Each year I look at the conference calendar to see which I feel will be the most beneficial to me. This year I am looking at the calendar slightly differently as I want to pitch for speaking slots as well as attend as an attendee.
Below I have highlighted the conferences that I want to attend as a member of the audience, and possible pitch to speak at some events.
BrightonSEO
This has become one of the must attend events every time that it is held. Last year BrightonSEO sold 600 tickets in less than 30minutes, which tells you exactly how popular and valuable it has become.
Kelvin Newman, the founder of BrightonSEO has continued to increase the capacity of the event each time, providing the very best speakers from across the SEO industry.
I am hoping that I will be able to attend both BrightonSEOs this year and maybe be in a position to speak at the event in 2013.. 
For more about BrightonSEO
ThinkVisibility
This is the conference that I really wanted to attend in 2011, as I heard so many good things about it. The conference is held over the weekend so, those that are attending are really interested in SEO and want to be there, which makes for a great conference.
Last year I read some great reviews and it sounded a very informative conference whilst also being one of the most enjoyable. I am hoping that I will get to attend one of the ThinkVis conferences this year.
For more information on Think Visibility
Distilled Conference
Although a competitor to my current employer, Distilled do hold one of, if not the the best conference of the year in many peoples eyes. I was unable to make either SearchLove or Linklove last year, but there were so many good posts written about those two events that I had to put it on this years SEO conference wish list.
For more information on Distilled’s Conferences
A4U London
One of the biggest Affiliate conferences in Europe, A4U London was one of the best events that I attended in 2011. It was also the event that I presented my first ever SEO deck on SEO Tactics to Tame the Panda. Before presenting at the event I attended several SEO sessions from leading speakers including Will Critchlow, Kelvin Newman and Richard Baxter, that gave informative and thought provoking presentations.
I am hoping that I will be able to speak at A4U London and/or Barcelona this year, but if I am unable to do so then I definitely want to be at the event as an attendee.
For more information on A4U London
PubCon
Now this has nothing to do with the fact that PubCon, is held in Las Vegas.. OK so it might have something to do with that but both our Directors at SEOptimise gave it rave reviews in 2011.
This conference will probably be the most difficult event that I want to go to, but I think that you might as well aim for the stars, right?
For more information on PubCon
Ideally I would like to go to all of the conferences that I have mentioned above but if I had to choose the two that I really wanted to go to this year, then I would have to say a Distilled event and Think Visibility. This is mainly due to I have been to both A4U and BrightonSEO, and want to continue to my learning by attending as many different conferences as I can. But I am hoping that I can go to all of them, so if you are reading this (you know who you are) these are the SEO conferences that I would like to attend in 2012.
What conferences are you attending this year? Do you have a Conference wish list, whether it be for SEO or another digital marketing niche? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments below.
Today I finally got around to taking the Google Analytic Individual Qualification (GAIQ) exam that I have been meaning to take for the last 12 months. Although disappointed in the score (88%), I am glad that I have passed and got it out of the way, and can now say that I am a qualified user of Google Analytics.