Blog World 2009 #Rehash: Beef and Corned Beef
I’m back from Blog World Expo 2009. Four days in Las Vegas is long enough to remind me of why I moved to Denver from Sin City in November of 2008. Seriously – why does this convention have to be in Las Vegas? I’ve got my beefs with my first-ever industry trade show, yet there is some applause to be shared as well.
To make things more palatable, I’ve dubbed my Yays (CORNED BEEF) and Nays (BEEF). Corned beef hash is, like, my favoritest food of all time. Breakfast, lunch, dinner – you name it, I’ll eat it. It’s my stranded on a desert island food of choice and you’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands to take it off my menu. So let’s roll with the #rehash:
BEEF: Could have done without Guy Kawasaki’s low-hanging fruit “all Asians look alike/white guy slam” at the closing keynote. Really, Guy – give us some credit.
CORNED BEEF: Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, Jason Falls and Laura Fitton are all equally, if not more, impressive in person as they are online. A collective thanks for your consistently kickass content.
BEEF: Placement of an eating/social area directly adjacent to the keynote speaker area, divided only by a curtain. Yeah. Re-engineer that one for next year, please.
CORNED BEEF: Giving me the book “Blog Blazers” in my schwag bag. I like books.
BEEF: Giving me the book “Blog Blazers” in my schwag bag. I don’t need to hear the same questions answered by 40 bloggers. As well, I have to take some credibility away from a book copyrighted in 2009 that cites blog URLs from top bloggers hosted on Blogger and Wordpress.com. You even quoted Dharmesh Shah (who’s da schizz, BTW) stating that no one should have a blog.provider.com domain for their blog. WTF, yo? (see my post Stop Being a Wordpress Whore)
CORNED BEEF: The spread at the closing night BBQ party at the Hilton Pool. I was so happy to see grilled dead animal I almost *censored* myself.
BEEF: The fact that the other Blog World 2009-sponsored parties weren’t anything like the closing night BBQ. At an event that was teaching the importance of building community, you subscribed to the antithesis by hosting events that were divisive and exclusive (and not to mention all over the damned Strip with no access other than by taxi). I was with a group on Thursday who was cockblocked at the door for the Techset Party at The Bank where we were told we couldn’t enter and while the ladies got in free, the guys were blessed with half-priced admission. On Saturday’s party at Jet, we were met with olfactory offense upon entry by an antipasto spread that smelled like vomit and my friend Jodi got to pay $21 for a seltzer water and an appletini. Tell me this: you can’t talk to people in sessions and you have little time to talk between sessions. You sponsored events where we were deafened by loud music and exorbitant drink prices in dark nightclubs. Do you want to rethink that whole “community building” angle next year? Awesome and high five in advance.
CORNED BEEF: I have heard nothing but kickass reviews of Laura Fitton’s keynote “Be Awesome.” She is one of the first people I ever followed on Twitter almost two years ago and meeting her, if only briefly at the end of a panel session, was pure joy. She exudes…well, swellness. Here’s a link to the notes from her presentation (thanks to Wayne Sutton).
BEEF: I don’t drink and have no BEEF with those who do. I’d love the ability to have water available as complimentary at Blog World Expo-sponsored events in the future. Have you ever seen bloggers dehydrated? Our backlinks dry up.
CORNED BEEF: The Keynote speakers who gave their time. There is a difference between taking an audience’s time and giving yours. Thanks for giving yours and in return, you thanked us for ours.
