My Blogworld 2011 Recap

This might seem like a it’s a bit late for a recap of Blogworld NYC, but I needed a few days to recover and really give some thought to what I wanted share about the experience. There’s been quite a bit that people have had to say about the event:

• Marcus Sheridan wrote a post which generated some controversy and attention
• Farnoosh touched on the human connection
• 32 other brilliant Bloggers shared their thoughts

One of the things that was really interesting for me this year was to be there as a speaker as opposed to an attendee. Speaking at Blogworld was on my list of blogging goals roughly a year ago, so I was really stoked that I accomplished my goal. But to me the real value of Blogworld was not the opportunity to speak or hear other speakers, but to meet the people I’ve been talking to online every single day for the last several months in person. What becomes apparent to you the moment you meet in person is just how real all these online relationships are. I’m guessing some of these people will be at my wedding someday.  As you might know Sid Savara, my partner on BlogcastFM and I have only met twice in person, even though we’ve worked together for over 15 months now and make no mistake we’re going to go the whole nine yards or die trying.

The Amazing Bloggers I Met

• Marcus Sheridan: While Marcus is a complete master of community at his blog The Sales Lion, meet him in person and you’ll realize that he might have been the class clown in elementary school. He’s a complete goofball and one of the funniest people you’ll ever meet. To top it off he’s extremely smart.
• Danny Brown: One of the greatest things about a guy like Danny Brown is just how genuine and caring he is. It comes across from the second you meet him. What you might not know when you see him in that suit on his blog is that he’s got some cool tattoos  on his arms so that makes him a bit cooler than the rest of us computer geeks. He also has a cool accent.
• Gini Dietrich:  When I met Gini the first time she gave me the biggest hug, and I thought to myself, what a cool woman. She was just this amazingly warm person just like Danny.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to attend the session she and Danny put on because of some meetings with the press that I’ll tell you about below.
• Marlee Ward: Marlee actually was nice enough to attend my session and I’d recognized her face from all the comments I’d seen on other blogs. It turned out she’d lived in LA and been a surfer herself so we bonded over that.
• Darius Grant: Darius grant is somebody that Stanford Smith would classify as a digital baby. He just recently started his blog, but given that he kicked things off by coming to Blogworld, I think he’s off to  a great start.
• Thursday Bram: Thursday has always been a big supporter of the work that we do on BlogcastFM and I think the conversations I had with her about strategy and growth will end being some of the most valuable things that came from Blogworld NYC.
• Janice@5minutes for Mom: If you think mom bloggers are not hip, cool, or funny, meet Janice. She’s crazy in a good way and absolutely hysterical. She completely changed my impression of mom bloggers and you’ll get to hear from her soon as she’ll be a guest on BlogcastFM in the coming weeks
• John Falchetto: John is just an all around cool guy. We had  fun sharing expat stories and wondering why we didn’t just live in NYC where everything was so damn easy. Unfortunately we never managed to grab Indian food together because I decided to go to bars and look for single women.
• Farnoosh Brock: Last year we said that “Farnoosh was probably the most stylish person at Blogworld.” She probably still was.  Over the last year I’ve gotten to know her quite well. We’ve met in person a few times and she’s been a repeat guest and big supporter of BlogcastFM. If could describe Farnoosh in any way to you, it would be polished.  She also has an insane amount of energy that will rub off on you just by being around her.
• Bernardo@YourGreatLifeTV: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s likely that this will be the best personal development video blog on the web. What was awesome about meeting somebody like Bernardo in person is that we’ve seen so much of him on video that he’s just like that in person. It speaks so much to the idea of multimedia content increasing authenticity.
• Dave Ursillo: I got to spend a few days hanging out with Dave and we took advantage of an open bar compliments of eBay. Dave is another guy who is headed for great things because he is willing to do whatever it takes
• Deb Ng: I can’t say enough good things about somebody like Deb. She probably has one of the toughest jobs considering she has to please lots of people and probably has to say no to lots of people she doesn’t want to say not to. It’s strange but when we met in person it was like we already knew each other so there was no “breaking the ice.”

Interesting Opportunities

• CBS Sunday Morning Show: One of the coolest things that happened while I was at Blogworld is that I had an opportunity to be interviewed by CBS Sunday morning show all about my journey as a blogger and the crazy things that have happened to me since I started this blog. I’ve been told that the segment will air on June 19th.
• Meeting With Publishers: One thing I think that many bloggers didn’t quite understand was how to leverage the fact that the book expo was going at the Jacob Javits Center. I was fortunate because I attended a session put on by the team at Wiley on what editors look for in a book proposal. They were also kind enough to share some tips on how to leverage the book expo. As a result I scored a meeting with a publisher and by the time you’re reading this I’ll have had my second conversation with them.

The Parties

The thing I loved about all the parties at Blogworld NYC is that the venues were well selected and perfect for conversations and actually being able to talk to people. It was a big improvement from the Las Vegas Night Clubs where it was too loud to hear ourselves think and some people couldn’t get into the venues.

Some thoughts on the Content, Logistics, Etc.

There’s been quite a bit of controversy around some of the content, particularly the keynote speeches. The first day we got to hear Gary Vaynerchuk on a panel, and the general sentiment was that people would have rather just heard from Gary. The final keynote was something that has led to an extensive discussion on Marcus Sheridan’s blog.  In the past this talk show format has been a big hit at Blogworld and the one in Las Vegas was fabulous. But I’ve realized over the last few days that comparing Vegas to NYC is an unfair comparison. When you consider that fact the Blogworld team put this conference together in 3 months and they spent one year planning Las Vegas, they really did a stellar job. Sure there were things that could be improved.  Some people hated the Javits center partially because of the location. I didn’t seem to mind.  I actually loved that it was in NYC, but I  also was crashing with a friend and it’s likely I would have been really strapped if I had to pay for a hotel. On a personal level, I got a tremendous amount of value out of the whole experience. I know there were some people who said their experience in NYC would keep them from coming to LA and I personally think that would be a mistake. Like anything else, this conference has been a continual evolution and you have to remember that this was their first time in NYC so it was essentially like the very first Blogworld. I’m willing to bet that it will continue to improve and LA will be amazing. Besides that, if you come to Blogworld LA I’ll take you out for a surf lesson.

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