The BlogWorld Expo has ended, and most of its participants have found their way home from Las Vegas. Now, for those who either didn’t make it to the city or had so much fun that the details are a little hazy, we’ll try to sum up some of the conference’s main points.
One of the gathering’s central themes – the idea that social media is becoming both popular and omnipresent – is somewhat supported by the meeting’s tagline “world’s largest blogging and new media conference.” Dave Taylor, a keynote speaker, lent additional credence to the theory by suggesting that “everyone’s a media channel.”
Later the same day, Don Crowther added his voice to the mix by giving tips about using social media to drive traffic. A report on “The State of the Blogosphere” was positive, several speakers talked about blogging as a business, and Deborah Micek took things to an even more tangible level with a discussion about building “a million dollar business without ever leaving your island.” Sounds like fun, right?
But perhaps following this mention of islands we can stray off to another theme running through BlogWorld: approachability. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV emphasized personal relationships and connections, and his success has landed him on television with Conan O’Brien and Ellen Degeneres. Another speaker, Andy Wibbels, went so far as to define blogging for his audience, which really tends towards openness. Approachability played parts in discussions about how PR departments should treat bloggers, integrating social media into traditional newsrooms, and establishing brands, too. A random, if interesting, fact: Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park was actually a keynote speaker in that last little presentation.
Finally, we couldn’t wrap up this summary without mentioning Twitter, one of social media’s newer members and a big topic of discussion at BlogWorld. Guy Kawasaki sang the site’s praises, and Robert Scoble spoke about Twitter and the power of microjournalism. Plenty of people even reversed the situation by using Twitter to talk about BlogWorld.
It was a fast-paced conference, all in all. Lucky for social media fans, not every bit of information that was exchanged in Las Vegas stayed there.
