Chris Brogan is a person I greatly admire and respect and I am proud to call a friend. This morning he wrote a post titled 9 Ways to Rock BlogWorld Expo and said some very nice things about our event and our team.  Thank you Chris.

I was in the middle of writing this very long comment on his post expanding on some of his points and realized Chris had actually inspired me to write a post two posts of my own on why you should come to BlogWorld. This one is for Content Creators. Another will follow for Brands.

Let’s start with why you shouldn’t. This line from his post resonated with me:

it’s great to get out and socialize. It’s less useful to get out and get blotto so that you can barely attend the next day

Everyone should come and have fun. That is definitely a part of it and fun often times involves an alcoholic beverage or two, but BlogWorld is not about getting trashed.

Dave and I and truly amazing team of people including @newmediapatti @debng @jenjenholder @nikki_blogworld @allison_boyer all of our track leaders, all of our speakers, the Hanley Wood team and everyone else involved in organizing BlogWorld work extremely hard on this event all year long to help you make the most out of your content.  Please don’t come to BlogWorld to party in Vegas. You can do that another weekend.

If you aren’t passionate about your content, if you don’t get geeked up every time you talk about it with other folks, if you aren’t at least intrigued by this unbelievable revolution in human communication known as New Media then you shouldn’t waste your money.

Our event is not cheap, that’s because our content is valuable and it’s worth every penny. We work very very hard at making it as good as we possibly can. We spend countless hours reviewing speaker proposals, getting suggestions from committees and the community at large to offer educational sessions that you can walk away from with real tangible value.  We spend countless more hours telling potential exhibitors and sponsors what not to do, and what you are really looking for and what can help you grow your business and fulfill your passion.

You should spend every waking moment of your time at BlogWorld absorbing every possible kernel you can. Attend every session you can, talking to every exhibitor who might be able to help you do a better job of creating, distributing and monetizing your content.

When we first had the idea to create BlogWorld & New Media Expo it was so I could meet the bloggers, the people I thought were famous and smart, and funny. I wanted to meet the friends I had met through my blog and theirs. I wanted to learn about the technology and how to make my blog look as professional as possible. I wanted to learn how to create audio and video content. I wanted to learn how to monetize my content. I hadn’t even heard of the term monetization at the time by the way. I wanted to learn what the smart people thought the future would bring. What was going to be the next big step in the new media revolution? (Twitter didn’t exist yet). If you are looking for those things, then you should come to BlogWorld.

Since our very first year we have been blessed to attract some of the smartest people you will ever meet. Not just the speakers. We will have over 300 speakers again this year but we turn down hundreds more brilliant people. Many of them attend anyway. And we bring people from every segment of the new media community. Milbloggers, Tech Podcasters, Politics, Travel, Food, RealEstate, Healthcare, Marketing, Business, Mommy bloggers, Daddy TV Comedy Podcasters, and content creators from genres you have never heard of.

That is why you need to network your butt off and build real valuable relationships with people you may never get the opportunity to meet again. Social Media is a powerful thing. It allows us to connect with people who live a world away from us but this is your one chance all year to meet them face to face.  Make it a point to talk to people outside your normal circle.  If you have a tech podcast, introduce yourself to a Milblogger. Everyone at BlogWorld is just like you; a blogger, a podcaster, an internet radio or TV broadcaster and they absolutely love what they do. They want to meet you as much as you want to meet them. Or they are a potential sponsor and business development opportunity. Literally every single person at BlogWorld can be an opportunity for you.

Several people have told us that BlogWorld has changed their life.  That is a pretty amazing statement and a very humbling thing to hear. People have sold their companies at BlogWorld. Eric Olsen will be talking about that this year on his panel.  Numerous people have landed very large sponsors, and customers or gleaned that one tip they needed to finally monetize their quality content. This motivates us to work harder and make every year better than the last. We believe we bear an awesome responsibility to every one of you to help foster our industry (New Media is an industry now) and help it grow beyond all of our wildest dreams.

So you need to make that choice. Do you want to walk away from BlogWorld saying that changed my life; (It has certainly changed mine) or do you want to go home regretting a missed opportunity?