On the third day (Friday, October 16, 2009), I finally got a taste of a full conference day.
The day started with the opening keynote, given by Richard Jalichandra of Technorati. The whole premise of his keynote was showing some of the overall results of the latest State of the Blogosphere survey Technorati had completed. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I was pretty surprised by some of the results. You can check out the results for yourself here.
I intended on staying in the same spot after this keynote to listen to the next session entitled “The Death and Rebirth of Journalism”, but after a few minutes I was pretty bored so I took off. It might have been interesting for some people there, but I just wasn’t feeling like it was a good use of my time to sit and listen to the panel.
There was a pretty big gap in time at this point. I hung out with some people and chatted for awhile until the exhibits opened up.
I didn’t spend much time looking at the exhibits. I just kind of cruised to see who was there and what their deal was. I’m not big on swag, so I didn’t pick up much, although there were some cool choices. Lord knows that if you needed new tshirts, you could have scored at BlogWorld.
I will share one exhibitor story with you though.
I went up to the Webgrrls International booth because they peaked my interest and I wanted to see what they were about. I had a short exchange with one of the women at the booth. Then she asked for my business card so she can contact me about future events. I handed her my business card, and I was met with a glance at me, then a glance at my card (which I’ve gotten some compliments on, by the way), then a very condescending piece of advice:
“Umm. For future reference, just a tip for you for your networking, you should have white space on your business card so people can write information about you on the back of it.”
That took me completely off guard. Here I am, at your booth and giving you my card and am a potential member and customer, and the first thing you do is essentially tell me I’m networking incorrectly. Not really a positive way to greet those who approach you. So I probably won’t be giving them a second thought.
[Sidenote: I don't know about you, but I design my business cards based upon my brand, not based upon what makes it easiest for the other person to write down notes about me. I only give my business card to people who I've connected with and will surely remember me. I don't hand them out willy-nilly. The only reason I gave one in this situation is because it had my email address on it to sign up for their newsletter, and she asked for it.]
The first session I went to was the one you guys chose for me for Friday: “Are You Getting The Most Money Out Of Your Blog As You Can?” (recording coming soon). Good choice, guys. I really enjoyed this session, with the exception of one member of the panel who I felt didn’t jump in enough, and didn’t have the stellar qualifications the others do. But, Chris Pirillo is entertaining, and Dave Taylor and Tim Jones know their stuff (and are really nice guys).
The next session I went to was a little different. It was “The Role Of Blogs In An Age Of Micro-Blogging”, hosted by Rick Klau. Rick had a lot of interesting things to say, albeit it a lot of basic things to say (in my opinion, anyways). The best message he gave was the fact that blogs and micro-blogging are complementary. I really believe that.
The last session I went to on this day was hosted by Jay Berkowitz, and was called “Making Social Media Make Money – The Top Ten Strategies”. When I mentioned to some other people that I was going to this session, they already knew exactly what it was about, because apparently it’s a popular presentation given by Jay. There was some really great information in the session, but it was wrapped in a fairly salesy package, which kind of rubbed me the wrong way and somewhat diminished the power of his good content. But, nonetheless, he knows what he’s talking about.
After this session, my mom and I got all dolled up and headed to the buffet at The Mirage for dinner. This buffet was stellar. It was easily some of the best food I had in Vegas. After dinner, we went to The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show, which was phenomenal (a full post on that coming soon).
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First of all, I really enjoy these posts Lisa and I also liked the live tweeting you did. I really wanted to be at the show, but couldn’t this year, and I really appreciate your efforts to let us know what it was all like.
The business card thing was interesting. I read on someone else’s blog the other day that they liked to write notes on the back off business cards. My first “proper” job was with Toyota in Europe, and we were taught the Japanese business card ceremony. That’s all about treating the other person’s card with respect, NEVER writing on it, or stuffing it into a pocket or bag. I’ve never been able to lose that habit and still cringe when people write on my cards!
I just found quite a good link to the ceremony for anyone who was wondering what I was on about: http://www.linguist.com/services-japanese-card.htm
Thanks for the comment, Mike! I spent some time with Nathan while at BlogWorld and heard a little bit about how the book is going. I’m looking forward to seeing the final product!
That’s a really good point. I talked about this ceremony in a nonverbal communications class I had in college. Forgot all about it. I think what bothered me about my experience was the blatant disregard the woman I spoke with had for making any real connection beyond getting me on her mailing list. I took a ton of business cards to BlogWorld, but I only gave out a few. But I DID have a ton of great conversations, which to me is much more important.
Thanks for stopping by!