The Social Enthusiast

David and I are back from this year’s BlogWorldExpo.  I had a great time, learned a lot and got the opportunity to meet several people in real life that I’d previously only known online.  

We did manage to snag a few smart folks and ask them our big question: "What makes a confident social brand?"  I’ll be posting the answers in video form here later this week. 

As for the conference itself, the keynotes were generally solid (the celebrity panel, in particular, was engaging and eye-opening).  However, some of the sessions were a bit hit or miss.  Some panels were really interactive and actionable, but a few were straight presentations with no real room for audience participation.  Also, some sessions seemed to be in the wrong "track" based on their actual subject matter.

The social media monitoring panel I attended, while one of the most helpful and actionable sessions, was entirely Q&A.  I can’t help but wonder if we might have missed some really good information that no one thought to ask about.  On the other hand, we didn’t spend the session mired in 101 level background.  

One of the most fascinating sessions I attended was actually in the Real Estate track.  It was on integrating/aggregating media into a single site.  The content of the session was wonderful (I learned some amazing tricks with Sweetcron and WordPress), but it seemed pretty advanced from a technical angle for the Real Estate track.  It seemed like it might have been a better fit for the Nuts & Bolts track.  

I did get the feeling that some sessions were shoehorned into a track because that track had a "space"–rather than because the content was genuinely that relevant to the track. A few people told me they were ignoring the tracks altogether and simply picking sessions based on descriptions.  

From the perspective of this blog, and corporate blogging in general, I would say that BlogWorldExpo is a good conference to attend.  Many corporate bloggers are new to blogging, so some of the 101 level sessions would be valuable.  It’s also a good opportunity to engage some of the established bloggers in your topical area of interest. 

Professionally, attending BWE09 helped me get reinvigorated about my work. Personally, it was great meeting some of my online colleagues in the real world.