So, I’m back in my office after several days in Las Vegas for Blogworld 2010. I just turned off the two membership drives I was running while I was away, and now it is time to gather my thoughts and post a little “brain dump” about the event.
This was the best Blogworld event so far. Rick, Deb, Dave and the rest of the Blogworld team did a fantastic job with the event and everybody who went should take a moment to thank them. Pulling off an event this size is no small task.
My Approach This Year
This was my third Blogworld, and my approach this year was to not overplan. In fact, I only attended a few sessions the entire week. I was there to network and most of that activity happens in the hallways and bars.
What makes Blogworld awesome is that pretty much everybody in this industry shows up there. Little meetups sprout up at the spur of the moment sometimes and you just need to roll with it. Some meetings are scheduled, others are not. I had a lot of people’s phone numbers and we just arranged things on the fly over text message.
On Tuesday night, I met up with Chris Guthrie at a bar inside Mandalay. Darren Rowse came down for a bit and we were able to chat for awhile. Dave Navarro ended up joining us, along with Nathan Hangen, Jade Craven, etc. On Wednesday, I was able to meet up with Chris Garrett, Daniel Scocco, Jonathan Fields, Clay Collins, Jim Kukral and many others.
At one point, on Thursday, a few of us went to a bar inside Mandalay. Before we knew it, the group had grown to around 15 people, including people like Johnny B Truant, Dave Navarro, Nathan Hangen, Erica Douglass, Laura Roeder, Maren Kate, Adam Baker, Naomi Dunford, Jordan Cooper, Pat Flynn, etc. I also hung out with Shawn Christenson, who does my graphics design and is AWESOME at it.
I mean, I’m not here to name-drop (altho I realize I just did 
) or give a play-by-play, but this is the reason you go to Blogworld. How often do all the major players for an entire niche (that I happen to be in as well) get into one place and get face time? It is rare.
I can think of a few people who didn’t come for whatever reason who are in this market – and it is their loss. Seriously. Why anybody who is in this industry would NOT come to Blogworld by choice is beyond me. Just stupid.
It was also great meeting up with many of my readers. I got to hang out with Christian Russell, which was cool. I met Jimi Jones, Kathy Nicholls, Chelle Semones, Desiree Peeples, Mike Stenger, Are Morch, and Shelly Cone. I met a bunch of others, too.
So, if my mission was networking and face-time… mission accomplished. 
The Expo Itself
They did a fantastic job with the event. They held it inside of Mandalay Bay rather than the main convention center over near the Hilton. And the Mandalay is SO MUCH BETTER, in my opinion. I hope they do it there again.
The conference was very well put together, I thought. Great content (with a few exceptions, as there always are). I think the Blogworld parties are probably suitable for Vegas, although night club settings aren’t the best place for real networking (which is why I don’t usually go).
It really is amazing, though, to see how much Blogworld has grown.
Also, the high volume on Twitter at the #bwe10 hashtag makes a nice add-on for the conference. At one point on Friday night, Jordan took to Twitter to publicly put together a dinner at the Luxor. I retweeted it, and I think maybe Lisa did, too. We ended up with over 20 people for dinner that night – all using Twitter only and in less than an hour’s notice. I guess Twitter works.
If I had any advice for next year’s Blogworld, it would be this:
- There needs to be an official gathering which is NOT at a nightclub. The parties are good for the Vegas experience, but not for meeting people. And, a lot of folks don’t get a chance to meet during the day and nightime can be rather chaotic. If you want more people IN the sessions yet feel like they’re not sacrificing actual networking, then I think the official BWE meetups should be more networking and less dancing.
- Somehow, I think a little better direction might be given to attendees on what to attend. There seemed to be confusion and conflict with some people on which sessions they should see. Panel overlap, etc. Maybe too many options, actually.
- I think some guidelines should be given to speakers on how to deliver helpful presentations. A few panels seemed to be more about the name recognition than the content, and it was more like a gathering of friends at the panel table than a real presentation designed to help the people in the room.
- If possible, do it at Mandalay in 2011, too. Really great venue.
My Panel
My panel on “Treating Your Blog Like A Business” was a lot of fun. Jordan Cooper moderated it, and then it was myself, Lisa Morosky and Nathan Hangen. The feedback we got was very positive, some telling us that we were much more organized than any other panel they saw.
That’s great feedback to hear, seeing as we actually did put prep time into that beforehand. I mean, don’t tell anybody, but Jordan isn’t the dumb-ass he makes himself out to be. Hehehe…. he’s actually quite professional, knows his stuff, and helped organize one hell of a panel, if I do say so myself. With his background as a comedian, he knows the elements of showmanship and a good presentation and brought things together quite well. So, thanks Jordan.
Final Thoughts
I’m home for 3 days, then I’m off to Phoenix for a Product Launch Formula workshop event with Jeff Walker. That’ll be a VERY different crowd than that of Blogworld, but should be a good event.
To everybody who was at Blogworld, remember, it is all about APPLYING the ideas you got from the conference. So, it is Monday after. Get to it!
Copyright © 2008-2012 PC Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
