Is it just me or does it seem like there are way more conferences, events, tradeshows and seminars for online marketers scheduled for this year than last?

I’m putting together a list of shows that I will (or want to) attend over the next couple of months and the list is getting pretty long – the Youth Marketing Mega Event, the Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo, the Annual Conference for Catalog, Internet & Multi-channel Merchants, Cybernet Expo, the LinkShare Symposium, Affiliate Summit 2006 East and Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference & Expo, just to name a few,

I welcome the chance to get out of the office and see some old familiar faces as well as meet new folks that are doing interesting and innovative things in the online marketing space. Plus, did I mention that I get to get out of the office.

I also will get to travel to some places I haven’t experience in quite some time (Montreal and San Diego), and attend a show near where I grew up (Boston) as well as see some new places (Orlando, Miami). Okay, despite my previous complaints about heading to Orlando in mid-July, I have never been to Disney World (insert pity aaawwww here) and would like to visit the Magic Kingdom – even if only to poke fun at the mass-merchandising, middle America mind set.

Despite, all those enticing factors, I’m wondering just how I’m going to get all my work done if I’m out of the office so much. Now, please, don’t send me nasty comments touting online or virtual shows. I’ve participated in many of those over the last decade. They don’t work for me. I’m glad such online events as eComXpo.com serve a helpful purpose for so many. But I can’t sit at my computer for hours and not feel obligated to respond to the mountain of email in my inbox or get to work on all the things that have pressing deadlines. But that’s just me.

It’s much the same with shows that are local: Many events are slated to come to San Francisco in the next few months (Ad:Tech, Shop.org Multi-channel Symposium, E-Marketing Conference). And while I don’t have to pack or figure out how I’m getting to the airport, I just don’t get the same “conference” experience when it’s being held in my back yard.

Instead of attending the parties and the abundance of networking events, I feel the need to rush home and attend to items on my personal agenda. While most attendees are thinking about drinks with so and so, I’m wondering if the cleaners will be open after the session so I can pick up my favorite jacket or what my sweetie is having for dinner without me.

I’d love to hear from merchants and publishers (not tradeshow organizers) about which shows you’ll be attending over the next six months and what you expect to gain by attending. And, perhaps, if we are at the same event I can buy you a drink, providing it’s not in SF and the dry cleaners is still open. lisap@revenuetoday.com