Category Archives: Conference

Blog World Expo Business Cards

Over the course of Blog World Expo, I was fortunate enough to meet many new people, and one of the interesting aspects of heading to a conference like Blog World is the number of business cards you pick up.

I wanted to give a quick shout out to the people that gave me their card, and the companies they represent.

Thomas M. Vail – Cart-Away Concrete Systems
Over in the corner of the exhibits there was a concrete mixer, and two guys with very bold green shirts. They were there promoting their business outside of its normal niche, and in doing so, became one of the highlights of the event for me. It made me wonder if other businesses will begin to catch on that Blog World Expo could be an amazing opportunity for businesses that don’t normally interact with bloggers to find a whole new group of potential customers and if nothing else, be noticed by a crowd that is well connected online. Check out their Typepad blog.

While they weren’t giving away any concrete services, not that they service Canada anyways, it was still really great to see them there, and their approach was amazing. I really hope that they do well as a business just because of their outreach to us bloggers.

Zac Johnson – ZacJohnson.com
Out of all of the affiliate marketing experts that were at the event, Zac Johnson was really the only one that talked to me at any reasonable length, despite not really knowing me before the conference. He was an approachable guy, with a very calm attitude. I don’t think he realized how much of a celebrity he has become for a very wide group of people online, as some of the things he has done with integrating advertising and products has been far ahead of the curve. It was a real pleasure to have met him.

Thomas J. Hoehn – Kodak
One of the coolest things that I learned while at Blog World Expo was information on how big name brands and companies are integrating social media, blogging and online story telling into the corporate culture, and while Kodak might have been considered slow in really fighting for the digital camera scene, they are jumping in with both feet with regards to the web. Thomas was great to talk to and really seems to understand blogging as a form of story telling over top of just a marketing tool. I was really impressed with his insights and hope to hear more of Kodak and their online efforts over the coming months.

Sarah East – The Pop Crunch Show
I am a married man, but I still have a horrible crush on Sarah East, the host of the Pop Crunch Show. I hate celebrity news, but I watch it anyways and so when I found out she was at Blog World Expo, I wanted to meet her. We both work for the same person, but I have to admit, I had a little bit of celebrity worship going on when I met her. She was very down to earth, funny, and charming. In the short conversation I got to have with her, she really seemed to know her stuff outside of just the online video realm, and understood the business of producing content.

Angela Lauria – Commission Videos
If there is one person that I recommend every blogger, blog network, and online thought leader seek out, it would be Angela. I had met her before in Vancouver at Northern Voice, and I was impressed with her then, but she has continued to step up her game and Commission Videos looks great! I really enjoyed talking with her and if you are putting video on your site and not monetizing it, then you are getting it from the wrong source, and I recommend checking out Commission Videos. Angela understands advertising, business management and their interconnections with the web, and is building products where her limiting factor is not the advertising side, but finding enough publishers, and in my opinion, that is a great problem for and advertising service to have.

Eric Golub – The Tygrrrr Express
Aaron Phillips – FastServers.net
Mario Phillips – gooseGrade
Greg Kuiper – layeredtech
Debby Phillips – Market Leverage
Kate Heffernan – outbrain
Jack LeVine – Uncle Jack’s VeryVintageVegas.com
Rion Morgenstern – mindtouch
Connie Bensen – Connie Bensen
Becky Jutzi – SodaHead
S. Neil Vineberg – Vineberg Communications
Michael Rubin – gaspedal
Angie A. Swartz – Six Figure Moms Club
Scott S. Lawton – Blogcosm
Dana Rockel – Content Robot
Ezra Butler – Ezra Butler
Andraz Tori and Jure Cuhalev – Zemanta

Originally posted on September 29, 2008 @ 11:57 am

Blog World Expo E&E Experience

3 Replies

I can’t believe how many amazing people I am meeting at this conference. Attending wasn’t to learn new things and so I won’t yet comment on the presentations, but the people are amazing.

So far I’ve met Lorelle, Vic, Jim Kukral, Deb Ng, and others. I’ve been Twittering like mad on Twitter.

More to come when I pull out my laptop.

Originally posted on September 19, 2008 @ 2:54 pm

WordCamp Toronto: Blogging Like a Pro

nextMEDIA: First Thoughts

2 Replies

Before the event even started, nextMEDIA was suffering a few issues. The venue that they had chosen, CiRCA, a club, wasn’t ideally suited to the event. While being very beautiful and stylistic, it was also dark, a little cramped, strangely laid out, and the seats were the fold-out kind. Despite the little bit of padding the seats include, I highly doubt people will be enjoying them by the end of the day.

There are a limited number of couches though for those that are unable to take the discomfort any longer, but those are placed far from optimal viewing angles of the stage, and part of the experience is always to be able to see the slides and presentations that these companies put together.

Not only that, but there was an even bigger issue that really aggravated me: there was no open wireless Internet connection. There is a wireless connection available, but it was locked down and only staff for the event seemed to be permitted to use it.

This frustrated more than just myself, as a new media event, with speeches on social networking, and monetizing digital media, many people assumed that there would be access for them to use. How could they invite new media specialists, bloggers and more, and not have any open wireless Internet for us to use? Very strange.

Worse still, because of the thick concrete and brick walls, we are unable to connect to Toronto’s city wide wireless network which, while costing money, would have still been an alternative to use.

They did provide two small laptops hooked into wired Internet connections as an Internet station, but placed large signs limiting us to a maximum of fifteen minutes at a time.

One other thing to note is that they didn’t seem to have the same kind of exhibitor booth space that they had last year, and so there most likely won’t be any cool displays of new technology. The two companies that I saw were Casale Media, an advertisement agency, and a local school of arts and design. Both are interesting, though somewhat uninspired choices.

The breakfast provided was nice though, with a wide assortment of drinks, and snacks. I have to commend them on that aspect. Also, all of the staff at the event seems to be well trained, very friendly, and efficient. Which for events as complicated as this one seems to be, is key.

Will nextMEDIA turn out to be an event to remember thanks to some great presentations, or will it end up being a flop worth forgetting? As we wait for the delayed opening speech, I am very concerned.

For more information on the nextMEDIA conference, and every post I am making regarding the event, please check out BrandingDavid.com.

Originally posted on November 18, 2008 @ 2:56 pm

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Keynote at Blog World Expo

14 Replies

Gary has given me what will no doubt be my daily inspirational video for doing what I do, and I sat with my Flip Video in hand for half an hour to record it the best that I could. Cramped up before the Q&A, but there is still lots of great content in this video.

I will have an embed, flash version soon, but for now, here is the full quality, unedited AVI for consumption.

Gary V’s Blog World Expo Keynote Video – Note: 787mb, 35 minutes.
Mirror #1 – By Erik Boles

I have also added it to Vimeo, and so now have a lower quality Flash version for people to watch. It is about one third of the file size, so it should be easier for those of you that are sick of the nearly 800mb version I uploaded previously.

Gary Vaynerchuk Blog World Expo Keynote Speech from David Peralty on Vimeo.

For more sizes, and downloads of the video, check out Erik Boles blog, where he’s put up a mirror of the large 780mb version, and a Quicktime version that runs in at 207mb and an iPhone version at 22mb.

Originally posted on September 19, 2008 @ 9:34 pm

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