Live from BlogWorld Expo & PostieCon

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief Social Media Strategist at xynoMedia Technology

I'm writing this from my my hotel in Sin City (Las Vegas). This is the start of my three-city, west-coast speaking tour.

I've been here for the past three days attending BlogWorld Expo and speaking at the PostieCon conference. Yesterday, Mark Cuban delivered a rousing closing keynote at BlogWorld Expo. Mark was approachable, honest, real and generous with his time. BlogWorld Expo was an honest effort by the organizers to say something real about the current state of social media and where we're headed.

Admittedly, there were little snafus like the famous Mike Arrington no-show and Arianna Huffington cancelling at the last minute...but, what's news about that, right? And, every conference has something go wrong here and there.

Overall I thought BlogWorld Expo was solid - with great speakers like Jeremiah Owyang, Marc Harty, Jim Kukral and Dan Rua. Although I heard from some exhibitors felt they were nickeled and dimed and that the attendance that BlogWorld promised them was not there - although 1,700 people showed up.

PostieCon book-ended the conference today (Saturday) and offered some awesome speakers as well. I spoke on a panel with Jim, Shirley Frazier and Dan Rua was our moderator. PostieCon had a great fan-like energy to it and Ted was right in there with us...even during the cake plow! It certainly was good to see Shirley Frazier again and I also ran into Mark Harty and met Dave Taylor and Nate Westheimer for the first time in person.

Many times people ask me why I attend these events. Well, mostly because I'm usually a speaker, but also it helps to put faces to names. I have lost count of how many times I've met someone at a conference who I had previously only known via email.

It builds community and that's what this 'social media thing' is really all about.

P.S. PayPerPost (now IZEA) has totally overhauled their platform. Their developer, Pete, is a god among men. We all got a sneak preview of SocialSpark today - and all I have to say is it turns conventional metrics and social networking on it's head. Wowie! Read more about it on Jim Kukral's blog here.

Comments

[Lena West]

Jim:

Yeah, nice meeting you, too!

I'm NOT a fan of Vegas and it was a long trip. It's like how many elaborate hotels can you see really? Plus I've been there like 4 times already...*sigh*

I'm glad I went this time, though...it rocked and meeting everyone was great.

-Lena

[Jim Kukral]

Nice to meet you and I hope you traveled safe! It was a long trip in Vegas eh?

[Lena West]

Thanks for commenting, Shirley.

Yes, that's what the conference experience is all about!

I wish I were heading home. I won't be until Friday. I'm still in Seattle and I'm leaving for Phoenix tomorrow. *sigh*

But, thankfully, I love speaking and speaking works wonders for the good old client roster. :)

-Lena

[Shirley Frazier]

I'm back in my office overloaded with productive ideas and projects gathered from both events. I imagine that anyone else who attended is in the same position.

As you mentioned, Lena, it's great to put names with faces after connecting with people online, as well as continue the new relationships I've made until meeting again at follow-up events.