Blog World Expo Review
33 Comments by Nate Whitehill / November 12, 2007 / Posted in Business Development
About 3 weeks after first I redesigned John Chow’s blog (mid-September), my business partner, Josh, stumbled upon a tradeshow devoted entirely to bloggers. Being that we had just started UBD and we were starting to experience some early success, we decided it would be an incredible branding opportunity to exhibit a booth at Blog World Expo (BWE), which was held November 8-9 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Immediately upon hearing about the event, we called up BWE and spoke to the chief organizer, Rick Calvert. We all know that on the Internet, word travels fast. Since I had redesigned Shoemoney’s blog shortly after John Chow, Rick knew exactly who I and UBD were and he kindly invited us to speak and showcase our company at BWE.
I have never been to Las Vegas, despite living only a 4-hour car drive from the city. I also have never been to a trade show, let alone exhibited a company at one. Two months of preparation went into our attendance at BWE.
Drive Up To Vegas
Our drive up to Vegas started Wednesday morning at 2am. It took us about 4.5 hours to get to Las Vegas. The drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas is beautiful. We crossed over the Hoover Dam! It reminded me of that scene in Transformers.
As you can see, Matt slept the whole way up.
How Did It Go?
Blog World Expo was probably the most awesome time I’ve ever had. There are few words to describe the non-stop excitement our team had been feeling over the past week. To put it simply, attending and exhibiting Blog World Expo was one of the coolest things we have ever done. The opportunity to present out company and network with like-minded individuals was unquantifiable.
Meeting John Chow and Shoemoney the day before the Expo was awesome!
We stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton which is right across from the Las Vegas Convention Hall. It was a perfect spot and several other bloggers were staying there, such as Zac Johnson and John Chow.
The Las Vegas Hilton
Start Attending Tradeshows NOW!
I strongly encourage anyone who wants to be successful in an industry to start attending tradeshows. The people you meet and the things you learn are well worth the cost of hotel, travel expenses, and conference passes.
For geeks like me who spend 12-hours a day, 7 days a week working online, meeting new people in real life is something that doesn’t happen as much as it use to. Funny as it was, BWE was the opportunity to meet a lot of other people just like me.
Bloggers Are Legit!
Ms. Danielle was right on when she said “bloggers are a legit group of people.” It was awesome to meet people who I had felt like I had known for a long time. In reality, most of the people I am close to online, I have only known for a few months.
Kickin’ it VIP-style with Gary, Matt, Josh, Dave, me, Danielle and Darin
After the expo each night, I was able to hang out with a select group of friends that I have known online for a while now including: Ms. Danielle, Anthony, Gary, Vinay, Chris, Greg, Darin, Prija, and especially Shoemoney, Neil Patel and John Chow.
The Expo: WAY Cooler Than Expected
The actual Expo was not only productive, but also surprisingly a ton of fun. Like I mentioned before, we secured a booth for BWE in September, so it was very exciting to present our company face-to-face to so many people. We brought my 30″ Apple Cinema Display and Matt and Josh’s two 28″ displays. We used our screens to showcase some of our recent client work.
Meeting John Chow and Shoemoney
The two people I wanted to meet most at Blog World were obviously John Chow and Shoemoney. John Chow was the FIRST blog I ever discovered (on Digg in November 2006). Shoemoney’s blog has always been a favorite of mine, as well. In fact, even during my busiest times where I’ve spent zero time on the blogosphere, I have never gone a day without reading either of their blogs.
Both Shoe and John are extremely nice and down to earth people. They are just as interesting and entertaining in real life as they are on their blogs, if not more so. I am looking forward to attending more tradeshows where they are present, such as Pubcon and CES. In fact, in only 3 weeks from now, UBD and I will be back in Vegas for Shoemoney’s Roll With The Search Engine Rockstar contest at Pubcon.
Prija From Blogging The Movie
My buddy, Prija from Blogging The Movie, was also exhibiting at BWE. I first met Prija a few months ago when he and his PR rep, Huy, drove out to Arizona (from SoCal) so we could design his blog in a day. Within 10 minutes of meeting Prija, I could instantly tell he was going to be successful because of his incredible and energy and passion for his business venture. It is great to meet other young entrepreneurs with big plans and the guts to see them through.
As you can tell, Prija got the Toyota Scion which he will be using to promote the movie and as a giveaway to one lucky winner. According to Prija, Blogging The Movie is coming along quite nicely. Check out the official teaser…
Meeting Two Longtime Friends
Anthony Carbone and Vinay Menon were two of the first people to start reading my blog back in January of this year. Like me, they are both serious exotic car fans, and they run a popular exotic car photo sharing site called MadWhips.com. In March of this year, we created an automotive blog together called Carzi. Needless to say, I have been good friends with both of these guys since January and that is years in Internet-time. It was awesome to finally meet these two dedicated and motivating individuals. It was like I have known them for several years the first time we met up and got to chatting. Look out for big things from these two!
Conclusion
Overall, BWE went WAY better than expected and we had very high expectations. It was an incredibly positive experience. Thanks to everyone who added to its awesomeness.
I met a ton of cool people who I have known online for quite a while now, so it was like meeting old friends for the first time. It is crazy that the Internet can bring people together before they ever meet. Once you know someone online, meeting them in real life is more natural AND exciting!
The John Chow Blogger Dinner - THANK YOU, John!
Danielle taking a picture of me taking a picture of her…lol ^_^
I would like to say thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit our booth. I had a great time chatting with many people including:
- Scott Wainer
- Andrew Bennett
- Nathan Sanburg and Fred Winchair
- Wendy Piersall
- Matt Mullenweg
Myself and Wendy Piersall (eMom) at Blog World!
As I mentioned before, I strongly recommend that anyone who wants to be successful within any industry attend as many tradeshows as possible. This is true for many professions especially tech and Internet-related ones. Other tradeshows which come recommended are Pubcon, CES, Affiliate Summit West and SES. Tradeshows such as Blog World Expo are awesome learning and networking opportunities that no one should miss.
I am a trade show addict now. See you at Pubcon.
Other great Blog World articles from my clique:
- Gary Lee: Blog World Expo Nights
- Ms Danielle: Too Legit to Quit: A BlogWorld Expo Review
- Zac Johnson: John Chow Blogger Dinner
- Darin.cc: Viva Las Vegas
- John Chow: Blog World Expo: John Chow Blogger Dinner
- Blogging The Movie: Blog World Photos
Matt Blancarte
Josh Mullineaux
Great review Nate. Looks like a very beneficial excercise attending BWE for you and the UBD team.
Gutted that I couldn’t attend the Blog World Expo in Vegas. However, living in England its very difficult (and expensive) to justify trips to Vegas. Especially as I had already been once earlier in the year for the Affiliate Summit. Anyway, looks like you guys had a great time!
Nate, thanks for the shout on this post. Excellent recap of your time at BWE. It was awesome to get to talk to you about my upcoming theme. I am very excited about it. You guys have great talent and drive and I wish you much success.
Great post.. Hopefully we can all meet up at Pubcon in Dec. or CES in January.
Great roundup. Looks like you all had a blast. Hopefully, I can make the journey next year. So how has business been since returning from the expo
That is a nice way to sum up the expo. So many blogs to read and yours summed it up nicely. Thanks.
Cool pics. UBD was definitely the busiest and most happening booth at the event!
Awesome Nate - and glad to see that you and UBD had such a great time. Hope it was good for business too (I’m sure it was). And that massive UBD banner looks sweet!
awesome re-cap, nate. i love how you are now a “trade show addict!” i think the next conf i attend will be affiliate summit west. have fun at Pubcon! the sky is the limit for you guys
p.s. wendy’s post link is here: http://www.emomsathome.com/blog/2007/11/10/blogworld-expo-2007-photos-videos/
h to the izzo……..
Sweet Nate !! Great review
Looks fun! They probably wouldn’t allow me in, but by goodness I’ll just hit the casinos and make my fortune there
Thanks for the pictures Nate. Great post. And, nice set up.
Great post, Nate!
Nate, just catching up on my blog readings.. Thank you for the kind words, Vinay and I have not stopped talking about how awesome it was to meet, discuss business ideas and party with you and your boys! Thank you for including us in all those Stretch Hummer Rides let alone all the baller partying we did in VEGAS, I hope we didn’t keep you up too late Thursday night…er friday morning..(5:30am) hehe.
Can’t wait to see what our futures have in store for us, but I do know good things are just around the corner..
Congratulations again on the successful launch of UniqueBlogDesigns.com!
See you soon!
(p.s. photos from VEGAS are coming soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
That is awesome that you took so many pictures. I have often wondered what many of these people looked like a you hear about them all the time in the blogosphere. How did the booth at teh convention work out for UBD?
Haha also the picture of Matt sleeping is priceless. Let me guess he was snoring?
Wow, looks like you guys had a blast! I bet it was super cool getting to meet everyone you interact with on a daily basis anyway.
A true blogging family
very thorough, wish I coulda been there.
Glad to see you had a great time a blog world, hope to see you at CES in January so we can party it up!
I so wish I was there, look quite good for its first year.
Looks like it was a great time. Seems like the faces behind many of the blogs were in attendence.
Nate, I wish I had realized that was you! I would have loved to chat with you in person.
Treating blogging as a business is such a move upward, light years. I remember that when I first started blogging in the 90s, it was still called having an online journal or diary and it was primarily for personal catharsis. Look at bloggers now, baby.
Hey Mark, too bad we didn’t get the chance to chat. Were you there both days? We will also be at the Pubcon Conference next month in Vegas. Will you be there?
I enjoyed your post about the Blog World Expo Nate. It sounds like it was both a beneficial business opportunity for you as well as a great party. I have been seeing your pix on a lot of other sites as well. Wish you the best for your upcoming tradeshows as well.
I have often wondered what many of these people looked like a you hear about them all the time in the blogosphere.
hello nate, what a great experience you have there, if i have a chance to go to the expo sure i will
Hi Nate, we haven’t heard from you for a few days.
Wow, from you, John Chow, I’ve gotten FULL coverage. LOL Look like you guys had a blast!
I have often wondered what many of these people looked like
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