Pubcon Las Vegas is one of my favorite conferences to go to every year. This year, I am grateful to receive a press pass to cover Pubcon through a unique lens that isn’t discussed enough: women speakers at marketing conferences.
Pubcon has done a great job of promoting women in marketing by having a great mix of male and female speakers at their conferences. Throughout my years of attending Pubcon, all of the women speakers I’ve met have been knowledgeable, approachable, and full of great information and insight.
Below I’m outlining some of the women in marketing and search speakers at Pubcon that I’m most looking forward to this year.
Erin Robbins-O’Brien
Erin is a great speaker and has an engaging and fun speaking style. Attend her sessions for some free bourbon, stay for the great tips you probably won’t get anywhere else.
- Building Custom Content on a Budget: Erin Robbins O’Brien, Caitlin Jeansonne
- Data Driven Marketing: Ryan Jones, Erin Robbins O’Brien
Erin Everhart
One of my other favorite Erins is super high-energy and relates her concepts to easy-to-understand memes and cartoons that instantly stick in your mind. She also has great answers for Q&A sessions, so be sure to stick around for those as well!
- Scale an In-House SEO Team: Peter Leshaw, Erin Everhart, Derrick Wheeler
Debra Jasper
I haven’t met Debra Jasper in person, but I look forward to hearing more from her at one of the signature Pubcon keynotes.
Cynthia Johnson
Cynthia’s expertise speaks for itself: she has worked with several major brands and has a large social following of her own in the hundreds of thousands. She’s also very knowledgeable about working on SEO and social for multiple locations if you need it!
- Personal Branding & Employee Advocacy for Positive PR and SEO: Mel Carson, Cynthia Johnson
Christine Churchill
I haven’t seen Christine Churchill speak in person, but she is a great resource for understanding and utilizing SEO tools and campaigns.
- SEO Toolset Talk: Christine Churchill, Jon Henshaw
Casie Gillette
Casie is a regular conference speaker at several events throughout the year, and she never fails to disappoint. She often covers content marketing, but she also knows her stuff when it comes to search marketing. I look forward to seeing her speak again this year!
- Site Reviews: Focus on Content: Casie Gillette, Dave Rohrer, Maggie Malek, Jessie Stricchiola, Chris Boggs
- Content, Search and Social Interplay: Maggie Malek, Prashant Puri, Casie Gillette
Carolyn Shelby
Looking for no-BS guidance on technical and advanced SEO? Carolyn Shelby is your girl. I love her dry sense of humor and the way she delivers advice honestly to the audience. It’s usually what we need to hear!
- In-House Team Building: Carolyn Shelby, Keith Goode
Annie Cushing and Jenny Halasz
Talk about a power-packed analytics women-led Pubcon session!
Annie Cushing is the analytics queen. She definitely knows her stuff when it comes to all things analytics. She has a lot of great resources on her website and I’m sure her Pubcon session will be just as insightful!
Jenny Halasz does great work in SEO audits and analytics research and reports. While I’m sure I’m understating all she can do, she is always willing to answer questions and help the search community.
- Google Analytics Customization: Annie Cushing, Jenny Halasz
Aleyda Solis
Alyeda Solis is well-known for her insight on international SEO and content marketing and is a regular speaker at several conferences every year. While I haven’t met her in person yet, I look forward to meeting her at this year’s Pubcon.
- Content Management Across International Markets: Aleyda Solis, Michael Bonfils
- Interactive Site Reviews: Focus on Mobile: Cindy Krum, Aleyda Solis, John Busby, Lauren Polinsky
Rhea Drysdale
Rhea is a well-known speaker and SEO expert that specializes in SEO, online reputation management, and linkbuilding. I’m looking forward to her session on outreach below, as she always has some great advice.
- Press and Blogger Outreach for Link Building: Rob Woods, Rhea Drysdale, Marcela Devivo
- Omni-Channel Digital Marketing Strategy and Execution: Rhea Drysdale, Dave Roth
Mary Bowling
Mary Bowling is a local SEO expert and often covers this topic at several conferences and through her speaking gigs at LocalU. I enjoy her easygoing nature– she’s really easy to talk to and I’ve enjoyed visiting with her while we are both at Pubcon.
- Site Reviews: Focus on Organic SEO: Arnie Kuenn, Todd Malicoat, Marcela Devivo, Navah Hopkins, Mary Bowling
- Local Search Point-Counterpoint – Enterprise vs. SMB: Mary Bowling, Lauren Polinsky
Motoko Hunt
I had the honor to give Motoko one of the “search professionals of the year” awards at the U.S. Search Awards in 2014 (where I’ve been a judge every year since then), which coincides Wednesday evening at Pubcon. I have heard nothing but good things about her speaking sessions, as her specialty is international search.
- International SEO: Kate Morris, Zeph Snapp, Motoko Hunt
Purna Virji
Purna Virji is another search professional that I haven’t had the honor of meeting yet, but I’ve only heard good things! She is a training manager at Bing Ads over at Microsoft and stays active in the marketing community through conferences and interviews.
- Mobile is the New Local: Bernadette Coleman, Purna Virji
- How Voice Search Is Changing Advertising: Purna Virji, Manpreet Singh
Christina Baldassarre
Christina Baldassarre is a friend of mine, but I was blown away by her presentation at Pubcon last year. It was so well-researched and was chock-full of really great information. I look forward to seeing her and her presentations this year!
- Snapchat: Christina Baldassarre, Kat Haselkorn
- Site Reviews: Focus on Social: Christina Baldassarre, Jabez Lebret, Ashley Ward, Kat Haselkorn
Lisa Gerber
Lisa’s session looks extremely interesting this year, and a little birdie told me how hard she’s worked on making this session the best it can be. I’m definitely put it in my Pubcon schedule as a “must-attend.”
- How We Create Epic Stories: Lisa Gerber, Casey Markee
Kudos to Pubcon team for all their work on building diversity!
Pubcon is my favorite multi-day conference. I love going to Vegas every year to meet up with my marketing buddies– it really is like SEO-nerd summer camp! I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Is there a woman you are looking forward to hearing from at Pubcon this year that I haven’t mentioned? If so, let us know in the comments! 🙂
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