On the opening night of Blog World Expo in Las Vegas, Zappos hosted a party at Prive (at Planet Hollywood). Half way through the evening Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh introduced Judson Laipply – the dude who is internet-famous for his YouTube “Evolution of Dance” performance that is almost at 100 million views.

Judson, who was in town already for business as a motivational speaker and comedian, then treated us all to this abbreviated version of the dance montage.

I’m interested in hearing the discussion in the following session, “How to Deal with Trolls, Spammers & Sock Puppets“, with Rick Calvert (CEO and Co-Founder of BlogWorld & New Media Expo), John Chow, Patrick O’Keefe (founder and owner of the iFroggy Network), and Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney.

I’m familiar with trolls and spammers although I left it to Rick to explain sock puppets: In political blogging it happens quite a bit (and on message boards) if you are a sock puppet then you’re a person who pretends to be somebody that you’re not.

Rick asks the panel about their experiences. John says he gets more spammers than anything, he also considers it spam when someone simply says, “great post”. “It might make me feel better but it doesn’t really add anything to the post/discussion.” Patrick says, “trolling doesn’t really go hand in hand with spam,” Rick adds that Patrick is well-known for his comment moderation practices.

Rick asks if they have ever taken legal action against a troll? John says to him it’s just a waste of time. Patrick says that someone once accused him of something horrible (defamatory) so he had to get that taken down.

How do you identify a sock puppet? Patrick says you can always check the IP addresses (the unique address of the user’s computer or network), the sites people are linking to, or what time they joined the site (message boards).

Do you moderate comments? John says his first-time commenters are moderated, then it’s removed on the next post, or comments with two or more links are moderated. I use the same, as setup in my WordPress preferences.

Rick, “so you don’t remove comments if someone disagrees with you, do you?” Patrick says there’s a difference between disagreeing and being vulgar and disrespectful – he would remove or moderate the latter. He says they have a message they will send to the commenter to explain why their comment was removed. John says he’s never edited a comment but he’ll delete it if it’s derogatory – he doesn’t follow up with a message and doesn’t want to let the person get a rise out of him (or have it appear that way). If the comment is deleted, he message is quite clear. Jeremy says he may if there are excessive links in a comment from a known-commenter (who has added value on other discussions/posts). He’ll leave a note saying “edited by…” then private message the commenter to say, “You’re welcome to leave your thoughts, please watch the use of link,” etc.

In Patrick’s community they give people a number of chances before they get completely banned. Rick, “I think if you interact with a troll (by sending an email through a backchannel) their reaction might be much different than if you do it on the blog, do you find if you send them that message that their response is different?” Patrick says he never publicly declares why a post or comment has been moderated as that just opens it up for more flaming (and can also simply cause embarrassment).

Rick, “When you get a nasty comment it’s not only insulting you, it’s also insulting your commenters and your readers – that will chase off the good people.” John, “When they start to insult other members of the blog or community that’s when I draw the line, I just delete it.” “Thankfully I do have a readership that will alert me of these things,” (if he can’t watch for it himself).

“There are good and bad sock puppets,” says Jeremy. There are the “good ones” who simply want to mask their company name or something but they maintain the same identity on the site regardless. “I don’t like anonymous commenters – it’s my blog so I feel like I have editorial discretion.”

Do you have a formal moderation policy? Do you post it on your site? John, “No, I haven’t had many troubles with my trolls or spammers.” Patrick, “Forums and blogs are definitely different – there are parallels… I think it’s important to have a basis of what’s acceptable and what’s not (for reference).” Jeremy says that he should because he’s had several court cases over comments.

Tips? “For bloggers the first thing I would say is just turn on your spam filter,” notes John. “You might want to post something about linking from the comments,” when it comes to spammers. “As for trolls, they can insult me all they want – I love it.”

A comment from the audience about how to turn on their spam filter, they’re on a WordPress site so John walks them through setting up Akismet.

Question from the audience, what about commenters that don’t have blogs of their own or who don’t know any better when they post links – they’re not sure of the etiquette. Answer from Patrick, “it’s an individual thing, you may want to reach out to them and let them know what you like on your site – helping to teach them will help grow your community.”

Rick would like to know the panel’s thoughts on trackbacks, “it’s good etiquette to link to the post you’re tracking back to.” Jeremy, “the reason people want to trackback (if they’re a troll or sockpuppet) they’re going to draw traffic from your site to theirs.” Both John and Jeremy say they put trackbacks lower than comments on their sites – they should have a lower-visibility just in case. Jeremy also says you should moderate trackbacks and in WordPress you can blacklist people (very handy!)

Jeremy says that all prolific bloggers should have a DMC on their site.

What about people who troll you from other sites? In other comments or on other website ie. yournamesucks.com? John says that it’s just more publicity for him, “good press, bad press, it’s all publicity.”

Jeremy just pulled up a moderation queue from a known-spammer. There are about 300 comments from the same guy that are just beyond absurd, it’s actually got the room laughing. He just told a trick (sort of a trap) to find out the IP’s of trolls. He said it’s crazy that once you figure it out, you can see that sometimes people who are nice on your site are just horrible to you on another.

Also, if you’re posting a nasty comment from work a) don’t use your work email address, since that links back to your work website etc. b) don’t link back to your work website.

Check the suggested ethics for bloggers by Tim O’Reilly – the Kathy Sierra incident has come up but Rick says that’s *so* common with political bloggers (and I hear the mommy blogging realm is just as cut-throat, seriously).

Question from the audience, how do you encourage positive comments and good feedback? Patrick says you can highlight commenters and what they say (in new posts). Give them and their sites attention and make them a part of the system and the community you have. Also, you can give them a writing project, encourage them to do and say something. John says the easiest way to encourage comments is to ask for them. WordPress plugin “Top Commentators” plugin, John keeps his at a running one week total. Jeremy runs comment contests or offers prizes/swag every few months with a grand prize draw after that. He’s given away t-shirts and also a MacBook Air (and now his comments have increased by at least 100%).

The session is coming to a close, this may be my last one of the day as there’s a break until after 3pm and I have to head to the airport soon.

DreamBank sponsored my trip to BlogWorld this month. Sign up today to help create positive change by giving dreams, not stuff.

The past two days have gone by quickly here at Blog World in Las Vegas. I’ll have a more reflective post up during my layover in Phoenix later in the day since there’s still quite a full schedule of sessions for today.

This morning’s keynote will feature Rohit Bhargava, Timothy Ferriss (from 4 Hour Work Week), Mike Shinoda (from Linkin Park).

Update: The speaker took the stage and one of the first topic is about how the name Linkin Park came to be. Not so much a music discussion as it was actually the only domain the band could register, which lead them to re-write the spelling of their band name. This launches us into a topic of business, branding, and once again the PR debate – how they are building each of their different types of business and brands by being genuine.

Side note, Time is a successful author who never even asked bloggers to review his book.

Rohit: “How important to your success is it to not be an asshole?

Mike: “The brand is not the thing you put up for everyone else to see that you think will sell your product.” “You put up something authentic and interesting – this is what I have to offer you – and if a fan comes up and their experience is consistent with what you offered them, then you have a successful brand.”

Tim: Two reasons why not to be an asshole, “You’re going to meet the same people on the way down than you are on the way up,” and “Being nice to ‘unimportant people’ ends up being extremely important.” Tim says that being nice goes a long way.

Rohit: “It’s this whole idea of karma marketing,” and asks Mike about a famous Andy Warhol quote: “In the future everyone will have their fifteen minutes of fame.”

Mike: A big part of your brand is also being humble. He says LP is not afraid of people getting their stuff out and sharing it, in fact they encourage it (100 million impressions of a Linkin Park widget!) “You are very important to us,” is what they’re saying when they embrace fan-generated content.

Tim: “Who reads your blog is often more important that how many people read it.” People waste time tracking others down who are using and sharing their product or content to try and slap them on the wrist – embrace it because it helps your ideas develop, improve, and it spreads your reach.

Tim created a PBwiki for his readers to help him edit his NY Times Best Selling book.

Mike, “It’s totally possible to put something out there and have something better than what you did come back – and that’s totally beyond the comprehension of a lot of celebrities.” Putting egos aside and allowing that feedback, discussion and suggestions can really help.

Tim, “You want to talk to your readers the way you would talk to your friends after about two drinks.” Being yourself, and being a real person will get you loyal readership and it will grow.

Mike, regarding your material, “the way [people] think of it, is the way people think of you,” it’s hard to determine between “credibility and units sold”. When you’ve created something and you’re at that step where you believe in it, you take it to someone else (in Mike’s business) and they tell you if it’s good or not. Unfortunately what someone else thinks may not fall in line with you vision. Lucky for LP, they stuck to their guns and were able to release the product they wanted.

Tim, “It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it – it matters how many people get it.” He mentions a quote from Mark Cuban, “Write what you’re passionate about, not what you think the readers want to read.” Tim professed earlier that he’s “an analytics whore” so he knows about numbers and stats. “Don’t depend on polling readers for what they want to read.”

The question and answer period is running a little long and with some sort of orchestra music piping up outside in the exhibit hall it seems like they’re at the Oscars and their acceptance speeches are going too long. This was definitely a very interesting keynote – the speakers were casual, comfortable and real.

DreamBank sponsored my trip to BlogWorld this month. Sign up today to help create positive change by giving dreams, not stuff.

After banishing myself to the back of the room, since this is the only place I can plug in to power my MacBook, I’m all setup again for the “Bloggers and PR” session with Chris Brogan, Michael Clark, Jason Falls, and Brian Solis.

Update: It’s been announced that the Twitter hashtag for this session is #pr2 so you can follow along with quick updates. Also, Michael Clark cannot be found so we’ve got Lee Odden now as well.

The panel starts off the session with a ‘hand raising’ exercise, “how many PR/marketing professionals do we have in the room?” Brian is addressed about unlearning and relearning PR in this market right now. “The minute somebody tags a post and publishes your name, it changes the game.” Jason adds to that by saying if you’re marketing and PR you need to think through what you’re doing. “If you’re sending out a release to 400 people and bcc: / cc: them all, then you’re an idiot.” “Take a step back and think about the basics of communication: know you’re audience.”

“We need to get in Second Life because Toyota made a vending machine there,” – sometimes clients just hear buzz words and what others are doing and jump into the shallow end head first, notes Lee.

Jason says you can’t just say you’re going to start doing something on Twitter, “What is the problem with the audience, what do they want, how can we give that to them? Then the last thing we do is determine the tools. Don’t start with the tools, start with the people you’re trying to reach.”

“New media relations is changing the game,” says Brian, “Once you start to present the new math to people then they start to see there are new things to ask for that add real value.”

Lee, “a lot of people get distracted by ‘shiney new objects’ — you get those who think ‘let’s spend a ton of money on Second Life because the fact that we’re doing that will get us a ton of publicity’ — which isn’t the way to go.”

What advice do you want to give PR professionals first as they’re going to the PR bloggers first to help them shill their product?

“There are a lot of bloggers that don’t understand the business situation,” says Jason. “There’s a lot more opportunities right now to show people how you do business.”

“You need to promote the way you get a pitch because there are a lot of people who are doing it wrong,” says Chris. This reminds me of Darren’s topic at the Internet Marketing Conference, kudos to Capulet for always pitching me creatively.

“Get their interest before you pitch them,” says Jason. “It could even be a Twit-pitch like ‘I have something for you/something you might be interested in.” Other tips from Jason include, “You need to focus on the relationship, not the pitch,” and finally, “if you use the BCC field you’re an idiot DON’T do that.”

Brian says, “it’s now about the escalator pitch, the elevator is too quick – it’s a luxury.” Lee’s advice is “Actually read the blog.” These are the same points we tried to drive home at the “Blogger Relations” panel at Convergence. It’s really encouraging to see blog and PR professionals like these guys being on the same page as others I’ve seen speak (and spoken with). They also have so many new and effective ideas, I’m loving this panel. I’m also wondering when I’ll start to see more of this engagement (although the Molson event earlier this week has kept my faith high in this regard).

Chris says that when he looks out into the crowd he can name almost everyone he sees, he says that’s also part of it – be personal.

Brian, “In press releases, we don’t speak English anymore; blogs have no idea what the AP guidelines are all about.”

Jason, “Being human means taking off your marketing hat and thinking, how would you tell that story to a friend of yours?”

Questions from the audience, the person asking is a marketing professional. “I’m just going to say it out loud: A lot of bloggers don’t have enough traffic justify spending so much time on them.” She says it almost seems like a waste if only 100 people see it (at least in they eyes of the higher ups). Oh hey! It’s Michelle asking the question!

Jason says you need to think about it a different way ie. traffic. He says you need to look at bloggers in a different light, it’s not about page views and traffic, it’s about advertising on an influencer’s site. Maybe they don’t reach as many people (as traditional advertising) but they reach the exact people who are looking for that topic / product etc. specifically. How do we define influence?

“The thing I know about bloggers is that if you talk to them and they’re little bloggers, they grow – and they become bigger bloggers,” says Liz Strauss from the audience which received applause. “I want a relationship, not a one link stand.”

Jason, “Blogger outreach also applies to how we do our traditional media outreach.”

Chris, “If a blog is starting to become a platform, you can’t just call them a ‘blogger’ anymore.”

From the audience, “At Ford, our audience is people who drive.” They had an event and invited traditional journalists and autobloggers. However he thought, “We need to reach out the blogosphere and get regular people who like to drive,” those who are concerned about technology, green issues, quality, and safety. “We went for lifestyle rather than head-on products pitching.”

Jason says tell PR people what they did wrong. Respond and say, “here’s why you lost me.” Also, bloggers should be patient with PR folks, we’re in a time of transition and they’re learning (re-learning).

Tip: Chris says to all the companies in the audience, they should really go to the #pr2 Twitter feed and scrape that to remember the information in this session and for future reference.

Tip: Search “your company name here” followed by “sucks”, suggests Brian. Collectively take the readers of all the sites that are displaying ‘your company sucks’ you could have millions or people to address.

Tip: Chris, “The “R” in PR, relations – get heavy on that.” “Nowadays when we see Tiger woods standing next to a Cadillac I’m not going to go out and buy one because of that.” Give it to the real people, that’s who sells the product. “Do you know how many Flip cameras I sell? I come up on stage and talk about how cool they are then I get more questions after the session about where people can get a Flip.”

Last words – Read the blogs you are trying to address. Get to know each other (addressing the room) “we’re the #2 tag on Twitter right now”. If you’re shy stop being a loser just for a weekend!”

DreamBank sponsored my trip to BlogWorld this month. Sign up today to help create positive change by giving dreams, not stuff.

There are currently 10 sessions going on at once as well as the tradeshow. I may need to clone myself about 4 times over in order to cover everything – although I’m not even going to try. I am interested, however, in the Citizen Journalism track so the next two live blogs will be on this post. The first is “The State of Citizen Journalism” with panelists Tish Grier (of Placeblogger), Michael Tippett (founder, NowPublic), and Jan Schaffer (of J-Lab).

Update: Jan is up first to touch on the hyper-local side of citizen journalism, using the Deerfield, NH forum as an example. Their aspirations were to be a local paper but they’ve gone bigger than that online with over 220 current contributors to the site. “People are wanting to cover their community from inside-out instead of outside-in.” There are a lot of independent news sites that are hoping to close a gap. New Media Women: “Our attempt to try and understand if women were to define news, how would they define it.”

“Citizens seek to build community, not cover it,” notes Jane. “Something that makes some traditional media cringe is that citizen media makers will go to a community meeting and cover it chronologically.” You can view a large collection of citizen journalism/hyper-local sites on KNCC.

Update: Mike is up next to give a different perspective. “We want to build the largest citizen news network in the world,” which might be possible because, “there’s more of us than there are of them.” – “Asking someone to be a citizen journalist is like asking someone to be a citizen dentist.”

Mike leads us all through the history of NowPublic and all of its features then gives an example of things happening in real time, being reported, shared and causing change. He uses the example of the Zuckerberg interview at SXSW, where the crowd was Twittering and having a backchannel conversation about the soft-ball questions until someone spoke up and they handed the mic over to the audience.

Update: Tish now asks the panel what their business model is like, and especially how would a hyper-local site generate revenue, support, or grant money. In essence, it’s not about the buck. Mike says it’s like someone asking, “Why would people want to do that,” to which he’d reply, “Well why are we having this conversation? You’re not paying me…” For many it’s all about engagement with their community and others simply want to tell stories, share, be a source, and another voice.

Local entrepreneurship meets social media – a woman from the audience says her hyper-local site likes helping small business in the city and although they get may sometimes criticized in a “sell-out” kind of manner by some readers, she appreciates giving them the exposure to the community they may not be able to get. This also opens up the door for monetizing, sort of a win-win for business and the community site.

Back to traditional media embracing all of these new tools, Mike says they need to re-engage with community. “The trust has moved from the media institutions, over to social networks. You’re going to trust something recommended from a friend.”

Jason Falls is here to comment, “I think if we continue on this downward spiral in mainstream media and citizen journalism, I think at some point in the general public they’re going to ask okay where does the accuracy come from?” – “How do you see traditional media bringing that accuracy to citizen journalism in a blend of both?”

It’s almost like the more open you get, the more accurate you get.” Mike says that by opening up the conversation with comments etc. on your site, it helps hold you accountable when people can share their voice etc. as well.

DreamBank sponsored my trip to BlogWorld this month. Sign up today to help create positive change by giving dreams, not stuff.

After the keynote attendants of BWE rushed the traderoom floor here at the Las Vegas Convention Centre to learn about the latest companies, plugins, tools, and to scoop up some swag.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the businesses I learned about within the last half hour:

Zemanta: While you’re blogging (compatible with WordPress) Zemanta will scan your draft for tags and data, then it will go out on the web and find applicable photos and media that might be a good fit to accompany your post.

Picapp: Picapp has a plugin that will allow you to scan trusted photo databases (like Getty Images) for media to use on your blog post. It won’t grant you complete access to the image, however you’ll get an embed code. Picapp’s embed then puts a link to “more media” at the bottom of the photo which directs traffic back to the source (making everyone happy, in theory).

SodaHead: Syndicated polls! They have generic polls that you can embed on your site or you can create your own. The reason why this would appeal to me (to replace my current WordPress Polls plugin) is that once you’ve created the poll your readers can share and embed it on their site – that way the poll you create and control it gets far more exposure.

Many of the exhibitors ask me what kind of blogging I do. I have been replying “hyper-local” but I suppose with my event coverage, social media outlook, and everything in between it’s pretty much a mixed bag. It makes me wonder what my readers would classify this site as.

I’m getting ready for some of the citizen journalism sessions and making sure I got t-shirts in John’s size as well. The next live blog will begin at 11:00am PT. Also, just learned that tomorrow morning’s Keynote will feature Tim Ferris from 4 hour Work Week and Mike Shinoda from Linkin park.

DreamBank sponsored my trip to BlogWorld this month. Sign up today to help create positive change by giving dreams, not stuff.

This morning’s keynote is a “state of the blogosphere address” with Chris Alden and Anil Dash of Six Apart, and Richard Jalichandra of Technorati.

Update: I’m just checking out the live feed of Twitters. Not sure where the blogs are being aggregated from, but I like this concept – and now I have about 35971 places to watch the Twitters flow. So far the big theme is a) registration was super quick and painless b) there’s a serious lack of (free) coffee.

Update: Richard (CEO of Technorati) takes the stage, “I’m shocked so many of you are here for a keynote at 8:45am on a Saturday.” Blogs = Information and influence. Blogs are media.

He starts by listing some of the top entertainment blogs – touching on that point of “influence” then goes back to basics with “what is a blog”. 133 million blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002. Side note: I’m watching the flow of Tweets via Summize, there’s about 20 every minute right now.

He’s now going over the scope of blogging, who blogs and where are they blogging? The fact is that bloggers are all over the country and the worldwide chart is interesting as well – 48% of blogs are from North America, 2/3 are male, 70% have a degree, 72% are in English, 79% are personal bloggers (corporate and professional bloggers stats are listed as well).

Bloggers are also very serious about blogging, from their surveys, 1 in 4 blog 10+ hours a week. Also, 43% of the Technorati Top 100 post more than 10 times a day. Bloggers also immerse themselves in what they do, the average one uses 5 web 2.0 apps.

Note to marketers – 4 out of 5 bloggers write brand / product reviews, 80% talk about retail customer service experience. 71% of bloggers say they are getting taken more seriously as sources of information.

I had to run out so I missed a chunk in the middle of Richard’s talk that I’m sure those on Twitter have covered such as Jeff Foust, quoting Richard: What is the difference between MSM and blogs? “The line is already gone.”

Richard’s closing comments involved stressing the importance of being engaging and transparent.

Update: Chris and Anil from Six Apart are now up to talk about the past, present and future of blogging – starting with a background on their company and their platforms ie. Movable Type / Vox.

Unfortunately the speaker on my side of the room isn’t working and my “bad ear” is facing the speakers. DOH.

Anil is talking about more personal reasons to blog, sharing opinions, thoughts and expressions to an audience that is probably looking for your insights. He says he’s often asked to give an example of “a blog”, the first of note from Anil is DollarShort.org. He said it’s nice to see politicians blogging (and using Movable Type) but then there are some like Joshua Micah Marshall or the “power bloggers” like HuffingtonPost. “Not all of us are going to have the traffic they have, but there are a lot of other niches to cover.”

“What matters is what the medium is achieving; whether that is a giant corporation or one person’s expression.”

Chris now talks more about the business of blogging. Marketers used to fear blogs, now there’s hope.
“Blogging is becoming an industry; it doesn’t mean it can’t be fun, doesn’t mean it can’t be a hobby, but the beauty is that if you want it to be professional, you get to.”

“Have your passion and be successful in whatever you’re doing – if you’re passionate about food, photography or wine, it’s one of the great things about blogging.”

What’s the power of blogs? Freedom of expression, control over your design, own your own identity, have power over your advertiser. “You don’t have to have someone else’s logo on the top left,” if you’re on Typepad (plug plug). Blogging is transforming media, how is blogging itself changing? Where should blogging go? Blogging and social networking communities will grow into social publishing. “Much more decentralization, and much more interconnectivity.”

Anil and Chris are comparing the formation of the earth, from Pangaea to all of our continents to social networking it seems. How it was all one, then seperate, however now we’re all connecting again with the global village (that’s my interpretation of the slide anyhoo). We have the power to make the biggest companies fall in line with this vision. “Make the giants jump.”

“You can start to think about turning your blog into a social community,” with OpenID – your ID is portable. “Plaxo, FriendFeed etc. they’re all great services but we believe you should have the ability to have all of these networks right on your blog.”

Bloggers are becoming more dedicated – advertising, growing, engaging their audience, moving with the industry, Six Apart has a tool to help this along.

DreamBank sponsored my trip to BlogWorld this month. Sign up today to help create positive change by giving dreams, not stuff.

Last night after arriving at my hotel, assessing the damage, then having dinner, I headed over to the Mirage where TechSet hosted their party around the pool at Bare.

More photos are available in Ianiv and Arieanna’s Flickr set, or mine.

I hung out with the crew at Tagga, scored a lollipop from Empressr (I think it was from them, anyway), took lots of pics and put faces to many names. I finally met up briefly with the likes of Chris Brogan and Michael Tippett, and realized (yet again) that Vancouver has quite the showing down here this weekend.

It’s bright and early (and already scorching outside) so I’m getting my morning started, re-checking the session schedule, and heading over to the convention centre to clock in.

I just wanted to thank DreamBank (and my readers for using DreamBank) for giving me the chance to be here, and you’ll notice that there will be info about them at the bottom of each of my blog posts today – it really is a great service. Get Dreams, Not Stuff!

Speaking of nice happy thoughts, please send some DaveO‘s way. He went to the hospital last night and they’re going to do a little tinkering with his tummy this morning. We’re all thinking of you here at BlogWorld, man.

It’s time to make my way past the cotton candy and trapeze artists and get this thing started. Check back soon for the live blog of the Blog World Expo 2008 keynote with Chris Alden, Anil Dash, and Richard Jalichandra.

With so much going on this week, and next, my trip to Vegas has crept on me awfully fast. In about 72 hours I’ll be on a plane heading to Sin City for the world’s largest blogging conference, thanks to my readers and DreamBank.

Photo credit: Duane Storey on Flickr

Unfortunately John won’t be able to join me so to avoid getting lost and being lonely, I’m looking up various events surrounding the actual conference and trying to find out how many VanCity folk will be heading to the desert with me.

The People

From information I’ve gathered so far, mostly from Twitter, I believe the following Vancouver-based bloggerati will be joining me at BWE (please feel free to let me know in the comment if you’re going and I’ll add you to this list).

Linda Bustos, “Mostly” Lisa Bettany, Tris Hussey, Colleen Coplick, Invoke Media/Meme Labs, Michelle Evans, Kris Krug, Arieanna and Ianiv.

The Parties

First up is the Friday night party courtesy of TechSet happening at Bare.

Blogworld Expo will host influential bloggers, thought leaders, tech luminary, and content creators from all over the world. The event organizers have partnered with TechSet founders Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis to host the official party on Friday night, September 19, 2008, from 8 – 11 p.m.

… We will gather poolside at the new Bare lounge at the Mirage Hotel. The ultimate in poolside pampering, Bare is defined by its distinctive contemporary ambiance and ultra VIP service. The DJ-spun music mix sets a lively mood as guests enjoy European-style ambiance secluded by towering palms.

Two luxury dipping pools, a hot tub, and daybeds and cabanas will provide a luxurious surrounding to all of the evening’s action.

This will include sponsored cabanas from Empressr, MindTouch, Share This and Vancouver’s own Tagga. You can RSVP on the Facebook event page.

There will also be a Tweetup at 7:00pm on Friday at the Tempo Lounge (Hilton), organized by Pirates of the Public Domain. RSVP to @ThatPPDiva on Twitter.

The BlogWorld Conference Opening Night Party is Saturday, Sept. 20th, 7:30pm-9:30pm at the Las Vegas Hilton. Open to all registrants except for “Exhibits Only” badge holders. However you can upgrade to “Exhibits + Party” during the day on Saturday.

Everyone should remember to bring their conference badges to the parties and events in order to get in.

The Extras

Tagga will be hosting several “Taggamobs” which will be like flash mobs. If you’re curious about the Taggamob, sign up for text updates on their blog, follow Tagga on Twitter or text “TAGGA” to 82442. Once you get the instant message to your phone about the location of the Taggamob, show up to complete a task to win some excellent prizes. There will be about 8 Taggamobs in total over the weekend.

Note: All of my posts and Flickr photos this weekend will be tagged BlogWorld08 and #BWE08.

Photo credit: Dan Lilly on Flickr

A few months ago I started a campaign on DreamBank to help get me to Blog World Expo. It’s the world’s largest blogging conference and will be happening in as Vegas at the end of September. The response was overwhelming and I was able to reach my goal days before its expiration.

Last night Raul scoured Twitter to find out who else was going and came up with Arieanna, Glenda, Colleen, Gus, Tris, and John Chow (who will be on several panels). I know that the Tagga and/or Invoke folks were thinking of going as well and Jason of Elastic Path will also be on a panel.

Since my dream came true I’m hoping to also bring John down with me as it will be his 30th birthday a few days later. In the spirit of South by Northwest I think a similar meetup may be in the works for Vancouverites that will be heading down to the expo in Vegas. Whether we can plan something ahead of time, use Twitter, or even find a sponsor, this would be pretty cool to arrange.

Some of points of interest at Blog World Expo 2008 include: Keynote: With Chris Alden, Anil Dash (who I met at Northern Voice 2007), and Richard Jalichandra the President and CEO of Technorati.

The State of Citizen Journalism: A panel with Michael Tippett of Vancouver’s NowPublic

Twitter: Building Connections that Drive Traffic A panel with @GeekMommy, @zappos, @Pistachio, @queenofspain

Bloggers and PR: A panel with Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Jason Falls and Michael Clark

How to be More than a Blog: New Media Integration: A panel with our (now) local Tris Hussey, Deborah Ng, and David Peralty

Opening Night Party: Featuring me and a beer.

Day two will feature Political Blogging, My Blog is a Business?, How to Deal with Trolls, Spammers & Sock Puppets, The Stats of High Performance Content & Marketing – with Lorelle of WordPress fame, and Sports Blogging along with hundreds more in over 15 different tracks. The conference also includes GodBlogCon, Citizen Journalism, and exhibits.

Once again a big thanks to DreamBank and all those who contributed – you’re all the reason I’m heading down there this month – and the reason the Union Gospel Mission of Greater Vancouver received almost $10,000 worth of support… I’m still floored by all of your generosity through blogging, thank you.