**Update 11.29.07**
I knew I was forgetting people when I put this post up but more than anyone else DJ Steve Boyett (who posted in the comment section) really did an amazing job at the opening night party and deserves a huge thank you and a sincere apology from me for this and other slights (.
**
All of you, from our exhibitors and sponsors to every speaker and attendee who came out; Thank You for all of your support. Thank you for believing in this idea and thank you for putting so much effort into making our first industry wide event a huge success. Thank you for your faith in us and for being a part of this revolutionary medium. Here is just a sampling of the buzz out there for the event. From national television coverage, to six hours of national radio broadcast from the show , to nearly three thousand posts about the show being tracked by Technorati, to over 2,000 photos posted on Flickr, Videos and more.I would also like to thank several people for going above and beyond including Jim Turner from One By One Media who really bought into the vision of the show and volunteered so much of his time to help out, Eric Olsen and his wife Dawn from BlogCritics, Jeremy Wright, Darcie and the rest of the b5 media team, Roger L. Simon and the crew at Pajamas Media, Rob Neppell at KithBridge / TTLB, Scott Bourne at Podango, Tony Conrad at Sphere for all of his help and introductions, Hugh Hewitt who plugged our event more times than I can count on his radio program, Duane Patterson, Chuck Defeo and the rest of the Townhall.com team, Marc Levin, Jerome Armstrong, Tyler and SB Nation, Aaron, Derek and the rest of the Technorati gang, Ward and Loree at Military.com, Andi, John Noonan all of the milbloggers for coming out and for their service, Tim and the Know More Media team, Professor David Perlmutter from the William Allen White School of Journalism, Dustin from GodblogCon, all of our keynoters including Matt Mullenweg, Leo Laporte, Richard Jalichandra, Jason Shellen, Brad Hill, Larry Benet and the amazing Mark Cuban who gave the perfect closing keynote, my partners (Dave and Libby) and staff for all of their hard work, my wife Dawn for putting up with months of 18 hour days missed family outings etc, Dave Taylor for all of his work on the conference, Stephanie Agresta, Chris Heuer, Brian Solis, Jeremy and Jeff from Under The Gun Media, Scales, Kris Krug, Chris Brogan, Kevin from the Weblog Awards, Henry from Blogads and many more. I am sure there are at least a hundred I have left off of this post but to everyone who helped make this dream come true and for believing that our industry was ready for an event like this; THANK YOU.
Privately (and now publicly) I’ve told you how wonderful it was to see your dream become a reality in the Vegas desert. I don’t think anyone else could have done what you were able to pull off in such a short time-period.
Mozel Tov on your accomplishments and I wish you many more years of “Blogging Bliss.”
Thank you for including us on your mission and I’m pleased both personally and professionally to be a part of it.
Rick, from everything I’ve read, this was an absolutely amazing expo. Everyone who has posted on it has raved about the show and I’m so sorry my health kept me from attending. Next year (and I can only assume that there will be one,) I will be there if I have to come by air ambulance 😉
I’m so very proud of you and what you pulled off. I suspect that there may have been some that didn’t believe it could be done with only a year’s planning, but you and your team did it and you deserve all the accolades you get.
Way to go!
I really picked up lots of info and made some amazing connections. I would really like to help with connecting the dots as far as bringing in some Vegas sponsors and giving everyone the Vegas experience. With Vegas undergoing a multi-billion-dollar-building-spree…the ability to secure blog positioning/youtube/facebook contacts {blah,blah,blah} in Vegas is a huge opportunity.
For a venture like this to succeed in 12 months, there always has to be someone with a compelling, inclusive vision, someone who can inspire others to buy into that vision and then step out in front to lead the way. You were/are that guy and I can only guess at the challenges you and your team met and overcame. Congratulations to you and your amazing, always cheerful team for whom nothing seemed to be a problem. See you in ’08!
Rick: I DJ’d your opening night party for free on the assurance that I would receive promotion on your website, blog, and at the event. I paid for my own travel and room. Not only was there absolutely no promotional material of any kind before, during, or after the event, there wasn’t even an announcement during the party of who I was, not even slides on the giant screens beside the stage while I was playing.
There was no organization of any kind; I’d been soundchecking at the Hard Rock for half an hour before I ever met any Blogworld official, and their first words to me were, “We’ve been looking for you for two hours.” There was no agenda at the event. I was told to play for the first hour and give up the floor to an awards ceremony. At 8:19:58 when I stopped, there was dead air on an empty stage for the next 20 minutes. After the abrupt end to the awards ceremony there was dead air for another 15 minutes and I jumped up and played a set until the band (shamefully ignored) showed up.
And now you post this. Perhaps the people who attended event are happy with it. As someone who went well out of his way (and pocket) to try to make that event more fun for your attendees, after the way I and others were ignored, I wouldn’t do a gig for you now if I were offered a villa in Tahiti.
–Steve Boyett
For someone who is a beginner at Blogging, I found going to the BWE to be a great experience. I certainly want to go to the next one! I met a lot of great people and I wish there were more of these type of events.
Steve,
You are absolutely right. We completely failed you. I really don’t have any excuse other than we have a million things happening at once and once in a while somethings fall through the cracks. Beyond that once in a very great while every mistake you could possibly make seems to happen all at once to the same person and that is exactly what happened to you at BlogWorld.
You did an amazing job at the party. You filled in when other people were late. Lots of people complimented the music at the party and you really set the tone for a great night.
You were really cool to me when I apologized at the party, and then I failed you yet again in this Thank You Post. (I am updating it right now).
I know thats far too little too late. If there is something I can do to make it up to you please let me know. If there isn’t anyway to make it up to you, I understand that too.
Sincerely,
Rick Calvert
CEO & Co-founder
BlogWorld & New Media Expo
Thank you for including us on your mission and I’m pleased both personally and professionally to be a part of it.
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