Digital Marketing Conferences I'm Attending in 2019

Hey guys, Matt Paulson here. In this video I want to talk about the conferences that I will be attending in 2018 and why I kind of attend each one. You know, many people throughout the year ask me, you know, what conferences I'm going to because one, they want ideas for conferences to go to and two, they just want to connect for a few minutes and catch up in a place that they know I'm going to be anyway. So the first conference that I'm going to go to this year is the Capitalism Conference and that is in January in Dallas, Texas. I like the Capitalism Conference because there are a lot of other business owners of the same mindset that attend. People that are trying to build more than just lifestyle businesses, people that are really trying to build 5 million or 10 million dollar a year businesses attend this. So the attendee quality is really high. There aren't a lot of entrepreneurs or people that want to start a business someday that attend the event. And a lot of the speakers just help you think differently about business than you might yourself. There's a big focus on growth and scale and how to make your business 10 times bigger than it is today. The conference does a really good job of getting big name speakers. I always buy the VIP pass so I can get pictures of the speakers. I've gotten photos with Robert Herjavec and Damon John and Gary Vaynerchuk, Alicia Silverstone, who knows who else, just because I bought the VIP ticket and then I waited in a photo line. So it's kind of a, a fun perk of attending the conference. This is actually the fourth year that I've attended. I've gone all four years they've had the event. They used to do it in Austin, they just moved it to Dallas, Texas. So we'll see how it goes there. Moving a conference from one city to another is always a tricky thing. So hopefully it will be as good as it was in years past. Then in February, I'm going to go to the Traffic and Conversion Summit in February. It's one of the largest digital marketing conferences in the country. I think about 6,000 people attend each year. Could be a little bit higher, could be a little bit lower. But this is the conference that digital marketing agencies send their people to to learn the latest strategies and taxes. So you can kind of get a leg up on a lot of other marketers or maybe your competitors by attending this conference because, you know, your choice is to, you know, pay an agency and have them send their person to go to this conference and learn something and Then you know, three months later implement it in your business or you can just go yourself and implement what you learn yourself. The attendee quality is kind of a little bit tougher here. There are a lot of people that with large businesses and people that work for agencies that attend. So I wouldn't go thinking you're going to network with a lot of other entrepreneurs. Really the best way to do trafficking conversion is to find a group of like minded friends and just kind of go together. That way you can hang out and have lunch and dinner and spend some time with people that you enjoy. You know, it's 6,000 people, it's easy to kind of get lost in the crowd, so. And you know, it's just hard, harder to meet some people there. So I would definitely try to go with some other people that you know, if you can. It's also San Diego in February, which is, you know, by that time of year I'm kind of done with winter and just happy to spend a few days next to the beach. So I do learn a lot. But it's also kind of a great opportunity to get away from the cold weather for a bit. The third conference I'm going to is the Financial Marketing Summit and that is in March. This is the second year I'm going. It's by far the smallest conference attend, but it is the only conference for people in kind of the small financial media and marketing industry that I'm a part of. You know, a lot of our biggest advertisers like Agora Financial, our big network partners like Investing Media Solutions, they all attend this conference. So the content is okay. You know, people aren't going to give out their best secrets because it is a very competitive industry. But the real value is in the networking and relationships that you build there. Last year I met a bunch of people that work at various brands for Agora Financial and we were able to develop relationships with some of them. So we promoted three of their kind of big launches last year and we netted over $300,000 from those launches. So we spent a couple grand to go to the conference, little bit more for a plane. And that conference has paid for itself ten times over easily. They have it in Orlando every year. So lots of people bring their families, stay a couple of extra days and go to Disney World or Universal. Last year they didn't have it next to Univers. This year they're having it next to Disney. We did that last year. A lot of fun. Probably won't work out this year because we have kindergartner now, but it's a good event for MarketBeat but maybe not for anybody else. Unless you're also doing a financial service of some kind or financial information media, whatever service you want to call it. The fourth conference I'm going to is Rhodium Weekend. This is a conference for Internet business owners that I attend every year in Vegas. 2019 will actually be my sixth rhodium weekend and and probably my 12th or 13th rhodium events. So when I find a conference that I like, I just keep going back. The Rhodium online community of entrepreneurs is kind of a group of business owners that run Internet business in various niche. Kind of a tight knit conference, you know, 150ish people or 10. And the speakers themselves are all not professional speakers that don't have really a business themselves outside of their speaking career and their speaking business. The speakers tend to be people that are in the weeds building Internet businesses themselves. So the strategies and tactics tend to be very up to date and very helpful. There's also a focus on buying and selling Internet businesses at this conference. So it's really helpful to know if I wanted to sell my business today. It's pretty easy to get a good idea of what it might be worth just by watching the people on stage. Sometimes they'll do a business valuation roundup where they have the different brokers talk and people can pitch their businesses and then the brokers will give them an estimate of what they think it might be worth. And then Rhodium is also as much a community as it is an event. I've made lots of friends at Rhodium Weekend and I go, I meet with a lot of Rhodium people every spring for a Mastermind event. Last year we did it in Orlando. Before that we did it in San Diego. And this year we're going to do it in Puerto Vallarta in May. Even had Rhodium people come and stay at my house. So I love that about Rhodium as well. It's been a great place to meet some friends. So Those are the four conferences I'm attending in 2019. My schedule is pretty set for this year. I might switch it up a little bit next year. There's an email marketing conference called Mailcon that's kind of interesting. I might check that out next year. I also keep hearing about Funnel Hacking Live. That's the Russell Brunson and ClickFunnels Conference. Lots of people talk about that and saying this thing. So that might be something to check out. But I'd love to hear about what digital marketing and entrepreneurship conferences you guys are going to, so feel free to post those in the comments and maybe I'll see you at one of them someday.