The 1st Internet Marketing Pub Conference was conceived, developed, arranged, and financed by individuals who had met online while serving as administrators and moderators of the Webmasterworld forums. Neither WebmasterWorld (as a business) nor its owner attended or otherwise formally participated in the event.

Disclaimer: For those of you just now finding out about the -now somewhat legendary- PubConference and its sister event BarConference, it's important to keep reminding everyone that WebmasterWorld acts as facilitator and primary sponsor to these events but they are independent entities. So, sponsors are underwriting the event, not WebmasterWorld, an important point.
rcjordan Nov 26, 2001 WebmasterWorld Community Center

After the event was successfully repeated in Irvine, California as BarConference 2002, Webmasterworld became more formally involved. In 2003 Brett Tabke, owner of Webmasterworld, began to refocus their sponsored conference as a much more formal
"Publisher's Conference."

''The conferences rose up organically out of the Webmasterworld community. We didn't have much to say about it until they got out of control with numbers and sponsors. Now we are to the point that we just want to address the needs of the community and let the conference go where they may.''

2003 SearchEngineBlog interview with Brett Tabke: WebmasterWorld

While there are many that like the more formal format of Webmasterworld's Publisher's Conference, there are those who enjoy the ''full-body contact'' networking of the original-style PubConference. This old format has been revived by Mike Mackin and Andy Rodriguez at a business event held for internet affiliate marketers and merchants at the Lucky Leprechaun Pub in Orlando, Florida.