BlogWorld Los Angeles Kicks Butt, Takes Names

BlogWorld & New Media Expo in LA two weeks ago was, in a word, awesome.

And sure. That’s exactly the sort of sentiment you’d expect from the official BlogWorld blog.

But the thing is, it was awesome. It always is. And I don’t have to say that. If I hated it, I couldn’t exactly say that I hated it, but I could say that it had 22 tracks and like 300 speakers, that it was held in a big convention center, that many humans attended, and that most of those humans had torsos and were warm-blooded.

So… unsolicited, I say: BlogWorld was awesome.

We here in this internet world sit in our offices, isolated. We read tips and tricks and we email with colleagues, but we can’t often truly pool our collective brainpower and share knowledge. We can’t get to know the others in our field of work and siphon off their brilliance… until BlogWorld time.

What happened in LA doesn’t stay in LA

I didn’t just attend this year’s Los Angeles event. I was in charge of its online version, the Virtual Ticket.

(Which, by the way, is still available at a discount through tomorrow. You can get it through this link for $347 ($150 off)… or, if you attended BWELA live on a 2-day or full access pass, you can get it for only $49! Email us to get it if that’s you.)

Technically speaking, “being in charge of the Virtual Ticket” meant that Jess and I made the whole thing work from end to end (writing, producing, and selling, oh my!). But practically speaking, it boiled down to me interviewing a lot of people on camera.

A LOT of people.

In addition to the 100+ recordings BWE made of the individual conference sessions and the keynotes (that’s almost every single one of them), Jess and I recorded nearly 100 bonus interviews on our own. We also streamed a session (lesson learned: next year, bring a tripod and don’t talk during the presentation) and streamed a tour of the expo floor wherein Srinivas Rao of BlogCastFM embarrassed himself. The Virtual Ticket contains all of it.

Sounds like a lot of work, right? Well, it WAS a lot of work. But it was also crazy amounts of fun.

Here are some highlights of what we captured for the Virtual Ticket:

• Darren Rowse talks about how he really makes his money (not through Problogger!) and admits to having actually put shrimp on a barbie. And also to mocking Americans for doing the opposite.
• Michael Margolis not only talks about the importance of “story” and the care of his spectacular hair, but also gives me an on-camera neck massage.
• Adam Baker from Man vs. Debt claims he’s become so epic in his “vs.” skills that he can now take on Debt in a no-holds-barred cage match. Then he’s possibly hit with a chair.
• Patti Serrano talks about how older bloggers can be hip and unintimidated, and can totally compete with young whippersnappers.
• Janice Croze is caught stealing a banana.
• Chris Garrett talks about blogging as an introvert.
• Terry Starbucker writes his own epitaph, parties like it’s 1999, and covets an emeritus robe… or possibly a cape.

We got a lot of behind-the-scenes action, and we got a lot of great information out of smart people. We also asked a lot of dumb questions, with results ranging from “entertaining personality showcases” to a few “bizarre” or “surreal” or “I have a restraining order and I’m not afraid to use it.”

We also got this great quotable quote from Chris Brogan: “Rick is never going to hire you guys again.”

Team VT

The Virtual Ticket turned out way, way, way better than I’d hoped. It was also way, way, way more fun than boxing with Donald Duck at Disneyland. But it wasn’t just me in front of the camera, or Jess behind it and managing the whole operation.

Three other rockstars helped make it the amazing virtual event it turned out to be: Tim Gary designed the entire VT membership site. Jett Superior wrangled a lot of the site content and kept Jess from losing her mind. Natalie Piromsuk (why does she have nothing I can link to?) blazed through content assembly and video placement, and got us up and running fast.

And of course there’s all those stellar BlogWorld people.

And I’d also like to thank my mother. And, of course, the Academy.

Every time I go to BlogWorld, I meet new amazing people and make new friends, and this time was no exception. The cool thing? Making new friends was what I was hired to do. After all, I was there on behalf of all of the Virtual Ticket participants. Our job was to make them feel as much like they were there as possible.

Jess and I can’t wait to meet even more of you, either via the Virtual Ticket or next June in New York.

See you there?

(Not if you see me first.)

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NOTE: The BlogWorld & New Media Virtual Ticket is on sale until tomorrow night. Until then, you can still get it for $347 ($150 off) by clicking here, or for only $49 if you attended BWELA live on a 2-day or full-access pass by emailing us.