BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas Days 2 & 3

My first blogging convention has come and gone so quickly!  It feels like I just landed in Las Vegas and now the Blogworld Expo is over already.

On Friday I arrived bright and early to listen to “The State of the Blogosphere” keynote address by Technorati’s own Richard Jalichandra. The energy in the room was bubbling! Having never attended a conference of this magnitude (and subject matter) I got a big kick out of everyone mashing away on their laptops during the sessions. I was equally entertained by the large screens displaying a live feed of everyone Tweeting about the event in real time.

From there I dove right into the many presentations offered and kicked things off by sitting in “The State of Technology and the Real Time Web” by Louis Gray.  It was great to see Louis in person as his face is definitely a familiar one throughout the blogosphere.

Then it was straight into “Affiliate Marketing Blogging Secrets” which featured an array of panelists.   While I admit it wasn’t particularly enlightening, I did find Kim Rowley’s talking points very interesting and she gave me a great idea for e-mail list building.

I also had a chance to experience  Jim Choma’s Flash Animation lecture.  He’s the prolific creator of Showbiz Newsy News.  Crude.  Hilarious.  Downright smart.  Check him out.

What else.  What else.

Oh!  I missed most of the celebrity keynote address this morning but made it over to the convo center just in time to see Anthony Edwards make his first Tweet on stage!  Remember him?  The dude from ER?  Mr. Goose from Top Gun?  Yep.  We’ve sucked him into our new media world.  mwahahahha!

One thing I have to point out is the United States Army booth on the exhibit floor.  Military blogs (like this blog was originally) have exploded exponentially since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were initiated.  In response, I think the Army has done an amazing job in recognizing both the benefits and drawbacks of milbloggers and are working hard to build a relationship with us.

With that being said, I made sure to take a photo of their booth this weekend at the Blogworld Expo.  They really went all out in their efforts to reach out the blogging community with a lounge area, complimentary food, free swag,  and drinks.  Two officers (a major and a colonel) were there to answer all the questions people wanted to ask them.  And believe me, they were busy!  I never once saw them NOT talking to someone.

So a big thanks to the effort of the U.S. Army for making a big impact on the convention.

Overall it was a great experience and one that I’m eternally grateful for having been given the opportunity to attend.  In the end this experience has inspired me to make a vow to myself:  The next time I go to Blogworld, I’ll be a presenter instead of an attendee.

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At BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas Day 1

I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday (Thursday) and didn’t have an ounce of strength in my fingers to mash out a “Hello I’m Here!” blog post.  But today it’s on!

I’m here in Las Vegas for the BlogWorld Expo and even though it technically started yesterday, my pass (courtesy of John Chow) gives me access on Friday and Saturday.  Yesterday was my travel day and what a travel day it was!

My flight from Chicago had me up at 3:30am and when I arrived in Las Vegas, I couldn’t check into my room for 3 hours.  In that 3 hours I went to four different casinos, lost $20 on the stupid Star Wars slot, and ate breakfast at McDonalds.  It’s definitely not as fun doing Vegas alone.  Brilliant move on the hotel’s part to make everyone wait to check-in.  I decided it was simply a way to get us all into the casinos earlier than we intended.

By the time I got into my hotel room, I was spent.  The lack of sleep had caught up to me and I couldn’t find the energy to do anything else but collapse.  So, I did. For five hours!  Yikes!

But Day 1 in Las Vegas wasn’t all for naught.  I had tickets to the Cirque du Soliel LOVE show at The Mirage that night.  More about that next time.

For now, I’m excited to head out to my first day of speakers at the convention center.  Till next time!

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John Chow is Giving Away Blogworld Tickets!

I’m going to get something out in the open right away.  I’m trying to win tickets to the Blog World Expo.  I’m writing this blog post to increase my chances at winning and I’m also an affiliate of the Blog World conference.  Myself or John Chow will get a commission if someone else signs up.

I’m not telling you this because I have to.  I’m telling you so that if you’d like, you can decide right now that I’m untrustworthy and am slanting my opinion because I want a ticket or want to make money.  If you think that, I’d rather you leave now instead of staying and being all bitchy.

Still here?  Good.  Screw those people who stopped reading. They were all ugly and wore bad shoes anyway.

Let’s talk.

Here’s the deal;  Blog World is expensive.   A basic ticket allowing access to the exhibit hall starts at $75 and the prices sky rocket from there up to $895 for full access to all the events, parties, and the opportunity to meet super-uber-starstruck-internet famous peeps like John Chow, Darren Rowse, Zac Johnson, and the like.

The tickets cost a lot of clams but it’s for a reason!  The networking and connections that bloggers make face-to-face is immeasurable.  Here’s where everyone gets off their asses, away from their screens, and gather in one place to talk about nothing but blogging, online media, and marketing.

Have I mentioned yet that it’s at the Las Vegas Convo center?  Three days of blogger overdrive in sunny Las Vegas in mid-October with famous bloggers?  Who can blame me for quivering with anticipation.

Lucky for me, John Chow is giving away six passes for a baby affiliate marketer and blogger like me to bask in the warm glowing warmness of blogging bliss.

Why should I get a ticket?

John already knows that my hotel budget for that weekend is pretty bare bones.  I’m talking sleeping in the cleaning closet next to a mop ala “Best in Show”.

via Twitter JohnChow @JamiGibbs What kind of hotel can you get for $45 a night?  I thought $89 for the Renaissance was damn cheap!

Even if I had the $75 Blog World entrance fee waived (although I wouldn’t complain for one of the more expensive tickets), divided by 3 nights in a hotel, that’s an extra $25 per night I can put towards a hotel.  I may actually be able to upgrade to a non-smoking room with that kind of dough laying around! 

But let’s not stop there.

Blog World is the place to finally put a face to the internet names.  I’ve been lurking around the “interwebs” for a while now and have chatted with quite a few people (I’m looking at you Tyler Cruz).  Dinner and drinks with the beautiful and elusive Jami Gibbs sounds pretty tempting, doesn’t it?

And last but not least, I’ve never been to a blogging conference before (gasp!) and will be eternally grateful for the opportunity!

Have you actually read this far?  Good!  I just want to make one more boast about how awesome this conference is going to be and the main things I’m looking forward to:

• 50 seminars & Panel Discussions
• Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuck, Chris Brogen….  (I’m hyperventilating a little now!)
• Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, b5media will all be there.
• Milblogging (military bloggers) panels!
• Don’t even get me started on all the swag.

Your move, John Chow.

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I’ll wave at Jordan and Egypt for you

Tomorrow morning I’m flying to Eilat which is a city at the southern-most tip of Israel.  And when they say southern-most tip, they really mean it:

They call Eilat (pronounced ‘aye-lot’) the “Las Vegas of Israel”.  Except it doesn’t have any casinos.  Or drag queens.  And it’s next to a large body of water instead of in the middle of the desert.  Now that I think about it, it’s really nothing like Las Vegas.   Regardless, I’m going to Eilat, baby!

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