After Google announced its first virtual webmaster conference, well, "unconference" - it was sold out within two hours. This is not a real conference in that there will be formal presentations. Instead, it seems like Googlers will kick off some ideas in each session and then have an open dialog with attendees.
I am not sure how it will work exactly. I mean, doing virtual conferences with prepared speakers and presentations is hard enough. But to do it where the attendees are having a live open dialog with Googlers sounds like it will be tough. I suspect it might be a lot like the Google webmaster office hours that John Mueller and friends do all the time. But it won't just be open ended, instead it will be on the session topic.
If you are looking to just sit back and watch, Google really doesn't want you to take a seat. This is for people to be interacting with each other.
Google wrote "You can expect to actively participate in the sessions you're interested in via voice and/or video call through Google Meet. Please note that the sessions will not be recorded; we will publish a blog post with some of the top learnings after the event."
Here is the video promo:
You can review the 18 different session over here.
Like I said, the "seats" for this sold out fast, within 2-3 hours:
Me, two weeks ago: "What if we end up without enough people to participate in the discussions and panels and so on?"
— 🌞 Splitti is on vacation 🌞 (@g33konaut) August 10, 2020
Me, today, after the waitlist filled up within a few hours: "Oh."
Google may be able to open up more spots but it is hard to tell for sure.
Yeah that went fast. I'll open a few more spots later this week. Keep your eyes open on the Google webmaster blog
— 🌞 Splitti is on vacation 🌞 (@g33konaut) August 10, 2020
I'll email the applicants to make clear what they're signing up for (interactive, live discussion, not just sit&listen) and I already deduped some registrations. But I don't know how many more I can open up..
— 🌞 Splitti is on vacation 🌞 (@g33konaut) August 11, 2020
If not, and if this goes well, Google will run more events like this, at different time slots:
We might run more events in the future, including some in different timezones. Let's see how the pilot event goes :)
— 🌞 Splitti is on vacation 🌞 (@g33konaut) August 11, 2020
I am registered and ready to go, unless they take my "seat" away.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
