Greetings from BlogWorld

Even though the BlogWorld and New Media Expo official conference begins today, there was no shortage of learning and schmoozing yesterday.

I met some of my blogging friends yesterday and renewed old acquaintances. It was good to hang out with David Peralty. We’re speaking together today and yesterday we got to know each other and share ideas. While hanging out in the lounge we met up with the always enthusiastic and very friendly John Chow. I don’t know if there’s anyone more excited to be here!

The first person I bumped into when I registered was Shai Coggins who is just as pleasant in real life and she is online. It was also good to finally meet Darren Rowse, especially since we’ve been talking for years. Had lot of good opportunities to chit chat with Darren and he too, is just as he is on his blogs and videos. No ego trips here.

This is a different kind of conference for me. I’m wearing three hats this time around. Last year I attended the conference as a blogger. This year I’m wearing three hats: blogger, speaker and I’ll also be helping out at the BlogTalkRadio booth. It’ll be interesting to view the event from each different angle.

Yesterday, while wearing my blogging hat, I was able to attend a few sessions. b5Media had a blogging summit and I sat in a couple of sessions there. It was good to meet and reacquaint myself with some of the people I knew when I blogged for b5.

I also attended a very interesting session about hiring bloggers for your business. The panel included Jim Turner, Darren Rowse, Gregory Go and Will Chen. If I came to this conference to network and look for work as a professional blogger, this would have been the single most important event for me to attend. The panel threw out practical advice for both bloggers and the people who hire bloggers. They discussed pay, good habits, what to look for in a blogger, how to apply for jobs and more.

After the conference I met up with some of the BlogTalkRadio team. It’s so great to put faces to the Skypes and voices. I’m happy to say I work with some of the nicest people around. I went out to dinner with Shaun Daily and Hilary Leewong and probably laughed through the whole thing. BlogTalkRadio will be broadcasting live from the conference floor. Some of our scheduled interviews are with:

• Wendy Piersall
• John Chow
• Darren Rowse
• Jeremy Wright
• Jim Turner

…and we have promises from more attendees plus Shaun is sure to mingle with the crowd and get some “man on the street” or in his case, the conference floor, interviews. It’ll be the next best thing to being there!

If you’re here at the conference, please stop by my session or the BlogTalkRadio booth and say hello. I’m enjoying meeting  up with people I only know from the Online world and would love to meet you too.