A lot of people have already documented some of the highlights of my trip to BlogWorld, so I’ll keep this one fresh by focusing on things other than my many adventures outside of the Convention Center.
It was about 2 months ago, when I was told that we were going to be sponsors of this event. I expressed my interest to go which was received somewhat skeptically as who wouldn’t want to go to Vegas on the company’s dime.
Although that was partially true, I genuinely would want to attend this convention if it was in Montana, West Virginia, or Narnia. After all I seeked out this job because of its focus on USG, Web 2.0, etc. Despite dabbling in blogging, twitter, and other web 2.0 staples, I had yet to really get in the trenches with those who embrace new media as much as I do.
Below are some the takeaways from a convention I absolutely had a blast at.
– I got to spend a lot of time with Jack Bechta and Joe Fortenbaugh from the football blog National Football Post. While a football blog is nothing new, having a staff of current and former agents, players, and front office guys blogging is. These guys are in the know, and are leveraging their experience, network, and reputations to remove the dilution of info that typically occurs between NFL sources, the media, and blogosphere.
These guys have great things in front of them, and have not turned off their NFL contacts by starting a blog. In fact a lot of their long time friends and contacts would rather go to them with information rather than the. mainstream media
– While Silicon Valley was definitely in full force, there was very strong presence from North of the Border.
I spent a good deal of time chatting with people from B5 Media (Toronto), who told me they brought a whopping 50 people to the convention. B5 media is similar to YBN Media, and is one of the few networks that publisher’s seem to be very happy with (I hear a lot of horror stories elsewhere).
I also was spend some time with Keith McSpurren, from CoveritLive.com (also Toronto) and was thoroughly impressed with his company and product in addition to how cool he was. A lot of YBN sites use Cover It Live to liveblog and it was great to learn more about the company and their story.
– The other geographic region which had a large presence was Boulder, Colorado. One of our engineers recently made the move to out there and I have been since hearing lots of rumblings of their growing tech sector. Despite this, I was really surprised by how many contacts at the conference told me that they resided or worked in Boulder.
In particular the lovely Jacqueline from Lijit (right), spoke to me at length about how booming tech is out there and how much she loved living there. Jacqueline seemed like such a cool person and was so persuasive, I think she sold me although I am tethered to the Bay Area for now.
– One of my personal highlights was meeting/gambling/drinking/ chasing girls/ staying up way too late with some of the best sports bloggers out there. Elle Seckbach is hilarious and wildly successful, Ryan Corazza was a great hire for upstart Mouthpiece Sports, and his partner in crime, Eamonn Brennan, is a really cool dude as well.
The hilight of meeting all these guys may have Will Brinson at a 2 AM black jack game at the Hilton. We were being a little too loud/drunk/obnoxious when the floor pit manager warned the table to be more clear in our instructions to our Black Jack dealer. At the time, all the black Jack dealers were wearing NFL jersey’s promoting the Hilton Sportsbook and Sunday’s slate of action.
To the entertainment of the whole table Will replies with “I can’t bend the cards, but she (pointing to another dealer) can wear a effing Alex Smith jersey”. Classic.
– On the exhibitors side, two companies really stood out. Believe it or not, Cart-Away Concrete Cement System may have been the biggest hit. They made fun of themselves with a booth and shirts that poked fun of the fact they had no business being an exhibitor at BlogWorld, which was surprisingly effective as they garnered a lot of attention with the comical yet honest admission that they had no idea what they were doing.
The fact that these guys towed a cement mixer over 1100 miles to the conference made them all that more entertaining. However from the look of their blog, it seems they’re pretty excited about what they got out of the convention.
– I saw a dozen or so demos, but nothing came close to what I saw from Apture. Recently launched, Apture takes normal websites and blogs and puts them on steroids. I encourage you to go their site to watch their demo or play with it yourself in their demo environment. All the media you see on this post is actually powered by Apture.
– For a great recap of all the other exhibitors at BlogWorld be sure to check out this great writeup from David Berkowitz (not the serial killer).
– One exhibitor who got on my bad side was WordPress.com (like seeing your EX girlfriend). I asked them if they had any plans to open up the platform to allow for their great bloggers to earn money off of ad revenue. They gave some very well rehearsed answer about keeping it pure and it wasn’t a concern for the community. That’s pretty much BS as Yardbarker gets quite a bit of applicants to be in our network from their customers.
– Finally a shout out to Buzzlogic who put me in a limo with vodka and champagne and took me to a great mixer event at the pool at the Hard Rock. It was somewhere around here I realized that this business trip was going to be my best ever.
Can’t wait for next year!
