conference on November 10 - 13, 2009.
Who can play?
Anyone is eligible to play.
The winner of the PubCon PowerFan Twitter contest will be announced live during PubCon.
Enter as many times as you like with tweets proving that you are PubCon's number one fan.
Whether it's "I love #PubCon because...," "I'm the biggest #PubCon fan because...," or "#PubCon rocks because...," send us your tweets mentioning #PubCon and you could win a new netbook at PubCon in Las Vegas on November 10 - 13, 2009.
The winner will be determined by an examination of all entered tweets from which a panel of PubCon employees will select what is considered to be the best one showing who PubCon's biggest fan is.
An example of some of the first entries that have come up show how enthusiastic PubCon attendees are:
I support PubCon because it provides me with great information I can use in my job every day. I'm bumming because I can't be there! #pubcon - @rehor Elmer BoutinI'm a #pubcon fan because it has the perfect mix of content, networking and fun. The Trifecta!- @RickGalan Rick Galan#pubcon is a great way to connect with industry experts and have a good time doing it. Lots of useful info shared at the conference. - @juliadalton Julia DaltonI support #pubcon bc it's the best blended conference & the craziest ;) w 5 sessions this year, I know I'll build the best relationships. - @katemorris Kate MorrisI haven't missed a #pubcon Las Vegas in four years, despite job losses, sick leave, family deaths, or appendicitis. Can't keep me away! - @lyndseo.com Lyndsay WalkerI would equate #pubcon more w Woodstock than Burning Man but w soap, showers, & maybe less baby making- @googleandblog Michael MartinI mean come on, it's the F2F and #pubcon #shenanigans that make it rock, no? - @Ribeezie Ricardo BuenoGot my Pubcon Speaker's badge today. That's why I am Pubcon's #1 fan. I dont' have to wait in line in Vegas! #pubcon. - @tonynwright Tony Wright#pubcon conf - state-of-the-art sessions rock - networking nightlife rocks more - last day networking ubermug bash: priceless (pubcon.com) - @cshav10#pubcon is my Fave! I've seen all your movies like To Kill a Raven, Saving Private Moz, Inglorious Microsoft, Singing in the Twain... - @nuzunet Travis FinsethThe #pubcon badge just arived. The people in the office don't get "WHY" I am so "EXCITED" - You must experience #pubcon 2 understand. - @WilliamRock William Rock#pubcon is my Fave! I've seen all your movies like The SEO Redemption, Internet History X, Google Wars, Guys List, Linkback Mountain... - @nuzunet Travis Finseth#pubcon is my Fave! I've seen all your movies like Casa Tabke, The Godfather MattCutts, 12 Angry SEO's, Lord of the SERP, Citizen Blackhat.. - @nuzunet Travis Finseth#pubcon The Event has always been my favorite to attend, I feel it provides more experienced & educated speakers as well reasonable on the $ - @WilliamRock William Rock#pubcon is my favorite search marketing/social media conference as the content is most focused on getting things done in the real world. - @ionadas? Brian Combs?It is final: #pubcon is a girl. I'm flying over the ocean to see her and she still wants me to prove my love for her by tweeting - @neyne Branko RihtmanI'm the top fan because I've been learning from WebmasterWorld since late 90's. #PubCon was the original (& my 1st) Search Conference+started in a pub! - @MattPellerin Matt PellerinI am a top fan of #pubcon as its the Woodstock 4 us Internet Marketing geeks as well getting to party w @btabke @josephmorin & @jeffrandall - @googleandblog Michael MartinI highly recommend attending #pubcon this year -- it will help you take your website to the next level. - @steveboymel Steve BoymelAwesome content, technical excellence, great peeps, poker, Werewolf, laid back, cool, Vegas & just plain rocks. Why I am a #PubCon #powerfan - @schachinI love #pubcon so much, that I'm driving 6 hours to get there! - @TweetFind Ruben Orozco?If you miss #PubCon in Las Vegas you will be missing out on simply the best internet marketing conference in the industry - @scottpolk Scott PolkI love #pubcon so much I moved to #Vegas (ok so not really, but I do love pubcon! :)) - @schachinSearching #pubcon to get to know folks before I meet them there! Pubcon: Internet marketing without the jackasses of IM - @unmarketing Scott Stratten#pubCon "Our rockstars are not your rockstars" #Pubcon is da bomb! Where else can you play Werewolf w MattCutts as Danny Sullivan! - @schachin@ #PubCon, you hear from the "Indians" who make stuff happen, instead of the sales people or the "chiefs" who "manage" it. - @adamjewell Adam JewellThe "chiefs" at #PubCon earned their stripes the hard way and can often hop back in and fit right in with the "tribe" building and creating. - @adamjewell Adam JewellI look forward to my 6th #pubcon where search industry networking is optimal. WebmasterWorld, which precedes #pubcon, helps me keep my SEO razors edge. - @robertwright Robert Wright #pubcon is where I make new social media geek connections & get tips to do what I already do even better!- @k_pierceDamn impressive session grid. Well done @pubcon - @leeodden Lee OddenI look forward to #pubcon more than any other conference every year and would honestly pay for it myself if my company didn't - @nandron
We look forward to hearing from PubCon's many supporters, and to awarding one special fan a netbook at PubCon.