The internet conference world is changing right now. Changing so fast in fact that if the big conferences don’t change along with it, they may see some decreasing numbers coming up.

The future leader of Internet Conferences

All of the below fall under the category of R.I.S. R.I.S. is the industry you are in. I am promoting its use now. It stands for Random Internet Stuff, or the S. can stand for something else instead

matt reider in blue, the originator of the term RIS

Pubcon is my original home, so I will be back in Vegas next year. Gotta have the poker tournament right?

Personally I can not stand sitting still in a conference hall listening to someone yack at me for hour after hour. As we all know, the real gains take place sitting on a lounge chair, or standing until your feet bleed, nose to nose with some guy you never met before who is the first person you ever came across who solved that problem you have been working on for 6 months now.

I had that experience at Pubcon at least 5 times this trip, and it never took place during a session. In fact the session I did got rave reviews, and I was told by many people it was the best session they attended at Pubcon. The reason it worked so well, was that I didn’t talk! I got everyone out of their seats and interacting with each other to the point that the moderator lost control of the room, har dee har har!

Well, here is a list of events that have captured my imagination coming up in the upcoming year. The core thread between all of them is the informality, and the freedom they give the attendees. If your event is that cool, and it is not on the list, send me an e-mail and I will consider it!

In no particular order!

Elite Retreat! I think there are something like 6 seats left, and I expect it to sell out within the next few weeks, maybe even a few hours after I write this! The reason the Elite Retreat rocks is that the speakers and attendees are chosen based on their knowledge and success. I helped in the running of the event last year, and get to help again this year. (I get 0 pay by the way as I do it just to help Jeremy). Last year just for the coversation I got to hear between Dave Dellanave, Jeremy’s (Shoemoney) right hand and a fricken amazing programmer!, Neil Patel, and Andy Liu, it would have been worth spending $10,000. Also the fact that Neil Patel has now become a very close friend and business adviser as a result of the Elite Retreat make the events long term worth more like $100k for me (Thanks bros!)

Now for those of you who live in countries where online gaming is allowed, there is CAP. Arjun Jolly is deserving of his name and is an intelligent, warm, and generous guy who along with the rest of his crew runs Casino Affiliate Programs. The reason I am writing about this event is not because I think you should participate in online gaming, but because they really know how to run a show! Their show is coming up in London, and is legendary. It sounds to me that even though they have world class speakers, some of which you won’t hear at any of the U.S. shows, they also really know how to hold networking events. One good friend of mine told me a story of girls covered in nothing but gold paint, and then he was spotted later with lots of gold paint on his hands! The event is January 29th to Feb. 1, 2009. I know a little bit of the behind the scenes on this one, and I expect it to be a party not to be missed!

Scary SEO! I hope David holds this again in October around Halloween again in Florida. I missed it, but those who went said it was an incredibly casual, fun, and friendly event. I predict next year will be much bigger. It also gave people like Pamela Lund, a still mostly undiscovered genius at SEO, a chance to speak. Amazingly it was Pam’s first speaking gig in our industry.

Octoberfest with Marcus Tandler. I am actually sad I did not go to this one. Marcus is the warmest, most brilliant, nicest, and most positive guy. I think he may tie me and Rand Fiskin as the most positive guy in our industry. Again he had some brilliant people there, and got them to wear lederhosen! This was a very small event with around 8 speakers including Brent Csutoras and Greg Boser and 8 attendees and those who went told me it was the most fun they ever had.

Men in shorts.

There are a lot of superlatives in the events described above, but each one deserves them.

The funny thing is that even though I am friends with both Marcus and Arjun we ended up stupidly holding the CAP event, the ThinkTank in San Diego and Octoberfest in Germany all on the same weekend! Maybe if we are a bit smarter this year, we can have them different weekends!

What is funny as any of you who know me know, I don’t usually drink, (the past 20 years of drinking would not even fill a small cup) and I don’t usually gamble. That’s not to say I didn’t get to enjoy sharing a sip of Louis the XIII at Pubcon with Boser, Tony Adams, and Oilman. I have just snuck myself into this industry full of raucous drinking and gambling so I can set an example. So when you see me, join me for a drink, or better yet, buy me a virgin mojido!

Oh yeh before I sign off I should plug my own stuff. We will definatelly be having the ThinkTank in San Diego at the end of summer, Marcus? Arjun? can we coordinate dates? There will be the poker tournament at Pubcon pluse more of our fun events. I will also be discussing in the next week, with a very big player in the industry the possibility of us branching out with an even bigger event/conference/party, focusing on a sub industry of the RIS world. We’ll see what happens. You can definitely catch me at the Elite Retreat, and maybe will be going to Affiliate Summit, possibly with one or two of my posse.

The posse, ignore the guys in the pic. Left to right Cobra, Whiteshorts and Hotwheelz.