As I write this I’m sitting at the Las Vegas airport awaiting my (delayed, grumble) flight back home. I’ve just wrapped up three days of events surrounding Blogworld Expo. Here are a few thoughts in a less-than-organized fashion:

This was my first Blogworld… I went into it with two purposes. Part of my motivation for attendance was to learn a few things from some of the official conference sessions. My other plan was to meet and network with a variety of smart people.

Overall, it met my expectations. Some of the sessions were really great, although there were a couple that I felt were disappointing or didn’t really fit with the session title. I attended a couple of the WordCamp sessions that were part of the WordCamp Las Vegas being held inside Blogworld and they were great – John Hawkins (@VegasGeek) and his crew put on a good program. A couple of the monetization panels were excellent, including the site critique/review panel… I stepped a bit outside my comfort zone and asked for a critique of Social Photo Talk and got feedback from Darren Rowse (ProBlogger), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), and John Chow. They asked some good questions, gave me some solid suggestions for improvement, and to my relief validated that a lot of what I was doing (and have planned) is correct. Thanks guys!

I’ve seen several comments that there were less vendors and exhibitors than in the past. With this being my first trip to the show I can’t offer a comparison but there were less than I expected. VegasGeek noted that it was disappointing that there was no representation from Automattic, but as I thought about it I realized I didn’t see anyone there who works for any of the major blog platforms. Not only was Automattic (WordPress) missing, but I didn’t see anyone from Six Apart (Moveable Type / TypePad), Google (Blogger), or even Squarespace which has been all over the place lately seeking publicity.

The afterhours activities were a lot of fun (and as a photographer, a special thanks to Victor for a great photowalk on Thursday night).

On a personal level it was great to see a bunch of friends from the west coast WordCamps like John, Chris, Abbie, Shayne, Austin, Jeana, Todd, and Sara (and since I’m tired I’m not going to link ‘em up… but they know who they are).

Thanks to everyone who made Blogworld a great event. I’m leaving with all sorts of great ideas and a bunch of new friends.