Impressions Of The Blog World Expo Conference

My first impressions of the BlogWorldExpo are it's a good start. I see lots of "famous" bloggers here, and have run into a lot of people that I read on a regular basis. Stephen Green, Glenn Reynolds, Rob May from Business Pundit is sitting behind me at the Cult of Blogging session from Leo Laporte.

I've also been able to say hello to Easton Ellsworth from KnowMoreMedia, Bill Owen from NutsAboutSouthwest, folks from Townhall and Pajamas Media, and I've managed to avoid even making eye contact with the Izea folks (the PayPerPost people). I still want to run into Jim Hoff from Gateway Pundit, Rohit Bhargava from Influential Interactive Marketing, and Jeremiah Owyang, the Web-Strategist.

What's great is most of the people here are all hands-on bloggers, and have moved far away from the theory of blogging into the practical applications. There is a growing movement here, and it's more than blogging, it's the sense that we can create communities and affect change in business, politics, media, and in every other sphere of human endeavor.

When I first started blogging, I was a true believer. I felt that blogging gave voice to the masses, and changed the way we communicate to each other. As I started to turn my blog knowledge into a business, some of the wonder went away. Sitting in this conference, I'm getting that old familiar feeling that I really am involved in something that is fundamentally different. It's not the rush of revolution, but it is the powerful sense of massive change, slowly making its way through the population.

That alone is worth the price of admission. Franki and I are already planning on coming back to the next one next September.