Do you know about the Stanford Web publishing course that’s coming up in November? As academic directors of the course, we may be a tad biased. But we believe it’s a great way for non-technical types to get up to speed, take stock, fill in the gaps, and learn about emerging strategies and techniques in the critical areas of Web publishing.

We’d like to offer one lucky reader of our blog a $500 discount on the $1,980 tuition for the course. Just send us a quick e-mail (<– by clicking on that link) saying you’re interested, and we’ll throw your name into the hat.

We must receive your e-mail by midnight (Pacific time) on Friday, September 29. We’ll announce our randomly chosen winner on Monday, October 2–which by the way is one week before the deadline for registering.

Now, here’s the rest of the commercial. Among the speakers lined up for the action-packed, 2 1/2-day conference are:

• Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
• Kevin McKean,
  Vice President/Editorial Director, Consumers Union
• Matt McAlister,
  Senior Product Manager, RSS and Social Media, Yahoo!
• Igor Shindel, Former Chief Technology Officer of Time Warner Digital Media

Topic areas to be covered include:

• Content and design
• Business models
• Search engine optimization
• Content management
• Site monitoring and analysis
• Hot tech tools

In addition to large-group presentations, there will be quite a few sessions where you can meet with experts in smaller groups and delve into practical Q&As.

And then there are the site critiques–one of the most revealing, humbling, and useful exercises of the course, according to past conference-goers. These are simulated usability tests of each participant’s site, conducted by fellow participants.

Did we mention the conference is held at the swanky Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa, which sits right at the edge of gorgeous Monterey Bay? After a busy day of getting smart about Web publishing, you can fall asleep to the gentle sound of barking seals.

For a full preview of session topics, activities, and logistics, check the conference Web site.