By Kevinm Wilkerson, PubClub.com Publisher & Editor
In the very early days of blogging and bloggers, there was this event. And PubClub.com was there for it. Here is my review.
By the time I arrived at the 2011 BlogWorld LA – held Nov. 3-5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center – on the first day, everyone was buzzing about the opening keynote speaker.
It was on Google+ For Business, and unfortunately I had missed it (blame can be placed squarely upon a visiting friend from Canada who kept me out late the previous night).
It didn’t take long for me to realize that when BlogWorld has speakers talking on key subjects, bloggers had better listen.
And BlogWorld has speakers. And not only the keynotes, but a plethora of panelists. There are so many of them, it’s like walking into a bar and seeing a lineup of taps for beer lovers or rare bottles of tequila, rum or bourbon on the high shelves. It’s hard to know which one to select. But you know whatever the choice, it’s likely to be a good one.
The 2011 event had sessions on SEO, social media, The Ultimate WordPress Experience, technology for blogs, apps, streaming media, podcasts, tips on writing – quality of content was the overall theme and was biggest tip for aspiring bloggers – and YouTube, just to provide a sampling.
Bloggers were walking around like giant sponges soaking up all the information they could hold. And the really cool thing about the sessions was that the panelists were walking around the Expo and convention center and were easily approachable for follow-up questions and feedback. That one-on-one experience is one of the most valuable elements of attending BlogWorld.
In the Expo, there’s companies offering all kinds of blogging tools.
In 2011, the first thing that presented itself was a large counter called the “WordPress Happiness Bar.” This blog you’re reading uses WordPress but I built PubClub.com on Dreaweaver, so I am anxious for any tips on this different system. In just a couple of minutes, I received some advice, the biggest of which was on how to shut off those annoying spam responses that are clogging my e-mail box (the solution, apparently, is through akismet.com).
I also encountered the services of some companies I will be adding to this blog: Ads from Media.net and earning revenue from videos utilizing HubPages.com. I also need to sign up and attend a mixer from SocialBuzzClub.com.
For comfort, Southwest Airlines had a lounge area where people could sit in airline seats (all facing forward, by the way) and take advantage of the free WiFi and chew on peanuts.
I wondered why Ford was there and why it had such a large footprint; it’s area was the biggest of any exhibitor. It would seem to make more sense to save this display for the LA Auto Show, held in this same location the following month. But, as it turns out, Ford wants to get the word out about its all-electric Focus in as many areas as possible, and displaying it to bloggers made sense to the company.
I ran into a representative of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), which is a lobby organization for advertising on websites and blogs. I went to an IAB event on Capitol Hill in 2010 which was quite informative and also quite cool. How many people get to walk through the halls of Congress, after all, and meet with the staff of the lawmakers?
Perhaps the most amazing part of the Expo was that there were book publishers with booths. In this age of iPads and Kindles, I found it curious that people would actually buy books. But bloggers gobbled them up like turkeys on Thanksgiving. That is because BlogWorld is for serious bloggers who want to make a living blogging, and these books offer advise on how to achieve that goal.
The most popular of these in 2011 was “No Bullshit Social Media” from Que Publishing written by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers. I have a copy of it and will be posting a review here on the PubClub.com Bar Blogger.
For floor entertainment there was a photo booth, Pop-a-Shot basketball goal and, at the .me domain name exhibit, a spin wheel that gave away an iPad each day to lucky spinners; I was a witness to one winner.
After the convention center closes and the speakers and panelists have had their say, there are nightly mixers at the bars in and around LA Live. BlogWorld is as social as it is serious.
BlogWorld LA attracts thousands of bloggers. It is well organized and there are several small touches that make it comfortable for attendees. The free Internet access works in all the conference rooms, the convention center lobby and in the Expo. The first two rows of the conference rooms have tables for laptops and even power outlets.
There are stations for water and coffee, plus tables for people to put their refreshments as well as their laptops. The front of the one-room Expo has a lunch buffet and there are tables for eating, conversing, typing or just to sit, say “whew” and take a break.
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